British Passport palava - HELP!!!

conradmum

My son's teacher said their union advise against signing passport application forms because it involves giving out personal details such as their passport number and home phone number. Luckily in my case I was asking her to sign something else that didn't require these details and she was happy to do it.

soappie

Mags_cat wrote: »

And afterwards, hand out marks....:rotfl:

Top extension to the theme well done :rotfl::rotfl: :T

Janeyjaz

They must sign to say they have known the parent for at least 2 years - a health visitor or a nursery nurse or a policeman or civil servant - please note doctors are not accepted now.

mdhughes03

Civil servants can also do this if you happen to know any hth

buxtonrabbitgreen

I got our local librarian to do one of mine, and the postmaster to do the other. They did both know the kids though. Neither of them charged.

stephb34

My friend is the landlord of my local pub and he has done my daughters passport twice and he has done other peoples as well, free of charge.

kunekune

It is quite class-ist, of course. If you mix with the "right circles" it is easy to find someone who can sign for you. If your friends have working class jobs or no jobs at all, it's a different story. Nowadays, as a law lecturer, I have daily access to people who count. Many don't. (My favourite story on this line is when I needed a "certificate of good character" to be admitted to the Bar in New Zealand. I couldn't find enough people to sign, uni lecturers who'd taught us could only be one of three. I pointed out the difficulty, and was told "oh, people usually just get friends of their parents or someone from church ...". Um, I was an immigrant, my parents were working class, didn't have 'suitable friends' and lived in a different country anyway. Fortunately, a school friend had also emigrated and was a consultant at the hospital, and she was able to do it for me. But it was unpleasant.)

luxor4t

Check your neighbourhood - as a reputable person :rolleyes:, I have signed several passports and a merchant navy book for neighbours.

juliapenguin

I agree that this is all horribly elitist and unfair - I'm temporarily renting a house as well as paying a mortgage on another (long, long story...) and the estate agents wanted character references from someone who knows me in a professional capacity (and no doubt would charge me big bucks for doing the reference). But what does my doctor/solicitor/whatever know about how clean and reliable I am as a tenant????? I put down my best friend who's a school governor (not that I have any kids at her school!) and have just hoped for the best. I'm a university lecturer but no one there has known me long enough.

There should be a less elitist way of dealing with all these things, to avoid discriminating against people without the right connections.

juliapenguin

PS I'd do it for free and give marks too afterwards too .....