New British passport- can u sign it with FP?

[cougarking]

Received new passport, needing signing.

has anyone used a Fountain pen.

then which colour to use?

[Karmachanic]

52 minutes ago, cougarking said:

which colour to use?

 

It's an Official Document that is the property of the Crown.  That should tell you everything you need to know.

[nigelg]

No. It specifically says BLACK BALLPOINT PEN

I suggest you don't try to buck the system. You may fall foul of border control!😣

This is the text of one of the emails you get from the UK passport office during your application.

 

Dear XXXXXX Application reference: XXXXXXX When you get your new passport, you must sign it with a black ballpoint pen. You can’t use it until you do. Go to https://www.passport.service.gov.uk/help/sign to check where you need to sign. Please don’t reply to this email – it’s an automatic message from an unmonitored account.

[Karmachanic]

I received my first in the Spring of 1962 and have travelled extensively since that time.  I have never been asked to verify my signature.  These days, a vestigial requirement of the pre computer/chip/face and voice recognition era.

 

Sign it with black ink, and an F nib, and none will be the wiser.  A pink shading green ink with a BB nib is not advised.

[mizgeorge]

Mine was signed with a Platinum Carbon desk pen and, somewhat unsurprisingly, Platinum Carbon Black. I will hopefully be using it on Saturday. 

[inkstainedruth]

Wow, does this thread remind me of when my husband and I were traveling out to the Pacific Northwest for his niece's wedding (about 8-10 years ago at this point)!  We had gotten passports in case we had time to go up to Vancouver for the day (sadly we didn't), and my husband thought it would be cool to use his at check-in at the airport, as identification.  Only the TSA agent said "Uh, you haven't signed this...."  And I realized that I hadn't signed MINE either...  (I wasn't using mine as an ID).  So when we got to the gate, I pulled out a pen to sign my passport, and don't remember what pen it was offhand (probably one of the Noodler's Konrads) which had been inked up with Noodler's 54th MA.  And I noticed that the color was very similar to the detailing printed on the pages.... 

Of course in the past (including the trip a few years earlier to Edmonton, Alberta) we (as US citizens) did not NEED passports.  But his boss at the time did.  We got to the gate in Minneapolis for the connecting flight to Edmonton (it was a business trip for my husband, who was working on a project at CMU which was co-run by a professor at the University of Alberta for a local steel company, so there were several guys from the client (as well  as a couple of guys from Germany who flew in separately), and the ground crew person was doing the usual "US or Canadian citizen?" and my husband's boss said "No, I'm Swedish...."  and pulled out a resident alien card....  And the woman said, "This picture makes you look a little younger...."  And the poor guy realized he'd grabbed his SON'S green card by mistake!  And spent up till just a minute or two before final boarding calling his wife here in Pittsburgh in a complete panic....  Turned out she had some frequent flyer miles from her job and grabbed his card  (he hadn't wanted to bring his passport because he had been afraid of losing it somehow).  And instead of doing the "weekend in Jasper National Park" with the rest of us (one of the guys from the steel company had arranged a fishing trip, and I took a bus tour around the park) my husband's boss was driving down to meet his wife in (IIRC) Calgary so he could get his green card for the trip back to the States....

It *ALSO* didn't help that the airline lost the luggage for almost everyone flying to Minneapolis from Pittsburgh (except the guy who didn't have his green card -- his luggage ended up in the cabin, not in the baggage compartment), and the guy meeting us from the University of Alberta had to take everyone to the West Edmonton Mall to buy clothes....  I've never been to Missoula, MT, but the duffel bag my husband and I were using -- as well as our clothes (including my husband's coat, because he didn't want to overheat in the airport) and toiletries -- DID....  The guy who had arranged the fishing trip in Jasper?  HE was PARTICULARLY PO'd because his really expensive rod and reel -- and the case they were in -- was amongst the stuff that went on to Missoula instead of being put on the flight to Edmonton....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

edited for typos

[AdelynGrant]

I get the concern about signing the new British passport! From what I've read, it's recommended not to sign it with a fountain pen due to the potential smudging issue.

[Monophoto]

Not British here, but I think the real question is what kind of material is used to make the passport? 

 

Modern UK currency appears to be some kind of plastic material - presumably so that it wears better and therefore lasts longer, in addition to being harder for forgers to replicate.  If something similar is used to make passports, then fountain pens would be a problem.

 

Here in the US, the photo page of current passports is encapsulated in plastic, but the signature goes on a facing page which feels like a cotton-based paper similar to modern US currency.  Don't know if the paper used for passports comes from the 'money mill' in Dalton MA that has been making the paper for US currency forever, but it sure feels similar.  I signed my most recent passport using a FP with a fine nib and Noodler's Prime of the Commons ink.

[nigelg]

For those who are interested and have access to the BBC Iplayer, there was a recent documentary in the "Secret Genius of Modern Life" series (s2 ep1) about the British passport.

[amk]

Given that my passport is often in my grubby paws, or in a money belt that gets warm and damp if I'm hiking the Himalayas... I think I will stick to devil stick signing. It would be awful if I managed to smudge my signature.

[Chris1]

I just followed the instruction and used a horrible, black ballpoint. But I do remember my first passports were hand-written in a green-ish ink that clearly came from a fountain pen with a broad nib. 

 

Times change...

 

 

[amk]

Yes... my first passport had a black and white photo in it!

 

I looked a *lot* younger then.