UK Passport Signature mistake

My understanding is that technically it counts as an altered or falsified document. As such it could and likely would arouse suspicions. I guess it depends on how obvious the overwriting is if it was perfectly done by possibly a marginally wider nib/ball point the second time so that no old impression showed it ‘might’ not be noticed. However, I cannot say that it might not show up under special lighting when the different inks might for example show two different florescence patterns. At best you might suffer a delay and things could range up from there through denied boarding to detention ‘for enquiries’ or loss of the document through confiscation.The latter could be subject to a whole can of other worms.

Since the HMPO ‘recommends’ rather than ‘demands’ black ink, it might have been better to leave it unmolested.

You might like to try its use for some ‘non threatening’ activity, e.g. not involving a border crossing to see what trouble it causes. The results would not be binding and would be nothing more than indicative.

In the past I saw people have the total lack of a signature pointed out to them at a border point with a suggestion that they should correct the mistake. However, that was a long time ago, when I could turn up at the police post, sign a book and get an airside pass to the airport and go anywhere for any purpose at any time, day or night. Times have changed since then.

Has France ever been that friendly?

JB I am about to renew our passports and this can be done online:     https://www.gov.uk/apply-renew-passport

You have to register or already be registered, with the Government Gateway.

Photos can be done: at a local photography shop (we went to the local Kodak place) and have photos taken. Then you can get a code from the shop and send  the code in the online application, or (as we are doing) the shop emails the photos to your email address and you add the pics to the online application.

This prevents any photo mistakes, as shops which do this provide photos exactly as the Passport Office want them.

But it does not stop the photos looking like Wanted Posters!

Bob, that is interesting though I do not think I shall bother any more. While there is a machine in the supermarket, shops as such are rare beasts these days and I would not know where to even try to look. My passport expires some time in the next couple of years, but the hassle of trying to get insurance and the godawful state of air travel is not inspiring me to roam any more. Even a cruise, by far the more civilised way to travel would probably be impossible to insure now. My wife’s mobility and resilience is severely reduced and daughter’s problems and issues make both trying to travel and gaining insurance for her a double doubtful venture.

I did deal on line with the driving license last time I renewed and that went well. I even printed my daughter’s photographs for her son and was surprised that they were accepted. He received his wanted poster book, sorry passport a short while later. Mind you since he was 5 months old perhaps they were less likely to object.

Ed, interesting, I have not read the form in a long while and based my comments upon John’s reference to a black pen being ‘recommended’. As far as I remember signing it has always been a requirement, but I am not sure how well an unsigned and thus invalid document would be treated these days. With less tolerance than in the past I guess.

I have not been through one of those Dave, what form does that take?

My worst experience of airport checks was (in view of my earlier favourable comments about Germans) in Munich, with a female gauleiter who was carrying out the security checks. First she would not let me have my stick, which caused me to fall halfway through a barrier. Then she would not even look at my 3-language medical notes, which explained the Stoma materials contained in the zipper bag. She just saw the X-rays, would not listen and immediately began stripping out my hand luggage. I used a raised voice and some choice Anglo Saxon German to draw the attention of her superior: I knew that my accent was North German, often referred to in Bavaria as “Prussian” and that it would grate on the ear. The supervisor came across and did what the gauleiter did not: listened to me and read the medical notes. Then he made her pack my hand luggage, but she was making such a mess of it that I did it myself. I then told her in perfect Deutsche sprache, that I hope her next posting would be directing traffic on the Reeperbahn, Hamburg. I told her also that there she could find a second form of employment, to boost her income whilst working there. As the Reeperbahn is the centre of Hamburg’s Red Light district, she knew what I meant. She was quite attractive in a Valkyrie sort of way, so would have would have made good money…

I do not like most airports, due to the hassle caused by medical conditions for both of us, but one of the best exceptions is Vienna. At sight of my stick, I was immeditaely given a wheelchair, asked for the location of my party’s transport, and whisked through checks and crowds by a very large, but charming Austrian lady. My poor old Gert struggled to keep pace, they should have let her ride pillion!

We had an interesting time once on a cheap all inclusive holiday. We got a great deal, staying in the Hilton Hotel at Nuweiba, about 50 miles or so  to the north of Sharm El-Sheikh. Problem was, the only flights option left was to Ovda airport ( dual passenger and military ) in Israel. We would then be ferried by coach across the border to the resort.

Everything would probably have been fine, ( it was for everyone else on the flight ) had we not, the previous year, flown to Thailand with Emirates!! Boy, did we get the third degree once they checked the passports and discovered the Dubai Airport stamps. It took a full hour of explaining we never visited there, it was a transit stop en route to Bangkok, but was further complicated by an overnight stay coming back home, when the flight to Heathrow was cancelled due to reports of someone seen with a gun at the airport. Being a Military airport it wasn’t particularly pleasant being carted off and grilled about our travel choices by gun toting “officials”. The return home was actually a little easier, or would have seemed so, had we not been anticipating the same cr*p all over again!!

Your comment about bus passes brought back memories of the nightmare of renewing my daughter’s disabled user bus pass. This was due to expire in January so they wrote out two months before it expired. We went off to a local photobooth and selected the relevant size etc. filled out the form and sent it off with all the confidential bumph required. Several weeks later we had heard nothing so I started to ring a selection of numbers that I ended up being given. I was told that we might have applied too early – but they had asked for the renewal to be done in good time in view of the holiday period. We went round and round and in the end I sent a fresh lot in via e-mail addressed to a person not a reception desk. They reviewed the medical file and my how things changed. I was told that as her conditions would never change renewal should have been automatic anyway and did I want this or that extension to the pass. It arrived two days later… So far she has been unable to make use of the facility.

Any professional can do it – social worker etc.

See link – quite a lot of people are eligible even the manager of your local pub!