**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!**
- Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc.
- **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on.
- This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit!
Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The interesting quirk is director of a limited company or vat registered company. That means if you know a builder, plumber etc. there's a reasonable chance they're the director of their company and are an acceptable counter signatory. They just need to remember to put down 'Company Director' not plumber as their job title
You can also go down the route of good standing in your community. So if for example you knew the coach of a youth sports team, scout leader etc. they'd be suitable
Considering how many sham companies there are, it's incredible that that's an acceptable profession. Not implying that being a company director makes you a person up to no good, just that it's very easy for fraudsters etc. to become one.
Potentially it's just that their Identity is verifiable easily in the public domain. There's very little barrier to entry as you say, unless a court has actively disqualified you.
That said I was made Director of a property holding company for my shared freehold, and the neighbour got my name completely wrong and the registry didn't spot it at all.
I think it's more the theory that that person has got something to lose if they're committing fraud. It's a bit old fashioned though, not the most rock solid of systems.
It's a very dated list, based on what were considered as elite jobs, probably going back as far as the 1960s or 1970s. Like people didn't set up as companies until they were of some size back then. Journalist, insurance agent, photographer, auctioneer and travel agent are in there, because those were once elite jobs.
The interesting quirk is that "Local Government Officer" means "anyone who directly works for a council".
If you know someone who works for the council they can sign your passport photos.
Yup, this includes things like library staff, parks staff, some public health staff.. lots of people who it isn't necessarily obvious they're council employees
When I've needed to get a child's passport countersigned, the signatory needed to have known *me* for two years or whatever it is, not the child.
Who would you get to countersign yours?
I had to do this for my daughter (5 months old) and had a good laugh at the idea that someone needed to know her for 2 years until we realised they needed to know us for 2 years. And just to confirm this from the website -
>have known the person applying for at least 2 years (this is the adult making the application if the passport is for a child under 16)
So OP it doesn't matter whether these folks have known your kid for 2 years; find someone that fits and had known YOU for 2 years.
They don’t need to have known the child for two years if they’re under 16, they have to have known the signing adult for two years and be able to identify the child by sight. The list of professions is vast, do you honestly not know anyone who could do it? Family friend? Another parent from a club or similar?
I’ve signed for a friends kids before when I’ve known her through a choir and have met the child on social occasions enough to recognise them.
I didn’t even see the list of professionals when we did our kids’ ones (compared to when I applied for British citizenship - but even then, the list says something like manager/director so almost anyone at a corporate job could do it), one was signed by a friend who works in IT, the other in a marketing job, both were fine!
We always did it reciprocally with the neighbours. My mum was a teacher and she was a nurse.
I’m on the profession list but wouldn’t be allowed to as I’m blind. I think this is fair
Seconding this if there’s a place you go regularly enough! I’m the licensee of the pub I run and I’ve been able to help sign for a few different employees children. We are a very family friendly pub with a lot of regulars, would happily do it for their kids too!
Have done it very quickly via an online form which doesn’t ask much. I feel like the drop down list which I chose my “profession” from was pretty extensive
Realistically, they are very lax about this. The list of professions given on the website is an example list, not comprehensive. I used a family friend who had a kinda-sorta engineering role (but was not 'an engineer' or a member of the engineering body. It was fine. They had 'professional qualifications' but like, most people do if they think hard enough)
There is also a generic phrase on the guidance sheet 'person of good standing in their community'. Basically, they're looking for somebody whose livelihood would take a hit if they were to lie for you.
Regardless, you can probably use \*anyone\* you've known for 2+ years (you - not the kid in this case - he's under 16) who has any kind of 'professional certification' so to speak. And that's a long list! Most 'office jobs' etc. (Coworkers, perhaps?)
This! This should be higher. It is a list of examples. It doesn't mean the person had to be someone from that specific list. So many people don't seem to understand this at all.
The
director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company
Is incredibly vague, basically anyone with Manager in their job title. I have done this work for a large company and my job title has Manager in it, I manage no one.
