Wowsers!!! I personally think 17 people is a little OTT.

How relevant are these people to you and your partner? Quality is better than quantity. Cull them accordingly if you can without offending them lol.

We just wrote it on a blank piece of paper but followed the same lines as the Australian stat dec without the legislation. For example: I, John Smith of blah blah make the following statement:" then do the statement and then sign and date it. You can have a place for witness too if you want.

Haha totally over the top, going to stick to close fam and friends, around 8 or so!

Does this need to be signed and witnessed with copies of Identification?

Good number!

It's not a requirement and certainly wouldn't affect your application.

If I may share you my experience, it's more credible with it being witnessed and certified copies of IDs

It can be if you want it witnessed with ID too. We never had it witnessed - some countries don't do witnessing at police stations etc ie. My husband's country lol.

Just remember that statements are just a small part of the picture so you don't need to go getting alot of statements.

I would say no more than 8 for a low risk country and high risk country 10 to 15 (depending how high risk it is).

Thanx for your help guys.
With the 888 form for my Australian friends and fam - we are applying in Nov - is this too early to get these organised? Or should we wait till as close as November as possible

Closer to November as they can't be any earlier than 6 weeks prior.

The closer the better. No longer than 6 weeks prior to your application being lodged.

Get them to at least start on it though than when you're ready to lodge your application, they just need to sign and get them witnessed, etc.