How Long Did It Take To Get Your Passport? Poll

[AwaitingTheMagic]

I wanted to add that even though you put the date of travel, I don't know if it makes much of a difference (at least if your date of travel is far away). I went in person in the middle of Feb and put that I was only going to the States in June. Well, they still told me I would get it by beginning of March. So I don't know why they even ask that? (I mean I'm not complaining or anything, I just figured they would put me on backlog until closer to my travel date).

 

[RoyalCanadian]

This problem is the fault of our government. Pure and simple. It is about disorganization (why aren't they opening passport applications when they are received and sorting them in travel date priority?? Why are they processing applications of those who are travelling next fall before those (like me) who need them in two weeks?), unfulfilled promises (telling me in early Jan. to mail ours in if we didn't need to travel in the next 20 business days, only to find that ours won't even be opened until sometime this week (end of Feb) if I'm lucky), and lack of foresight. Instead of waiting until mid-Feb to hire 200 extra people, why didn't they do that in November of last year when they were beginning to fall behind?

I'm amazed that anyone could continue to find the energy to keep complaining about how it's all the government's fault when the policy wasn't made by the Canadian governement, but was announced 2 years ago by the U.S. government.

By your logic the government should be doing the following things:

• hiring staff to sort through passport applications to find out when people are travelling, and processing applications for those travelling soonest regardless of when they applied.
• hiring lots of new staff and giving them access to highly confidential information submitted for the intent of processing a highly secure document when the Auditor General's report already highlights serious security breaches in the Passport Office.
• hiring lots of new staff to respond to a supposed crisis created by procrastinators who knew about this law 2 years ago and did nothing about it then.

The fact of the matter is, a trip to Disney World is not an emergency. People may not have been able to book their actual vacation time before later in 2006, but they certainly knew that they would be wanting to travel to the United States by airplane after late-January 2007 and would need a passport. Poor planning on the part of those who have put this off for so long should not constitute an emergency on our government's behalf.

You know what I can't wait for?? The groans and complaints of those who have passports now and will eventually need to renew them and wait in line for theirs. I'm so sick and tired of hearing the "holier than thou", smug attitude of some people who think it is their job to say "You were warned!!" and gloat repeatedly.

My passport expires 24 SEPT 2008. There won't be a line-up. The rush will have passed long before I need to consider a new passport and won't occur again until early 2012. I have hundreds of qualified guarantors at my fingertips (and I'm a qualified guarantor myself) and the Passport office is down the street and around the corner from my office. I fully expect that when I apply for my replacement passport around Monday, 22 SEPT 2008 that I will have it in my hot little hands by Friday, 26 SEPT 2008. No worries here.

 

[Albertan mom]

Here is my sad story:

Thank you for your message of February 10, 2007.

The applications will be rejected since the Alberta Health Card doesn't have the signature. Please note it will take a few weeks before you receive it back.

We trust this information is of assistance to you.

/lm

Passport Canada/Passeport Canada
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada / Affaires étrangères et Commerce international Canada
Government of Canada / Gouvernement du Canada
Gatineau, Canada K1A 0G3
infopass@ppt.gc.ca
Toll-free (within Canada and the United States)/Numéro sans frais (au Canada et aux États-Unis): 1 800 567-6868
TTY Toll-free (within Canada)/ATS Numéro sans frais (au Canada): 1 866 255-7655
TTY/ATS: (819) 994-3560


Language / Langue : English

Question : I sent my applications in Jan 29/07. However, I am concerned because I sent in our AHC cards as ID. I see on this site that that is not a valid form of ID. Are my applications going to be denied?


I am bummed!!!
So I emailed them back and asked what to do now. Do I send my Birth certificates? Do I wait for my stuff to come back and then send them all together? Can I apply in person?
(notice it took them 10 days to answer my email)
AHHHHHH!!!

 

[mommy2claire]

My passport expires 24 SEPT 2008. There won't be a line-up. The rush will have passed long before I need to consider a new passport and won't occur again until early 2012. I have hundreds of qualified guarantors at my fingertips (and I'm a qualified guarantor myself) and the Passport office is down the street and around the corner from my office. I fully expect that when I apply for my replacement passport around Monday, 22 SEPT 2008 that I will have it in my hot little hands by Friday, 26 SEPT 2008. No worries here.

How can you be so sure that there won't be a backlog or a rush lineup in Sept 2008? Next year, the WHTI will include traveling to the US by land and by sea. This year, the rule is only by air. The lineups may even be worse next year. From what I've been reading, the ruling for land based travel may be extended to 2009, so there may even be a big rush for passports around late 2008.

 

[LdnCpl]

Royal Canadian,


I'm afraid you're missing the point. The beef is not so much that we require passports and that they are taking a long time. The beef is that in Jan, people were told that if you weren't travelling immediately, Passport Canada was asking you to mail them in to help lessen the logjams at the offices. At that point we were told 20 working days plus an additional 5-10 days due to higher than average volume. Mine arrived to them Jan 19th. Based on their calculations,mine should be sent by Mar 3rd. We leave on the 13th. I did the math and I figured mailing could be done as they requested. Now they have my application, they tell me as of yesterday it isn't looking good as they are only opening up Jan 4th's mail. Basically they are taking way longer then they said. They have myself and anyone else who mailed them in by the short and curlys. And their attitude is "oh well, we're doing the best we can" It's not life or death for me as I'm driving over the border and can get around the passport dilemma. My beef is that they wrongly advised people to mail in, can't deliver on their promise and don't give a rats a** that they can't. Yeah we knew this was coming 2 years ago but you know what...so did they and they were still caught with their pants down.