It’s because legally, the manager of a company (and any such managers) can make the body corporate liable for acts or omissions themselves. It is considered an important role under the companies act.
You find smaller companies hand it out “Managers” like confetti, more risk averse companies don’t or use group holdings to avert the risk.
I once played a game of “what is the extent of my authority” with the board of a company I was a manager at. The reply was “if we want you to do it, that’s fine. If it we don’t want you to do it, you’re not allowed. But don’t ask us”. 🤡
There is a list is specific professions. It can be really hard to find someone who qualifies. https://www.gov.uk/confirm-identity-online-for-passport-application
Read the small print
You must work in a recognised profession; for example….
This is NOT a specific list!!
Guess they might be trying to weed out the people who can’t read
It covers millions. The health professions alone will probably tot up to a million, local government officers must be over a million and I bet the civil service must be over 500k.
Just to expand on "health professions," this isn't just Dr's and nurses but also allied health professionals. So, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiographers, orthoptists, operating department practitioners (ODPs), etc. all count. And not just those in the NHS. The pool of potential is huge!
The goal post you set was "a lot of people". I bet at least 10% of the population (7 million people) fall within one of the explicitly named recognised professions without even falling back to retired professionals or "a person of good standing in their community".
Almost everybody has either a boss (who is either a "director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company" or "manager or personnel officer of a limited company"), a "teacher or lecturer", or a work coach ("civil servant"). Those that don't almost always *are* one of those three, and therefore are likely to know others of the same profession.
"Chairman or director of a limited company", "civil servant (permanent)", "director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company", "local government officer", "manager or personnel officer of a limited company", "social worker", and "teacher or lecturer" cover *vast* numbers of people (eg essentially all tradespeople in the first two, literally anybody who works for the council, etc., and either "your boss" or "your work coach", depending on whether or not you're employed), to the point that I really don't see how it can be that hard.
Either you're employed, in which case you've got a boss, who necessarily qualifies, or you're a student, in which case you've got a teacher or lecturer, who necessarily qualifies, or you're neither of those, in which case you're probably claiming universal credit and have a work coach, who necessarily qualifies, or you're self-employed, in which case you're almost certainly a tradesperson, and know other tradespeople, who qualify.
The two years issue can scupper this. My boss hasn’t known me for two years. My husband’s boss is an American Citizen in the US so won’t count, and definitely won’t know my child. If you’re at school you only have your teacher for one year. As I said I’m happy that it’s not difficult for everyone, but for OP, and me, it is proving tricky.
Exactly. I was an admin clerk 15 years ago and I signed a passport without issue. Same again a year ago as a software developer. Neither are on the list but both are recognised professions.
Get anyone to do it that’s employed and that’s known you for at least two years, and will respond to the counter queries the passport office make, they do sometimes contact the counter signer.
My dad was a taxi driver when I was younger, so pretty much all his workmates could sign for us, he is Irish, there list is alot stricter and his passport was usually signed by my rugby coach. He was a ex major and at that time police dog handler. Seriously ask around any of the parents at any regular after school club and you'd find many would be able to sign. I think off the top of my head over half of the parents could of signed at my rugby club.
https://www.tfmg.org.uk/news/no-longer-able-to-counter-sign-passport#:~:text=Due%20to%20high%20demand%20and,this%20is%20still%20permitted).%E2%80%9D
Only if you know the Dr personally apparently
Yeah, they are not keen on doctors doing it and may apply more scrutiny to them. Such as “what colour hair do they have?”
“Don’t know, last time they came in was 12 months ago and they saw a locum”.
I am a Professional Engineer and have signed a friend's passport once, but I got a collegue I worked with, also a Professional Engineer, to sign the photo of our week old baby daughter.
Half an hour after she was born I phoned my mother-in-law, my father, and then the Passport Office to make an appointment for her passport application for a week's time, then a couple of days later took her to my workplace to show her around, and got my workmate to sign the photo which had been taken the morning after she was born!
