I do not know if it’s true for all countries, but at least the USA and the UK require your passport to be signed to be valid. And I know that when I fly, I sometimes get checked if it is signed.
Is there a practical reason for this? Does the signature get checked against anything? Or is it simply that the law says a passport must be signed to be valid, so there you go?
I googled around a bit, but only found resources on how to sign, but not why it needs to be signed.
Thank you Internet hive mind!
I had my passport renewal denied because the signature on the renewal form didn’t match the old passport. And since I no longer had the old passport to copy the signature style when I resubmitted, I had to throw in a photo copy of my drivers license (that had my signature), use that signature style on the new form, and a letter explaining that the signature on the new form matches something official and is correct.
That is a crazy process. But I’m happy that you were somehow able to get a new passport :).