to rant at the elitism explicit in who can certify photocopies of proof of identity documents

granjura our last vicar was imprisoned for a sexual relationship with a 13 year old parishioner. I do not have a clue who the new one is or indeed where the church is because it was removed from the estate after his criminal conviction.

No charge !

You probably charged a lot less, when....

Many people will know their local Vicar for instance. Even though I never went to Church, I still knew our local Vicar well enough to ask (and give a donation for one of their Charities).

It always puzzled me when offenders asked me to confirm I had known them over two years. You would think they would prefer someone like their GP to their probation officer.

It's not the elitism that bothers me; it's simply the sheer difficulty of finding a suitable person to sign such things for me. I see my doctor very rarely, maybe once a year, so he hardly knows me anyway, and I simply don't know anyone else in a suitable profession who is not related. I really don't know what someone in my position is supposed to do in these circumstances.

Sadly there is a lot of fraudulent signing for all sorts of legal documents. And sadly some professional make a good living falsely signing things they shouldn't. But if they restrict to 'professionals' it makes it easier to check, as they are generally supposed to be registered and therefore accessible and 'checkable'.

Yes, I've had a phone call at work. There is often a reason they check up.

They've rung me as we'll.

It's good to know they are being diligent When

I had a call from the Liverpool passport office to check that I had countersigned a passport because they thought the person was behaving suspiciously when they turned up fast-track their passport for the following day. They told me they do check often, and when there are irregularities.

In the U.S. a notary service is free at the bank you use.

Does anybody actually ever check who has signed what? I somehow doubt it.

Woops

From what granjura has said he may be entitled to sigh after September.

Frank

I have a friend who has a foreign building surveyor's professional qualification and he has signed passport applications.
It says on his certificate it is only valid till his 65th birthday.
Ii would appear he could sign as of now but not in September when he will be 65.
Also if he was still working it appears he will not be capable of doing a building surveyors job after September.

Frank

From the official website:

Who can sign applications and photos

The person who signs the photo (the ‘countersignatory’) must:

live in the UK
know the person applying and be able to identify them, eg a friend, neighbour or colleague (not just someone who knows them professionally)
have a current British or Irish passport

They can’t be closely related or involved with the person applying, eg:

related by birth or marriage
be in a relationship or live at the same address as the person applying

People who work for Her Majesty’s Passport Office can’t be countersignatories.

Countersignatories must work in (or be retired from) a recognised profession or be ‘a person of good standing in their community’, eg:

[followed by list of professions]

2 years, sorry.

I think you also have to have known them for a certain amount of time and also a retired person from the list is probably still eligible. I certainly used a retired accountant for mine but then maybe he still practices in a small way?

For passports you have to state that you have known the person for 3 years at least.

Surely all you are asked to sign is that the photo is an accurate likeness of the person in front of you! It doesn't matter whether you know them or not, does it? I haven't done it for many years, so I may be wrong.
I used to be eligible to sign when I was a teacher and later when I was a tax inspector. I am still the same person, so why can't I sign now?
Many years ago, I asked somebody to witness my signature on a will and she got very uncomfortable, as if it might cost her some money. All she had to testify was that she had seen me sign my name. People are weird.

I used to sign passport applications when I was a local councillor but in retirement I have no status. Fortunately I have not been asked since I retired. A friend who is a retired professor signs lots of them - he can call himself Emeritus Professor.

I dread being asked to do this. Last year my next door neighbour, her husband, their five children and her MIL, all descended on me for this service. It took for ever but I declined to sign for the MIL as I'd only met her once. While I'm sure she's not an urban terrorist I wasn't prepared to put my name to her documents. This caused a certain amount of ill feeling which wasn't a happy state of affairs.

I think there might be a perception of elitism because its based on an old fashioned world view that if you have a professional qualification you can be traced and held accountable. However, in this day and age of scams and identity theft a more rigorous method needs to be designed. Something a bit more organised as in U.S. with their 'Notary' system, but then of course fees would be higher no doubt!

Perhaps one of the reasons is that someone in the 'professions' would be legally in trouble should they sign an official documents stating that they guarantee someone's identity - as jane said, she as a professional refuses to sign unless she does indeed know the person.

As far as paying for the service, I have no problem with this. The charge is small - we do not expect to get a service for nothing - be it a hairdresser or a mechanic, do we?

A funeral director?