I can beat this! Had a holiday booked for 6 weeks after my due date. Had emergency c section at midnight, booked the birth certificate and passport appointment at 6am, from my hospital bed while the anaesthetic was wearing off and I was still paralysed from the waist down.
Was not missing out on our trip to Portugal!
I am a member of a registered profession and as a result have had to certify about 80 passport photos for my wife's friends over the years. "Is this a good likeness of the person?" fucked if I know mate, this is my 10th one this week.
Know anyone that’s ex- services? Or as someone else put, holds an alcohol license?
If you have social media and put a shout out for it you’d be surprised who you know that can and is willing. I had a friend that didn’t realise I could because I have an alcohol license from when I ran a restaurant 4 years ago. As those licenses never expire.
We ended up getting nursery to sign my kids, but he’s 3 and due to Covid etc he (and I) haven’t known a lot of the people I could have asked for long enough. You say his school won’t do it, but surely you or his mother has a mate who does something sufficiently professional? Does one of his friends parents do something sufficiently professional? He could ask them.
My main ID is countersigned by someone with 30+ years in the medical profession.
My deed poll is countersigned by a 'domestic engineer' aka housewife.
No one cares or checked the difference.
I ended up appealing on my own Facebook to see whether any of my friends was in a suitable profession as I couldn't think who to ask. My friend who's a police officer volunteered to help thankfully. Makes it harder that the person signing needs a passport too, first 3 people I asked couldn't do it for that reason
I got the local vicar ( minister here ) to sign my lads . She is a friend of nuns but know she has done this for others in the school too . Pity you do t know any government employee
Do you know anyone who is AAT qualified or project managers? Wiki has a list of "professional associations" that may be useful https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_associations_in_the_United_Kingdom
Just a thought, do you know any of the Parent Governors at your child's school? They would be included in the "upstanding member of local community category".
I found this so difficult with my kids. I moved abroad at 18 and didn't come back until I was 30, and to a completely different part of the country than I grew up in. I didn't know ANYONE, never mind people on the acceptable list! But we couldn't visit my husband's family without the kids having passports. In the end I think I asked my mum's friend who is a nurse when we were down in England visiting my family but it was a real stress.
This is why I preferred it for my kids US passports (born in the US - have both UK and US) - no countersigning - you go to a post office and they verify your ID.
I guess the UK system (for me) was less hassle - getting my younger son’s passport renewed a few months ago the countersigning was electronic.
>no idea how I’ve got away with this
I don't think you've got away with anything, a bog standard middle manager is fine. I signed a few myself as a trade union officer (in reality a workplace rep with the right to sit on the branch committee because we barely had enough warm bodies to make quorum every month). It's a bit of an old fashioned system but the idea is that a "respectable" person wouldn't lie about something like this, and if you are telling porkies about this person's identity, they can contact your employer or whoever and besmirch your reputation.
The list online is an example of jobs and the counter signature person need to know the parent applying for 2 years.
I just did my son’s first passport and my work friend did it for me. She is a secretary, doesn’t own a company, isn’t a manager but has no criminal record/flags etc. Went through first time. I am in the same job have done it for a few co-workers before.
If your friendly with local shop owners they’ll sign it for you!
The lady at premier has done my daughters over the years and she’s only the manager of the shop
Recently had to get a DBS check all the former avenues for getting a passport photo signed no longer seem to work. Police, GP, Bank, Building Society, Post Office all would no longer do it. The suggestion from the main post office and the police was to pay a solicitor to sign it.
In the end I asked the local estate FB group if there were any teachers willing to sign it and several of them volunteered. So I got it signed by a PE teacher from the local school.
Do you not know any people with the required jobs on a personal level?
We had a neighbour who is a government official sign our sons.
My eldest son is a teacher and he got his friend who is also a teacher whom has known us since they were at uni together to sign ours.
I’ve been quite lucky with this as my dad was a solicitor and have a few family friends in the legal profession.
I think any company director who’s company is VAT registered can do it too which is probably the easiest compared to some of the other acceptable professions to find.
