passport troubles

[jakoky]

hi there, i am wondering if anyone has a "happy" story similar to mine, i am VERY stressed right now ..first, our family and another are travelling together, here goes...
The end of may we decided to book a trip to disneyland, june 6th we go to a receiving agent to drop our passports off, they go over them, send them away...Big sign in the office says if we are travelling before aug. 31st we needed to go to victoria, but we dont leave til the 14th of sept....

I make my first phone call 3 weeks ago, they are no where near our date, i call last week week and they are processing may 11th (YIKES), and they wont look into ours as we arent close enough to our travel date...I call yesterday, and NOPE, they havent opened any of our files yet(now at 11 1/2 weeks from drop-off)...The guy tells me my best option would be to order new birth certificates and head to victoria and express them down there...so that would mean almost almost 150 dollars for new birth certificates(that would take 7-10 days to come), a day off work for my DH and me, and off for a 2.5 hour drive to stand in more lines...well, i almost in tears as i ask if i have to pay again when i go to victoria(as i paid my 335 dollars in nanaimo)...well, he goes to his supervisor who tells him to go ahead and request our files to be open, he tells me to call back in 1 week to make sure that is done...i am nervous, we are now 20 days from travel...our travel agent has assured us that no matter what, we will have passports in our hands before we go, but of course my friend and I are so stressed out that all of our families passports might not be here....
can anyone make me feel better

sharon
me, dh, dd-16-, ds- 14-, dd-tink: -turning 12 in 10 days and we leave for DL 9 days later-:
WDW-Dec 04-first disney experience for my DH, DD, DS, DD and first time at WDW for us all
DL-MAY 06-first time at DL for DH and kids , and my 9th(but the first 8 were all by the time i was about 13) so it was all new to me
COUNTDOWN IS ON....WE ARE GOING BACK TO DL SEPT 15-25!!!!!-20 more sleeps til we leave

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I took my nephew to WDW in March, and I had no control whatsoever with his application process. I live in PEI (as does my sister and my nephew) but his father lives in Alberta. First off my sister only sends his father the passport info in DECEMBER! I was not pleased to be honest. Then of course, he took his jolly time getting it sent back to her. We didn't have a letter from him either! The friday a week before we were to leave, we still didn't have a letter from his father , but we had sent off the passport information a while before. I think sometime in January. (End of though) So on that Friday (we were to leave in about 9 days) we called up the passport office with all my sisters/nephews information. They said they hadn't opened it, so she explained the situation. They said they'd look into it.

The following Sunday, (2 days later) They called my sister and said no guarantees, but they'd try. On Tuesday, the passport arrived at my sister's house in PEI!!! Then on Wednesday (because I had express posted a letter to him to sign and included a pre-paid express post envelope back!) we got the letter from the father!

We made it and had a good time once we got there. (Flight delays and lost luggage both ways!)

There is always hope. I don't want to tell you to wait, just in case you don't get someone nice like we did! We were lucky, but I'll tell you I was VERY stressed while waiting.

Good luck!

 

[disneyfan2]

we did our passports last fall End of Nov before the big rush hit the passport office, and we went to receiving office(waste of money for us!!!) anyways, they said it was like a mail application, so by the time they got to it, they had not even opened it until mid Jan!!

People who went to a passport office in Jan received them before us.


The fact that they had our orignal birth certificates was a big issue because we could not use them as a back up. At the time i applied i was told the delay was 20 working days, so with xmas, holidays etc, it brought us upto the first week of Jan. As of Jan they implemented new 45 day restrictions, so now ours was bumped even though they had them wayyyy before. We called our our local MP office in Feb and they put a rush on it. The only good thing about receiving agent was i had a file #. Anyways, we received them 5 working days before the trip, my DB received his 3 days!

We were very stressed and i would not plan anything for my trip from Jan when i expected to recieve them to the time i got them 5 days before because we actually thought we would not be going.

Needless to say, those last 5 days i read, and read and read everything i had put off for planning

I would not recommend anyone go to recieving office unless you are MONTHS away... I would rather wait in line then go through that again
!

 

[red01]

I feel your pain.

I applied for my daughter's passport at a receiving agent here in Cape Breton on May 29/07. I was told we'd have it by first week in Aug. Needless to say as of this week it still has not been opened. They are only now opening May 26/07!!
Thank God our trip isn't until Nov 25/07. But I'll still be stressed until I have it in hand.

I went through this 3 years ago when I ordered my own passport. Applied in April and received it 3 days before departing for Mexico in Oct. Only received it after my MP repeated called Ottawa and made the request for it. LOVE government , don't you?

Laura.

 

[sympatico]

Thanks for that info Red01. My grandkids applications were sent in mid - end of June and we haven't heard tell of them yet. We don't go until Oct.30 so hopefully they'll arrive by then. It's really crazy. If you live close enough to go to the office in Halifax then you can get them quite quickly but 3 hrs away with 2 and 4 year olds means 2 days by the time you wait around for the day. If we don't hear from them by mid Sept we'll have to start calling.

 

[Anjiebaby]

Call your MP they are there for the constituents, I have heard many times of them stepping in and getting it expedited.