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 nearly got into trouble once. In a bank. I signed a document, the signature didn’t quite match, they kept asking me to redo it (“we need it just like in the passport”) but after the third or fourth try they let it through.