The vast majority of approved occupations would still be expected to have a place of work with a landline number. Not too many dentists who only WFH with only a mobile number. But it's one people should be aware of alright, if your potential witness works from home a lot and haven't figured out how to forward their landline, then chose a different witness.
Passport application delays
- Thread starter Susie2017
- Start date
How many did they issue during the pandemic though? , that statistic curiously missing , we know even from this thread that they were doing very little because people could not get passports even when few people were travelling.
Imagine if Pfizer or moderna the vaccine companies worked on the basis of the passport Office, we still would be years away from a covid vaccine?.
They are being asked specifically about delays in their processing. It would not be fair or accurate to judge their performance on the inability of people to complete the forms correctly or submit the correct documents.
I respectfully disagree. They are not counting the erroneous applications as part of the stats. That’s not painting the full picture because like it or not, people make mistakes and it’s part and parcel of the applications that the passport office have to deal with.
As a customer, (albeit one who has made an erroneous application), as far as I am concerned, my child’s application is now stuck in the process and I am now encountering significant delay in having it dealt with. Mine has been a less than satisfactory experience and it comes down to the process.
T McGibney
Registered User
- Messages
- 6,207
Working from home or indeed anywhere outside the normal place of work is impossible when you're a dentist. Ditto a surgeon. I'm struggling to think of too many other professional occupations where that is the case. Even solicitors, who all have landline numbers, tend typically to spend at least some of their working week in court.
Is it curiously missing or did you just not bother looking? They issued 634k last year. So that definitely proves your theory that they were doing very little
True, but they will have a published landline that is verifiable and most likely someone who will answer the call.
But to simplify it, a suitable witness is one of the below professions who is contactable via a landline.
I wouldn't be at all surprised these days at a member of the clergy not having a land line. There are a good few churches that don't have a parish secretary. It's not unusual for a minister to work primarily from home, and they might prefer to have a mobile rather than a landline.
Yeah, so if you ask a member of the clergy to be a witness and they can only offer you a mobile number, chose a different witness. Without a landline, they are not an acceptable witness.
Last edited:
I did. fixed!
There is an element here of the Passport office being back in the dark ages. I work you work from home for a multinational for example (and meet the criteria of someone who can and has signed these forms in the past), my "landline" number in effect is an AWS cloud solution that when someone rings it, pings the call through to my laptop. I could be anywhere when a call comes in.
I applied for a new bank account recently, uploaded a photo and a copy of my photo id and they used photo comparison technology to confirm it. No need for anyones to countersign. I get the need for a witness if no other ID is available but it shouldn't be the norm. After all, there are plenty of dishonest priests, bank managers, lawyers etc etc out there who probably sign
Interestingly a doctor can't sign a UK form unless they "know you well" whereas here they can
T McGibney
Registered User
- Messages
- 6,207
What incentive would they have for doing so? Hardly monetary gain?
I don't mean they were signing it dishonestly but when you think that senior managers in Anglo who were jailed could have signed these forms, child abusing priests could have signed it, lawyers/doctors who have had complaints made about them etc etc. It so old school to think that people, because of a certain position in society that they hold, are more trustworthy then others.
I've signed a fair few of these in the past (legitimately I might add) and no one has ever rang me to confirm it. Why is it done this way, because it always has been.
T McGibney
Registered User
- Messages
- 6,207
But again what incentive would an Anglo manager or child abusing priest (nice typecast btw) or dodgy doctor have to sign something like this for someone they don't know from Adam? Seems like an odd hill to die on, particularly for someone with something to hide.
It's not as if any of these people are any more or less trustworthy than a dustman or backoffice worker, it's just that they happen to work in public-facing occupations and as such are probably in a good position to confirm the identity of people they encounter in the course of their work.
You are misunderstanding me, I'm not saying they are signing it for strangers, I only ever signed it for people I know for example. My point is that this archaic method of "verifying" people has resulted in criminals (in some cases) signing off on passport application forms simply because they were considered being in a position of trust. if you need someone to verify you, you might as well get your next door neighbour to do so. Getting someone to sign a form because of what they do for a living is not an effective risk control in this day and age.
T McGibney
Registered User
- Messages
- 6,207
No, a peace commissioner is not a position of trust. Nor a lecturer. Nor in many cases is say a vet. (You don't have to be particularly trustworthy to be a good vet.)
So what if the person who correctly verifies your identity is a criminal, detected or otherwise?
Nothing dark ages about it. Being able to confirm a witness is who they say they are is an important part of the security process involved in issuing a passport. Being able to confirm the landline is useful to that process. Having a redirected landline, physical or VOIP is perfectly acceptable.
Are you honestly comparing the security requirements of opening a bank account with the issuing of a passport?
And in those cases I presume that witness was prosecuted on discovery, and likely lost their jobs as a result of a criminal conviction. Up to 10 years in jail for supplying false information on a passport application.