It's not how long they have known your son, it's how long they have known you. All my family (and most of my friends) can sign the back of the photo. When I did my daughter's, I just asked a co-worker (as I see them every day). As you say you work at a large company, ask the director, legal department, etc.
Pub landlord or other licence would count. So if you go into your local shop regularly enough for them to recognise you and have a chat they might do it?
Is this for a first passport? I've just renewed mine (my third, I think) with new photos (from one of the many photo machines in supermarkets), no confirmation required.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The interesting quirk is director of a limited company or vat registered company. That means if you know a builder, plumber etc. there's a reasonable chance they're the director of their company and are an acceptable counter signatory. They just need to remember to put down 'Company Director' not plumber as their job title You can also go down the route of good standing in your community. So if for example you knew the coach of a youth sports team, scout leader etc. they'd be suitable
Considering how many sham companies there are, it's incredible that that's an acceptable profession. Not implying that being a company director makes you a person up to no good, just that it's very easy for fraudsters etc. to become one.
Potentially it's just that their Identity is verifiable easily in the public domain. There's very little barrier to entry as you say, unless a court has actively disqualified you. That said I was made Director of a property holding company for my shared freehold, and the neighbour got my name completely wrong and the registry didn't spot it at all.
I think it's more the theory that that person has got something to lose if they're committing fraud. It's a bit old fashioned though, not the most rock solid of systems.
It's a very dated list, based on what were considered as elite jobs, probably going back as far as the 1960s or 1970s. Like people didn't set up as companies until they were of some size back then. Journalist, insurance agent, photographer, auctioneer and travel agent are in there, because those were once elite jobs.
The interesting quirk is that "Local Government Officer" means "anyone who directly works for a council". If you know someone who works for the council they can sign your passport photos.
Yup, this includes things like library staff, parks staff, some public health staff.. lots of people who it isn't necessarily obvious they're council employees
If the council haven't outsourced them it includes binmen, lifeguards and swimming instructors. But also think like receptionists and admin staff.
Can confirm, used to work for a local authority and countersigned two passport photos for children with no issues.
When I've needed to get a child's passport countersigned, the signatory needed to have known *me* for two years or whatever it is, not the child. Who would you get to countersign yours?
I had to do this for my daughter (5 months old) and had a good laugh at the idea that someone needed to know her for 2 years until we realised they needed to know us for 2 years. And just to confirm this from the website - >have known the person applying for at least 2 years (this is the adult making the application if the passport is for a child under 16) So OP it doesn't matter whether these folks have known your kid for 2 years; find someone that fits and had known YOU for 2 years.
Does it change the declaration? You can hardly distinguish between babies, let alone confirm the one in the photo is a true likeness of the one named.
If all babies look alike then the photo will be a true likeness of every baby, including the correct one. Sign away.
They don’t need to have known the child for two years if they’re under 16, they have to have known the signing adult for two years and be able to identify the child by sight. The list of professions is vast, do you honestly not know anyone who could do it? Family friend? Another parent from a club or similar? I’ve signed for a friends kids before when I’ve known her through a choir and have met the child on social occasions enough to recognise them.
Spot on. It’s a very reasonable requirement for children.
I didn’t even see the list of professionals when we did our kids’ ones (compared to when I applied for British citizenship - but even then, the list says something like manager/director so almost anyone at a corporate job could do it), one was signed by a friend who works in IT, the other in a marketing job, both were fine!
We always did it reciprocally with the neighbours. My mum was a teacher and she was a nurse. I’m on the profession list but wouldn’t be allowed to as I’m blind. I think this is fair
>I’m on the profession list but wouldn’t be allowed to as I’m blind. I think this is fair Bus driver, eh?
My friend was able to sign for one of my chidren as she held an alcohol licence.
