Online passport warning

[myaquarium]

We decided to renew one of the children’s passports online. The application and photo upload was very easy using the photo code from a photo shop.the time from applying online to recieving the passport was about 8 days.
The problem for us was signing the new passport. And here’s the warning. Your signature is no longer printed on the passport due to online restrictions.you have to sign it in black ink. The child signature was made below the line by mistake. And then a further signature was placed in the correct place above the line. Easy mistake.
Being concerned we contacted the passport office. The first gentleman said the passport was fine don’t worry. Still concerned I contacted the online section of the passport office. I was then confronted with 35 questions and scenarios which as the officer admitted contradicted each other. The bottom line was is the passport valid. His answer was as far as they were concerned it was but as far as other countries were concerned he could not comment. He also mentioned they are recieving a vast amount of similar cases each day.
We accepted it was our fault and have applied for a replacement.
Hopefully they will decide to place a rectangular signing box in future. But please take note. We have had to pay a full fee again. Don’t get caught out.

[gavvy]

I saw one of these passports last week, seems a very backward step to go from a digital signature to a hand drawn one again.

[SquishTheWhale]

I actually did this exact same thing- signed the darn thing under the line. It looks like that's where you should sign! I didn't sign it again above the line. Was a bit worried but figured its signed, does it really matter which side of the line its on?! That's not the machine readable part of the passport and a human eye can see it just fine wherever its signed. But I get why you are worried as I was too.

Have since used it to travel round Europe twice and to the US once, each involving boarding a cruise so it was checked again then, all fine.

Oh and just to add this is all passports now, not just if you apply online. I applied for mine by post.

[Guest]

I was told some years ago that there is no relevance to the signature on a passport. This is when I made some enquiries because I renewed after marriage and signed in my maiden name.

I was very anxious as we were due to go away and I needed it back, processing was quite slow at the time. Anyway I was told that some people are illiterate or cannot sign their name and it is absolutely fine. It was, although it was a bit of a pain for the next ten years, when using it for ID reasons, not for travel.

[Kat11]

I've just posted my dds old passport off this afternoon after applying online for her first adult one.

Just to confirm, does she have to sign the passport above the line? I'm a bit worried now. Does it say anywhere that this is how you do it?

Thank you for the warning as we were bound to have signed it wrong!

Kat

[SquishTheWhale]

Originally Posted by Kat11

I've just posted my dds old passport off this afternoon after applying online for her first adult one.

Just to confirm, does she have to sign the passport above the line? I'm a bit worried now. Does it say anywhere that this is how you do it?

Thank you for the warning as we were bound to have signed it wrong!

Kat

See more...

Yes above the line so the signature sits on the line. It does say so in the little booklet that comes with your passport... which I clearly didn't read before doing it!

[Bee happy]

Thanks for the advice, I done my son's renewal on line last week just waiting for it to cone back.

[Magic Mouse]

Originally Posted by myaquarium

We decided to renew one of the children’s passports online. The application and photo upload was very easy using the photo code from a photo shop.the time from applying online to recieving the passport was about 8 days.
The problem for us was signing the new passport. And here’s the warning. Your signature is no longer printed on the passport due to online restrictions.you have to sign it in black ink. The child signature was made below the line by mistake. And then a further signature was placed in the correct place above the line. Easy mistake.
Being concerned we contacted the passport office. The first gentleman said the passport was fine don’t worry. Still concerned I contacted the online section of the passport office. I was then confronted with 35 questions and scenarios which as the officer admitted contradicted each other. The bottom line was is the passport valid. His answer was as far as they were concerned it was but as far as other countries were concerned he could not comment. He also mentioned they are recieving a vast amount of similar cases each day.
We accepted it was our fault and have applied for a replacement.
Hopefully they will decide to place a rectangular signing box in future. But please take note. We have had to pay a full fee again. Don’t get caught out.

See more...

The exact thing happened to my DS last year and we had the same response from the Passport Office.

We ended up paying for another as we just couldn’t take the risk in the US particularly as we were flying indirect and didn’t have a huge layover in Chicago so really didn’t want any delays there.

[randc]

Few, just checked and I have signed in correct place! Thanks for the advice (always prefer to know these things before the last minute.

[newstewart]

Just got new passports delivered, and yes I can see where the confusion is.

Thanks, will now sign in correct space