Don’t have anyone to sign passport

[BlueBurys]

I really want to take my children abroad but don’t have anyone to do their passports. Has anyone been in this situation and what did you do? (Don’t need any suggestions of who can sign it I’m aware and have looked through the list but don’t have anyone that can do it) is there anything else that can be done if you’ve been in this situation?

I know you said that and I get your point - there will still be a successor school of some description (even it it's amalgamated with another).

What an annoying thread. Why post on here if you don't want suggestions? You asked for alternatives, people are trying to help you by giving them, and just getting blunt abrasive answers.

I do think though that the requirement to get "a person of standing" to sign passports is one of the most ridiculous nineteenth-century pieces of bureaucracy still hanging around in 2025. And surely unnecessary in the data age. It has a whiff of "if you're the sort of oik who doesn't know a doctor or a lawyer you certainly won't be travelling overseas" about it.

I seriously doubt the OP has been in a woman’s refuge for “years” which is the period of time she has said she has been trying unsuccessfully to apply for passports.

Well there isn’t.

PO = Passport Office

Not suggestions of people that can do it. I know who can do it. Again if there is any alternative for people in this situation.

Fair enough. I guess that school rolls must have fallen dramatically in the area.

The requirement according to .gov.uk is either someone in (or retired from) a recognised profession OR a person of good standing in their community, presumably to avoid precisely the barrier you're railing against!

That’s not true.

Agree that parents on the school gate are your best option as it sounds like your kids have been there more than two years?

Just approach someone friendly and ask them. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t friends. I’m a friendly school mum and I’d happily help anyone who asked me to find one of the parents who was on the approved list. Even the ones who keep to themselves the rest of the time.

If you really can’t do that then you can’t go abroad 🤷‍♀️

😂 what a daft post. I recommended to OP that she could go to the PO - they’re of the professions. But they clarified they need to have known them for two years.

This ⬆️

Why you so angry op?? I hope you get it sorted cause it really sounds like you need a holiday!!

That’s going to be a bigger issue if he’s on the birth certificate because you need his permission to travel.

The passport office will give you the suggestions you’ve had here

Yes they will for a fee.

And I don’t believe the school has said no.

People are getting annoyed with you because unless you’re a hermit there’s no way you don’t know anyone. Who signed yours?

With due respect OP, if there is absolutely no one who has known you for 2 years who meets the (very wide criteria) you will not be permitted to apply for a passport.
The whole point of the approval process is to ensure people do not acquire a passport if they cannot prove they and their children are who they say there are. If you are so far of the grid, as you seem to be describing, this is the price you pay.

Nurses are professionals.

🙄

I’ve been travelling with my kids for a decade. Never married to their dad, they have his surname not mine, and I’ve never been asked for proof of his permission. Never.

There is always the chance that they’ll ask to see permission, but it’s never happened.

Not on the bc so not an issue.

Why are you completely ignoring the questions about your kid’s friends.

Do they have friends?
Do those friends have parents?

The list on the passport website is not exhaustive. They pretty much just need to have a job and a passport and they can sign.

Go and ask their friend’s parents or get them to text their mates and ask. Someone will say yes. What is the problem here?

You are unbelievably frustrating. If the rule is that they need to be signed then they need to be signed.

It doesn't matter whether anyone else has been in this position. They're not going to bend the rules because you haven't built a network. You say you've wanted to take the kids abroad for a while.

Which means you've had time to get to know your kids' friends' parents.

My pal works in a bank call centre - she can sign. I'm a teacher - I've signed many of ds' pals' passports.

You're getting arsey at people for making suggestions but don't have any yourself.

The only reason it would be usual to have literally no ties with anyone who can sign is if you're on a witness protection scheme or similar - in which case you'd have police contacts who could sign I guess.

My husband had the same problem when he first applied for a passport years ago. Knew no one who worked in the list of professions and had no friends or family members who had ever had a passport.
he ended up putting a post up on Facebook and found someone to sign for him.

OP if you have no success with speaking to the passport office and you literally know no-one else, the only thing I think you can do is enrol 1 of your DC in Brownies/Beavers/Scouts etc. Make sure you always drop them off, pick them up and say hello to the leaders. You can then ask one of the leaders to sign the passport form but unfortunately you’ll have to wait until they’ve known you 2 years.