All the passports I've owned so far had a "signature" field in them. However in my 15+ years of traveling I've never once seen anyone compare the passport signature to my current signature. Is this field ever actually used for any purposes as of 2023 or is it just a relic of the 20th century that's hard to eliminate for some reason?
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As a retired UK immigration official I can say that the signature can be useful. It’s quite common for persons trying to enter a country illegally to use someone else’s passport, where they can find one with a photo and other id similar to their own appearance. Hoping the authorities won’t spot that they are not the rightful holder of the document. Known as a “lookalike.”
As a starter in any consequential investigation, the passenger can be required to provide say half a dozen examples of their signature. Where the person is not the rightful holder of that document, their efforts rarely match the original in the passport. Not overwhelming proof, but usually a really helpful start to any further investigation. And some confess on the spot. So that speeds the investigation along nicely.
Most passengers travelling through immigration controls across the world are doing so lawfully and might see this type of information as unnecessary but it certainly does have its uses.
Plus as others have commented the passport is a highly valued identity document and the signature may help in other non travel situations.
Elwyn Soutter
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This is hardly specific to passports.
Throughout your life you sign thousands of documents, yet how often have you ever seen someone try to verify your signature? In my experience, the only example has been my bank checking the signature when I get access to my safe deposit box, but I think they stopped doing this a few years ago. Maybe once upon a time, when check clearing was done by hand, a clerk at the bank would compare the signature on each check with a reference signature for the account, but these days checks are cleared electronically. You're supposed to sign the back of a credit card, but when have you ever seen someone compare this with the signature on the receipt (the signature field on the credit card is so hard to write on, mine never looks like my actual signature)?
In general, signatures are not usually checked immediately. Most recipients don't even have another copy of your signature to compare with. We sign things so that if there's a later dispute, we can present the document and compare it with other examples of the person's signature then. For instance, if you claim that you didn't write a particular check, you can ask for a copy of the check and point out that the signature doesn't look like yours.
The same thing goes with the signature on the passport. If there's some reason to suspect that the passport is fraudulent, the signature will be checked. But 99.9% of the time it's ignored.
Barmar
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I went to register as a resident of a city in Germany and they compared my signature with the one on my ID. I also registered a family member using their passport and an authorization signed by them, and in that case the city employee even called another colleague to give his opinion on whether the signatures matched. Then I became a German citizen, applied for a German passport, and I had to change my signature because my old signature does not comply with the legal requirements for a signature in Germany. So the signature on ID cards/passports seems to still have some importance in Germany.
I expect the signature field to have less use in a traveling context, because there it is just about proving that you are a citizen of a country. But especially in the context of filing administrative requests/processes in the name of other people, I expect it to be used regularly.
wimi
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I also haven't run into this while travelling however living in the Netherlands I have had my signature verified a few times by government organizations or companies (mostly for contracts).
There is one common case I would like to highlight. Proxy voting in Dutch elections requires a signature from both the voter and their proxy which must be checked with an ID/driver's license/passport (or a copy/photo in the case of the absentee). Having volunteered in multiple elections I have had to disqualify a few voters because their signatures didn't match. Sometimes this could be rectified by the absentee sending a copy of an ID with a more recent signature or the proxy returning later with an updated written signature.
Ben
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