While it won’t be required for our upcoming trip to Playa del Carmen (Mexico only requires ID such as a Driver’s License from Canadians), we decided that we should be proactive and get passports as both Karin’s and mine expired years ago. Canadians are well aware that Canadian Passport offices have had huge line-ups for months and there have been major delays in receiving a passport; largely due to the United States initiating new rules that anyone flying into their country has to have a passport. This will be followed in the future with a passport requirement for those arriving by land.
We’ll certainly need passports when the land entry requirement starts, as it would be a little silly to live 2 miles from the border and not be able to cross it. Getting our passports now will also mean that we will be prepared should we suddenly need to fly into the US, or should our plane to Mexico make an unscheduled stop. It also will make things a lot more convenient for Karin, as being born in Brazil has meant having to have ready her birth certificate ( a fragile piece of legal sized paper that has already been ripped and taped), her Canadian Citizenship, and our marriage license showing her name change in case a border guard at the US or Mexico crossing decided her driver’s license was not sufficient.
So we decided to brave the process this weekend.
Filling out the forms online and then printing them on your own printer is fairly simple if you already have a Government of Canada epass. Getting the photos was also simple; we just stopped by Costco. On Monday morning, while on our way to New Westminster for a specialist appointment, we stopped by our doctor’s office and dropped off our pictures and forms for our doctor to sign. He is the only person that has known us both for at least two years and meets the criteria as a guarantor, though new rules coming out in October to help speed the process will allow any passport holder to be someone else’s guarantor. We then picked the signed photos and paperwork up on the way home at about 2:30, and decided to try and submit our applications that afternoon despite the late time.
To help ease the line-ups, several government locations in outlying cities have trained their personnel to review and accept applications. They then forward them on to the main passport offices. In Abbotsford, the Service Canada Centre now accepts applications. We arrived and were met by a guard whom had anyone that was coming in specifically for passports sign a login sheet. I’m not sure why this was necessary, but some research on the net afterward indicates that they may be limiting the number of applications per day in order to allow them to still perform all the other functions the office covers, such as Old Age Pension, Employment Insurance and Social Insurance Numbers. However, if we could arrive less than 90 minutes before closing and have no problem getting in on a Monday, I would say the initial rush is over.
The guard’s other job was to warn and deflect away those looking to get their passport in under 55 business days; those people still need to visit the Surrey or Vancouver passport offices. A lady arrived at the same time as us with her and her husband’s applications in hand. When told she would not have the passports back by her travel date in August if she applied in Abbotsford, she whined “But we’ve already bought the tickets to Hawaii.” Her attitude made it obvious that she expected the guard to fix the situation for her, but she finally accepted the piece of paper with the Surrey address that the guard gave her. Karin and I both shook our heads, not believing that someone would still expect that you could just get a passport on short notice with no effort. It was after the door shut behind her that the guard muttered, “And you’ll need to arrive at 2:00am to get a spot in line.” She didn’t deserve any more warning than that.
W e then checked in with the receptionist and sat down to wait our turn. In less than 5 minutes, we were called up to a counter where a lady reviewed our applications, had us make a couple of minor corrections (note to the government; if certain fields on the form cannot be left blank, then design the submission form so that it will not allow the field to be left blank), checked our photos against a template, and took our application fees. We had to surrender my birth certificate and Karin’s citizenship papers; but this should not be an issue as they are rarely used. We came prepared with copies of our driver’s licenses and CareCards that had been signed as true copies by our doctor; but it turned out that the clerk could would have copied them and signed that she saw the originals if we had not provided those copies.
All told, we were at the office perhaps 30 minutes. Our passports and identification will be sent to our home by registered mail, and we were told that the goal date is September 18. Assuming we have our passports on that date, I will not be able to complain about any part of the process.