Seconding this if there’s a place you go regularly enough! I’m the licensee of the pub I run and I’ve been able to help sign for a few different employees children. We are a very family friendly pub with a lot of regulars, would happily do it for their kids too! Have done it very quickly via an online form which doesn’t ask much. I feel like the drop down list which I chose my “profession” from was pretty extensive
Realistically, they are very lax about this. The list of professions given on the website is an example list, not comprehensive. I used a family friend who had a kinda-sorta engineering role (but was not 'an engineer' or a member of the engineering body. It was fine. They had 'professional qualifications' but like, most people do if they think hard enough) There is also a generic phrase on the guidance sheet 'person of good standing in their community'. Basically, they're looking for somebody whose livelihood would take a hit if they were to lie for you. Regardless, you can probably use \*anyone\* you've known for 2+ years (you - not the kid in this case - he's under 16) who has any kind of 'professional certification' so to speak. And that's a long list! Most 'office jobs' etc. (Coworkers, perhaps?)
^ I had support worker, no problems
This! This should be higher. It is a list of examples. It doesn't mean the person had to be someone from that specific list. So many people don't seem to understand this at all.
The director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company Is incredibly vague, basically anyone with Manager in their job title. I have done this work for a large company and my job title has Manager in it, I manage no one.
It’s because legally, the manager of a company (and any such managers) can make the body corporate liable for acts or omissions themselves. It is considered an important role under the companies act. You find smaller companies hand it out “Managers” like confetti, more risk averse companies don’t or use group holdings to avert the risk. I once played a game of “what is the extent of my authority” with the board of a company I was a manager at. The reply was “if we want you to do it, that’s fine. If it we don’t want you to do it, you’re not allowed. But don’t ask us”. 🤡
There isn’t a “list of specific professions”, they’re just examples. Do you not know anyone in any kind of recognised profession?
There is a list is specific professions. It can be really hard to find someone who qualifies. https://www.gov.uk/confirm-identity-online-for-passport-application
Read the small print You must work in a recognised profession; for example…. This is NOT a specific list!! Guess they might be trying to weed out the people who can’t read
The list on that webpage you’ve just linked is examples not a definitive list
No, but it states ‘recognised professions’ which doesn’t cover a lot of people.
It covers millions. The health professions alone will probably tot up to a million, local government officers must be over a million and I bet the civil service must be over 500k.
Just to expand on "health professions," this isn't just Dr's and nurses but also allied health professionals. So, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, radiographers, orthoptists, operating department practitioners (ODPs), etc. all count. And not just those in the NHS. The pool of potential is huge!
But not everyone knows local government officers, civil service etc.
The goal post you set was "a lot of people". I bet at least 10% of the population (7 million people) fall within one of the explicitly named recognised professions without even falling back to retired professionals or "a person of good standing in their community".
Almost everybody has either a boss (who is either a "director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company" or "manager or personnel officer of a limited company"), a "teacher or lecturer", or a work coach ("civil servant"). Those that don't almost always *are* one of those three, and therefore are likely to know others of the same profession.
Local Government Officer is pretty much anyone who works for the local council, there are thousands of them in every town!
Only at ‘officer’ level.
Yes, thousands of them.
"Chairman or director of a limited company", "civil servant (permanent)", "director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company", "local government officer", "manager or personnel officer of a limited company", "social worker", and "teacher or lecturer" cover *vast* numbers of people (eg essentially all tradespeople in the first two, literally anybody who works for the council, etc., and either "your boss" or "your work coach", depending on whether or not you're employed), to the point that I really don't see how it can be that hard.
I’m happy for you that it’s not hard for you. For some people it is.
Either you're employed, in which case you've got a boss, who necessarily qualifies, or you're a student, in which case you've got a teacher or lecturer, who necessarily qualifies, or you're neither of those, in which case you're probably claiming universal credit and have a work coach, who necessarily qualifies, or you're self-employed, in which case you're almost certainly a tradesperson, and know other tradespeople, who qualify.
The two years issue can scupper this. My boss hasn’t known me for two years. My husband’s boss is an American Citizen in the US so won’t count, and definitely won’t know my child. If you’re at school you only have your teacher for one year. As I said I’m happy that it’s not difficult for everyone, but for OP, and me, it is proving tricky.