 

[LdnCpl]

Any idea how many weeks it takes once they begin processing them?

dazer,

No,they didn't tell me how long. All they said was they get thousands of applications a day. Wish I knew but I don't and I don't think they do either

 

[Albertan mom]

I guess yesterday they were working on the ones that arrived Jan 4th. I don't know how many days it would take them to do one days worth....

 

[Lizzzys]

*snip*

• hiring staff to sort through passport applications to find out when people are travelling, and processing applications for those travelling soonest regardless of when they applied.

• 
  
  
  Why wouldn't this be smart to do? They are opening them eventually anyway, and then spending time processing applications that are not needed until much further in the year. How much longer would it take to open them upon arrival and put them in priority (even if just by month!) Otherwise, why do they bother asking for your date of travel??
  
  

  [*]hiring lots of new staff and giving them access to highly confidential information submitted for the intent of processing a highly secure document when the Auditor General's report already highlights serious security breaches in the Passport Office.

  
  
  They've already done this anyway now. So why couldn't they have done it sooner when they *knew* ahead of time there was likely to be a rush and then panic?
  
  

  [*]hiring lots of new staff to respond to a supposed crisis created by procrastinators who knew about this law 2 years ago and did nothing about it then.

  
  
  Not true. The fact is that I have not traveled to the states with my children since 2002. If I had applied for passports for them immediately after 9/11 (which was when the eventual need for passports was first mentioned), we would have been applying for them again right now, and in the middle of all of this mess just like we are now. We also would have wasted the money on passports that ended up expiring before we even had a chance to use them. A costly waste for someone with 5 children. Just not practical on any level in my opinion.

The fact of the matter is, a trip to Disney World is not an emergency. People may not have been able to book their actual vacation time before later in 2006, but they certainly knew that they would be wanting to travel to the United States by airplane after late-January 2007 and would need a passport. Poor planning on the part of those who have put this off for so long should not constitute an emergency on our government's behalf.

You might have known (as you can speak about you and your family), but I did not know (and you can not speak for me and my family). This trip was nothing more than a pipe dream until four months ago.

My passport expires 24 SEPT 2008. There won't be a line-up. The rush will have passed long before I need to consider a new passport and won't occur again until early 2012. I have hundreds of qualified guarantors at my fingertips (and I'm a qualified guarantor myself) and the Passport office is down the street and around the corner from my office. I fully expect that when I apply for my replacement passport around Monday, 22 SEPT 2008 that I will have it in my hot little hands by Friday, 26 SEPT 2008. No worries here.

Great! 2008.... isn't that around the time that they are asking that everybody have passports who travel by land? I'm predicting a huge backlog again. I hope for your sake it's over by September. Good luck.

Liz

 

[Lizzzys]

I called this morning. They are working on January 6th's today. It's getting close to when mine should have been received (expressed them on the 5th, so I think they should have received them on the 8th or 9th) The guy today said that they are basically working on a pace of about one day's worth being processed each day.

I'm hoping that ours will be opened by tomorrow or Monday at the latest. He said that it will still take another 5 days to transfer the applications back to my passport office here in Calgary, and then they can be finished in a day once they are back here. It's gonna be close!

Liz

 

[DanaLR]

My Mom got hers on Feb 15 and my daughter and I got ours Feb 16. We were in line in Victoria on January 26. So 3 weeks to the day. We were told 5 - 6 weeks.

Major hurdle gone!!!!!!!!!!!

Crossing fingers for those waiting.

 

[cam&chris]

I went in person to the Kitchener office on Tues Feb 6 and received all 3 passports by registered mail today - only 16 days total!!!!!

 

[mom_rules]

How long did you wait in line at the Kit office?

 

[cam&chris]

I got there at 9 am and was out at 10:10 am. I didn't do my application online either - just the regular application. It took about 20 minutes in the line to get my number and then 40 minutes until I was called to the counter and then 10 minutes to do 3 applications.

 

[mom_rules]

I got there at 9 am and was out at 10:10 am. I didn't do my application online either - just the regular application. It took about 20 minutes in the line to get my number and then 40 minutes until I was called to the counter and then 10 minutes to do 3 applications.

That's excellent! Glad it went smoothly for you.

 

[NikP]

How long did you wait in line at the Kit office?

I went to the Kitchener passport office on Wed Feb. 21/017. I was there at 9:55am. I had my forms for myself and husband completed online, and my kids were done manually. It took 10 minutes in line to get a number, and I then my number was called right away. It took about 10 minutes for them to complete the applications. In/Out in 20 minutes.

My parents went this morning. They were there at 8:15am. The office opened at 8:45, and they had manually completed their forms. They were out by 9:30am. Took them 45 mins. Not too bad, for a Friday.

 

[Albertan mom]

I got there at 9 am and was out at 10:10 am. I didn't do my application online either - just the regular application. It took about 20 minutes in the line to get my number and then 40 minutes until I was called to the counter and then 10 minutes to do 3 applications.

You must be from the East.
In the West it isn't going quite so smoothly.

 

[Candid]

You must be from the East.
In the West it isn't going quite so smoothly.

Thing aren't going that smoothly in the East either! There was a wait of at least 4 hours just to get in the building in Halifax.

 

[Albertan mom]

Thing aren't going that smoothly in the East either! There was a wait of at least 4 hours just to get in the building in Halifax.

Let me correct that....she must be from Ontario!

 

[NikP]

Are we all going to be going thru this again in 5 years when all of our passports expire? Or do you think the government will have it together by then to make the process go more smoothly?

 

[digskat]

where are the passport offices located in ontario? Thanks Kathy