4mo ago

TIL when applying for a British passport online, your identity has to be confirmed by someone who is not a relative, knows you for two years, and has to be from a specific (weird) list of professions.

www.passport.service.gov.uk Confirming someone’s identity: Who can confirm someone’s identity – Apply for a passport – GOV.UK

        accountant
    airline pilot
    articled clerk of a limited company
    assurance agent of a recognised company
    bank or building society official
    barrister
    chairman or director of a limited company
    chiropodist
    commissioner for oaths
    councillor - local or county
    civil servant - permanent
    dentist
    director, manager or personnel officer of a VAT-registered company
    engineer with professional qualifications
    financial services intermediary, for example a stockbroker or insurance broker
    fire service official
    funeral director
    insurance agent of a recognised company - full time
    journalist
    Justice of the Peace
    legal secretary - fellow or associate member of the Institute of Legal Secretaries and PAs
    licensee of a public house
    local government officer
    manager or personnel officer of a limited company
    member, associate or fellow of a professional body
    Member of Parliament
    Merchant Navy Officer
    minister of a recognised religion including Christian Science
    nurse - registered
    officer of the armed services
    optician
    paralegal - certified, qualified or associate member of the Institute of Paralegals
    person with honours - OBE or MBE
    pharmacist
    photographer - professional
    police officer
    Post Office official
    president or secretary of a recognised organisation
    Salvation Army Officer
    social worker
    solicitor
    surveyor
    teacher or lecturer
    trade union officer
    travel agent - qualified
    valuer or auctioneer - fellow or associate member of the incorporated society
    Warrant Officer or Chief Petty Officer

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70 comments

What do these professions have in common? Requirement for a government-issued license?
- They are all professions that require a good reputation and are non-trivial to up and abandon. Some require government licenses, others imply a strong societal standing. All have something to lose, if they commit fraud.
  
  Director of a limited company is easy enough to up and abandon as there’s no limit on the type of company.
  Just ask all the people who have been on the bad end of a transaction with a shitty two or three director company that went bankrupt and closed down when people started chasing for money. The next day those same people are directors of a new company doing the same thing.
  
  You still need to sort out and sign a bunch of identity confirmation/anti money laundering stuff. The government has a good track on you, at that point. It's far from perfect, but stops people getting it signed off by a random friend, that the government has no clue about, and might not even exist.
- I don't think you need a government license to be a journalist or a minister. I'm sure you don't to be a Salvation Army officer.
  
  Are we talking about their admirals? Or their ensigns?
  
  Neither - it's a weird/annoying religious 'army' that knocks on your door waaaay too early on Sunday morning to harras you. The UKs Mormons in other words.
  
  I know, I was making a joke because Squid and the list said "officer".
  We have the Salvation Army in the US but afaik they don't do door knocking. They are mostly a thrift store and they ring a bell for money outside Walmart every Christmas. They collect it for charity but will gladly deny charity to any marginalized group like LGBT.
  
  becoming an officer in the salvation army requires signing documentation. Likewise ministers need to be ordained.
  So maybe expand the definition of regulation to include public institutions which have defined rules or codes of conducts. Leaving out the clanging irony of the multitude of crimes committed through organised religion.
  Journalists is a weird one. I think back in the day it would have been that they trade on their public reputation. Less so now when I can start up a blog on college sports and call myself an investigative journalist.
  
  And paid photographer?
  
  I honestly don't know. Maybe a carry over from print journalism?
- I guess they all require you to earn the trust of either clients (solicitor etc.) or a community (teacher, councillor, MP (lol), church minister)
- I was wondering the same thing. Maybe they all have regulators that can revoke a license. So you'd be putting your job on the line.
- Nah. For about £20 anyone can be a director of a limited company.
- I was thinking of a law wording it as someone professional and/or respectable and they had to figure out a list so it wouldn't be as arbitrary and up to whoever was judging the application
- Certification, regulation, proof of identity, of public note or public record..
  Basically - you are known and can be found.

70 comments