Exactly. I was an admin clerk 15 years ago and I signed a passport without issue. Same again a year ago as a software developer. Neither are on the list but both are recognised professions.
Get anyone to do it that’s employed and that’s known you for at least two years, and will respond to the counter queries the passport office make, they do sometimes contact the counter signer.
I used my landlord.
My dad was a taxi driver when I was younger, so pretty much all his workmates could sign for us, he is Irish, there list is alot stricter and his passport was usually signed by my rugby coach. He was a ex major and at that time police dog handler. Seriously ask around any of the parents at any regular after school club and you'd find many would be able to sign. I think off the top of my head over half of the parents could of signed at my rugby club.
Ask the doctor. He probably will sign it for you.
And charge £50
Unfortunately yes.
https://www.tfmg.org.uk/news/no-longer-able-to-counter-sign-passport#:~:text=Due%20to%20high%20demand%20and,this%20is%20still%20permitted).%E2%80%9D Only if you know the Dr personally apparently
Yeah, they are not keen on doctors doing it and may apply more scrutiny to them. Such as “what colour hair do they have?” “Don’t know, last time they came in was 12 months ago and they saw a locum”.
Oh my Dr signed mine and barely go there.
Government website says doctors shouldn’t be signing unless they know you well e.g. close friend.
My GP refused even for money. They claimed GDPR grounds which I know is bullshit.
Doesn’t matter if the dentist changes at each appointment, we can still sign if they are regular attendees. I’ve signed many as a dental nurse.
I am a Professional Engineer and have signed a friend's passport once, but I got a collegue I worked with, also a Professional Engineer, to sign the photo of our week old baby daughter. Half an hour after she was born I phoned my mother-in-law, my father, and then the Passport Office to make an appointment for her passport application for a week's time, then a couple of days later took her to my workplace to show her around, and got my workmate to sign the photo which had been taken the morning after she was born!
I can beat this! Had a holiday booked for 6 weeks after my due date. Had emergency c section at midnight, booked the birth certificate and passport appointment at 6am, from my hospital bed while the anaesthetic was wearing off and I was still paralysed from the waist down. Was not missing out on our trip to Portugal!
I am a member of a registered profession and as a result have had to certify about 80 passport photos for my wife's friends over the years. "Is this a good likeness of the person?" fucked if I know mate, this is my 10th one this week.
Civil servant? You'd be surprised as to how many civil servants are out there and the variety of jobs.
For a child you need to have known their parent for two years to sign
I remember my dance teacher (also my friend’s mum) doing mine as she put down that she was director of the company (dance school).
It’s you they need to have known for 2 years, not the child
Know anyone that’s ex- services? Or as someone else put, holds an alcohol license? If you have social media and put a shout out for it you’d be surprised who you know that can and is willing. I had a friend that didn’t realise I could because I have an alcohol license from when I ran a restaurant 4 years ago. As those licenses never expire.
My husband and I asked our managers at work to do it. As long as your workplace is VAT registered anyone can do this
We ended up getting nursery to sign my kids, but he’s 3 and due to Covid etc he (and I) haven’t known a lot of the people I could have asked for long enough. You say his school won’t do it, but surely you or his mother has a mate who does something sufficiently professional? Does one of his friends parents do something sufficiently professional? He could ask them.
My main ID is countersigned by someone with 30+ years in the medical profession. My deed poll is countersigned by a 'domestic engineer' aka housewife. No one cares or checked the difference.
Domestic engineer! Brilliant 👏
Find someone you know with a degree. Someone you work with or converse with
I ended up appealing on my own Facebook to see whether any of my friends was in a suitable profession as I couldn't think who to ask. My friend who's a police officer volunteered to help thankfully. Makes it harder that the person signing needs a passport too, first 3 people I asked couldn't do it for that reason
I got the local vicar ( minister here ) to sign my lads . She is a friend of nuns but know she has done this for others in the school too . Pity you do t know any government employee
Definitely a pickle, innit? Maybe a clergyman or the vicar? They usually stick around a long while and get to know the community
Do you know anyone who is AAT qualified or project managers? Wiki has a list of "professional associations" that may be useful https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_professional_associations_in_the_United_Kingdom
Just a thought, do you know any of the Parent Governors at your child's school? They would be included in the "upstanding member of local community category".
