How long does it take to get your passports?

[Hippychickali]

Question: After your form is all filled out, complete with photos and necessary documentation, how long does it take to process them? In other words, when do they usually come back. I'm in Halifax - would I be better off taking them somewhere or mailing them?

Ali

 

[SplashMom]

Our passports took about 7-8 weeks. We are also in Nova Scotia and we mailed our forms to Ottawa. We got them before our trip last year but we had them in plenty of time.

 

[Hippychickali]

So we should probably get on that soon just in case. I thought that you could go to an office in Halifax to hand in the paper work? Do they just send it to Ottawa anyway?

Ali

 

[my3princesses]

We took our's to the Hamilton (Ontario) office and received them within 2 weeks. You then do not have to leave your birth certificates or ID with them, they just check them. If you are close to an office in your province I would suggest doing this as it is faster and sometimes they are not happy with the quality of the photographs and may ask you to get them redone. When I was applying a lady was bringing in photographs for the 3rd time.

Hope this helps

 

[maddiel]

The passport office is in the Maritime Centre at the foot of Spring Garden. It has, BTW, a huge window with one of the coolest views of the city -- check it out if/when you go down.

My husband brought his application down in September and we got a notice to pick it up at the postal outlet a week later.

I think processing time is really dependent on time of year - I would think if you go down right after March Break/Easter the turnaround time would be quite short.

M.

 

[Hippychickali]

The passport office is in the Maritime Centre at the foot of Spring Garden. It has, BTW, a huge window with one of the coolest views of the city -- check it out if/when you go down.

My husband brought his application down in September and we got a notice to pick it up at the postal outlet a week later.

I think processing time is really dependent on time of year - I would think if you go down right after March Break/Easter the turnaround time would be quite short.

M.

Thank you so much! This is exactly what I was hoping for. I think we'll go down next week. We have plenty of time as long as we don't leave it too long. We aren't going until July.

Ali

 

[RoyalCanadian]

I've come to the conclusion that the Kitchener, ON Passport office has to be the most efficient government office in the country. In mid-July of 2004 I showed up at the passport office at approx. 4pm on a Monday and figured the office would close while I waited in line to apply for DD's passport (poor child -- 5 -- looks like a fugitive in her photo.) Waited about 10 minutes, mostly because a woman in the line ahead of me to have documents checked was arguing with the employee about what documents she needed, etc., etc.

The rest went very quickly. No problems. The Expresspost notice was in my mailbox in Cambridge, ON on the Friday morning and I picked it up at the closest Shoppers Drug Mart that afternoon. The passport had been issued in the Kitchener office on the Wednesday.

I always recommend to my parishioners, for whom I am constantly signing passport applications, to take advantage of such great service by applying in person. Great service and so quick!

 

[SplashMom]

A lot depends on where you live. If you are close to a provincial office, you can drop it off but it must be done in person. If you aren't close (like me), it must be mailed to Ottawa. As long as you aren't in a hurry, it's not a problem. If you are in a hurry, you just have to go to your closest office for processing--it's much quicker. Hope this helps!

 

[Hippychickali]

Well, I am right in the city in Halifax so it won't be a problem to get down there. Now it's just a matter of getting it done.

Ali