Identifying Someone For Passport

[fruitsalad]

The form said, the person needs to be 18 or over, hold a current passport, and not live at the same address as the applicant or be related to them, so I chose a person who qualified for all those things, but the person I chose was not accepted for some reason, but of course they don't give the reason why

[Canary42]

Very unreasonable not to elucidate the rejection - not knowing the reason you might well now turn to a person equally invalid, and so ad infinitum .

[calmck]

Can you say who the person was. Might be able to advise

[calmck]

Do you know what the person wrote in regards to ho they know you?
My daughter had someone verify hers and they wrote "partner" Rejected

[fruitsalad]

It was a family friend

[Electrochem]

See the section on work in or be retired from a recognised profession on here:

https://www.gov.uk/countersigning-passport-applications

They may not fall into one of those categories

[Hymie]

When I first applied for a passport back in the 1970s I recall the list of persons who could countersign a passport application was even more restrictive – from memory it was limited to the following: The Queen, a Doctor, an MP, a Magistrate or a Police Officer.

Fortunately a work colleague who was a Doctor (not of medicine) countersigned my application.

[New Judge]

They didn't want any old Tom, Dick or Harry to have a passport in those days, Hymie! :-)

[teacher1]

Since I retired from teaching in 1999 I must have countersigned 50 or 60 passports for friends or neighbours.

[Canary42]

Off topic slightly, by coincidence there's an interesting article in this month's The Oldie magazine about the old British Visitors Passport. Introduced in 1961, it was discontinued at the end of 1995. You could just roll up at a Post Office (with a passport photo and valid ID) and they would write you one there and then. It was however only valid for visits of up to 3 months duration in specified European countries and Bermuda. My very first passport was just such a document.

[barry1010]

Electrochem, that link states that the person must be of good standing in the community OR work/retired in a recognised profession.

My window cleaner signed mine