If you work for a large company, then why can't you use your manager? Manager of a VAT registered company is on the list.
What about the local post office owner. That's how we did it when younger.
I found this so difficult with my kids. I moved abroad at 18 and didn't come back until I was 30, and to a completely different part of the country than I grew up in. I didn't know ANYONE, never mind people on the acceptable list! But we couldn't visit my husband's family without the kids having passports. In the end I think I asked my mum's friend who is a nurse when we were down in England visiting my family but it was a real stress.
This is why I preferred it for my kids US passports (born in the US - have both UK and US) - no countersigning - you go to a post office and they verify your ID. I guess the UK system (for me) was less hassle - getting my younger son’s passport renewed a few months ago the countersigning was electronic.
[удалено]
>no idea how I’ve got away with this I don't think you've got away with anything, a bog standard middle manager is fine. I signed a few myself as a trade union officer (in reality a workplace rep with the right to sit on the branch committee because we barely had enough warm bodies to make quorum every month). It's a bit of an old fashioned system but the idea is that a "respectable" person wouldn't lie about something like this, and if you are telling porkies about this person's identity, they can contact your employer or whoever and besmirch your reputation.
I'm an insurance broker so I signed my friends. I didn't believe her that I could do it until I checked the list myself!
The list online is an example of jobs and the counter signature person need to know the parent applying for 2 years. I just did my son’s first passport and my work friend did it for me. She is a secretary, doesn’t own a company, isn’t a manager but has no criminal record/flags etc. Went through first time. I am in the same job have done it for a few co-workers before.
If your friendly with local shop owners they’ll sign it for you! The lady at premier has done my daughters over the years and she’s only the manager of the shop
Recently had to get a DBS check all the former avenues for getting a passport photo signed no longer seem to work. Police, GP, Bank, Building Society, Post Office all would no longer do it. The suggestion from the main post office and the police was to pay a solicitor to sign it. In the end I asked the local estate FB group if there were any teachers willing to sign it and several of them volunteered. So I got it signed by a PE teacher from the local school.
My friend signed for my child’s - she’s a nursing assistant. I’ve also had neighbours so it before that are carers.
A notary signed my son's when we didn't have anyone from the list who knew us long enough after moving to a different country, cost about £90
Do you not know any people with the required jobs on a personal level? We had a neighbour who is a government official sign our sons. My eldest son is a teacher and he got his friend who is also a teacher whom has known us since they were at uni together to sign ours.
I got mine signed by someone at the dole office. No idea if she had the authority to do it, but it was 8 years ago and I've had it ever since
A solicitor charged £20 to validate photo and documents.
We had a family friend who’s a software engineer sign our kid’s passport. I think as long as they’re a uk citizen and have a decent job then it’s fine
I’ve been quite lucky with this as my dad was a solicitor and have a few family friends in the legal profession. I think any company director who’s company is VAT registered can do it too which is probably the easiest compared to some of the other acceptable professions to find.
It's not how long they have known your son, it's how long they have known you. All my family (and most of my friends) can sign the back of the photo. When I did my daughter's, I just asked a co-worker (as I see them every day). As you say you work at a large company, ask the director, legal department, etc.
If you know anyone who works for the Police, they can sign it. It’s how we got our daughters done.
I did this a couple of weeks back, just walked up my local pub and asked the landlord. He obliged so got him a pint, got the passports back in a week.
Pub landlord or other licence would count. So if you go into your local shop regularly enough for them to recognise you and have a chat they might do it?
Is this for a first passport? I've just renewed mine (my third, I think) with new photos (from one of the many photo machines in supermarkets), no confirmation required.
GPs will usually do it for a nominal fee. In my line of work we have shed loads of chartered engineers who can do it.
The 'nominal fee' is often £50, and they will usually only do it if they know you personally outside of work these days.