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?

My friend who is a social worker signed for my kids.

And as the OP has an adult son, surely he must be able to help.

I really don’t think it’s the same OP on that thread, the attitude and everything is different

OP may be in witness protection

Actually scratch that, the liaison officer would sort it out in that case.

But I assume it's something like that - has needed to leave old life behind.

They rarely check - but when they do, they ring you and subject you to a mini interrogation to make sure you're consistent with yourself.

You're allowed to sign passports for the children of people that you've known for 2 years without having known the child themselves for 2 years.

In the case of countersigning children's passports, the questions they ask, when checking, are related to how you know the parents.

Then she would ask her liaison how she gets passports signed!

Jesus do you live under a rock?! You have no friends? Family members? No job? No connections to anyone through your children?

apparently not a single person who can countersign a passport for you. No one that knows you. I think this and your attitude in this whole tread speaks volumes OP.

Your poor children is all I can say, no hope with your attitude and willingness to try.

🕵️

If she is in witness protection or has been released from prison and given a new identity or whatever the people dealing with her case will advise on what to do.

I guess if the relationship with other parents is problematic, then it could be awkward. Lemon drizzle cake/similar. Who knows?

I didn’t care if they hadn’t known them two years

The countersignatory has to have known the parent for at least 2 years. Anyone countersigning who doesn't is committing an offence and risks being caught out

I was in this position getting mine and my daughter’s first passports. A lady who worked for the job centre signed for ours.

This thread is so bizarre I'm starting to wonder if it was written by someone trying to abduct two children under false passports.

No-one in the children's lives has ever met her, and she / they have had no contact with the system. Meanwhile OP is desperate to get them out of the country, and wants to know how other people got around the pesky business of applying for a passport. When given normal, above board suggestions, she flies off the handle and insists that isn't the advice she's looking for.
Presumably she's expecting someone to DM her and hook her up with a really great people smuggler? Utterly insane.

I think this is really a weird post! Why are you trying to get around the system? Of course there is someone who can sign it, do your children go to school? Are you trying to get them a passport and take them out of the country without their father’s permission?

Because you want your children to get passports, thats why.
Honestly, Im not sure what you want here.
The ONLY way is to find someone. ANYONE. Yet you dismiss all suggestions. Its not POSSIBLE that you dont know a SINGLE person who could do it. Nor that your children dont have friends with parents who would do it.
Like.. Go to the GP and ask there!!!

I just googled and I think you maybe need to start cultivating some local relationships. It seems as though you need to have someone who has known you for two years.

I also struggled with this when doing power of attorney forms because I am very shy and had been stuck at home with long covid too, but I did find a kind neighbour who would do it in the end. Then a fortnight later another incredibly shy neighbour asked me. I was glad he asked because I understood how difficult it must have been for him to ask.

I hope you find someone
It must be hard to be so isolated.

Typical replies from here, there are some people that do find it very difficult to get passport photos signed, maybe step out of your middle class bubbles for once

OP, this is very tedious. ALL the posts responding to you are saying - did you realise that the list you have isn't exhaustive, you CAN find someone, it's not insurmountable. And you just bat it back with 'I'm not asking for suggestions for people to sign, because there IS no-one'.

And then you get tetchy because we're not saying 'oh, I was in this situation too OP, and what I did was, I rubbed my magic lamp and asked the genie/used my three wishes/turned the Passport Office into a pumpkin' - be told! There IS no alternative to getting the passports signed, so if you want to go abroad with your kids, then stop saying 'but I can't get anyone' and find someone! If you want to get passports enough, you will be able to work it out.

Sadly this post is a reflection of how British society has been broken down over the past 30 to 50 years.
Total sympathy with the OP, who only wants a relatively simple thing.

Some of us in our middle class bubbles are very used to signing passport applications from people we don’t know very well but have known for the requisite 2 years though! I’ve done it for elderly neighbours, people I know from the school gates, for colleagues, mums at toddler groups, people I know vaguely from church. None of those are in my social circle but I do recognise them and know their names and that’s all that’s required.

Have you read the thread?

My friend was in this situation as she had left the UK with her children (using a different passport) and she was trying to apply for a British one for the kids. They had been away for years so she didn’t know anyone. They waited until I became British and then I signed for them. My exact profession is not listed on the government’s site but it was accepted

Do you have trouble problem solving?

People in your situation will either:

1. Not get their children passports at all.
2. Get someone to sign for them.

It really isn’t difficult. It’s frustrating trying to find someone suitable and asking round. But it’s not impossible.

Did you expect some “magic loopholes” to be given to you by others in this situation?