Passport update

[F4disneyfan]

So according to the passport office they are recieving 21000 applications a day right now and can't eep up with the demand even with adding extra staff. The updated timeframe to actually recieve your passport is now up to 60-90 days according to the report.

 

[RoyalCanadian]

Isn't it a shame that this hit everyone by surprise? I'm so amazed that nobody knew the new passport requirements would come into effect.

Oh, that's right. It was heavily publicized months and months ago.

 

[amw]

Isn't it a shame that this hit everyone by surprise? I'm so amazed that nobody knew the new passport requirements would come into effect.

Oh, that's right. It was heavily publicized months and months ago.

LOL... be careful

The other thing I don't understand... My husband travels to the US on a weekly basis. His passport expires in a month. He went into the passport office on Monday, was out in an hour (this is in Toronto), he paid for express service, and will pick it up again on Monday. If anyone had concerns about not receiving their passports in time, why wouldn't they pay for express service... or why would they mail it in rather than go in person

I think the main problem is that people have never gone through the passport process before and didn't know the best routes to take. I've always had a passport to travel to the U.S., as have my children. I was born in Quebec and wanted to make sure those Americans recognized me as a Canadian

 

[deb123453]

i went down today to get mine don't need it till the middle of may. it was a 4 hour wait but they said that i should get it by mar.8 at the latest i didn't think that was too bad considering

 

[grover]

i agree..people had lots of notice to get it done.
but then some people may have circumstances come up that now require them to have one..
not everyone has access to a passport office to just walk in and drop off or do express..i think here in MB we only have the one in Winnipeg.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

If they're receiving 21,000 passports per month and all of them get processed in Ottawa, then how come someone from B.C. can report their passport won't be ready until April while someone from Newfoundland reports they've received theirs in ten working days?

 

[mermaid&cinderella]

Perhaps they should have hired more employees so that people don't have to wait soooo long, its ridiculous. Its not fair for the people that have passports that expire at the beginning of this year and are traveling soon, like us, why would we have gotten our passports done in November if they only expire in March........??????? If you keep doing your passport earlier and earlier, you lose money. I don't agree that you need to get a new passport every 5 years, its a money making scheme by our crappy government. I've had a passport for 33 years now and guess whta I am the same person, I have all the same info, why do I have to go through the hassle every 5 years. Okay that is my rant for today!

 

[allissimmo]

I got my passport before our trip in October even though I didn't need it then. My passport had expired, and I figured I would beat the massive waits, I think mine only took about 10 days (maybe less)...

My nephew JUST got his passport this week and they (my mom, my nephew, my sister and her boyfriend) left today for WDW...that's cutting it close!

 

[F4disneyfan]

If they're receiving 21,000 passports per month and all of them get processed in Ottawa, then how come someone from B.C. can report their passport won't be ready until April while someone from Newfoundland reports they've received theirs in ten working days?

The big thing is the mailing thme in as opposed to goign to the passport office when you do you forms and have your pic etc and go to the passport office they process the passport there so it is in the system it then goes to Ottawa to be put together and then sent out. When it arrives in the mail along with the other 20999 they have to do it all there thus it takes longer they have brought in more stff to help with the backlog but people planned trips long ago and just put off getting passports then realize oh ya I need that document well sucks to be them doesn't it.

 

[Northstar]

People keep mentioning that they should have hired more employees...the problem is that you can't just hire temps and train them for a week to process passports... that would kind of defeat the purpose of making passports very secure, guaranteed documents, if you introduce temporary employees who know they're only going to be there for the rush, not for a career. Think... do you really want non-professionals having access to the information in passport applications? Or think of the possibilities for getting fake documents made, if you can easily introduce an accomplice or corrupt a temporary wage slave at the passport office.

There's lots of things we can blame the government for, but maybe this isn't one of them... let's blame the Americans! Better yet, let's blame Bush! That makes me feel much better.

 

[SherylR]

Isn't it a shame that this hit everyone by surprise? I'm so amazed that nobody knew the new passport requirements would come into effect.

Oh, that's right. It was heavily publicized months and months ago.

It's not always so cut and dried. Getting the passports for my family cost nearly $400. Not exactly pocket change or money collected in the bottom of my purse. lol
And trips aren't always planned months in advance. And there was faultering on the dates of the passports as well as I recall. People don't always plan their lives for each and every single day months in advance.
We're planning our trip for the end of September and sent in our passport information via Purolator the second week of January. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!

 

[MouseFaninQueue]

He went into the passport office on Monday, was out in an hour (this is in Toronto), he paid for express service, and will pick it up again on Monday. If anyone had concerns about not receiving their passports in time, why wouldn't they pay for express service... or why would they mail it in rather than go in person

1 major reason .... The nearest passport office to me is over 8 hours drive time away. In BC they only have them in Vancouver. To go down to the office would be for me to take 3 days off work. 1 travel down, 1 to stand in line and get processed, 1 to travel home. So 3 days off work plus hotel room in Vancouver for 2 nights plus gas plus meals. Not to mention the sheer cost of the passports themselves - kinda getting expensive.

Maybe everyone that lives in a passport location should have gotten it done sooner so they could take those "fastpass" people out and allocate them to the people applying for a passport that can't get to an actual passport office. The further away you are from a passport office the higher up the "to do" list you go. You live in a place with a passport office, to the bottom of the barrel you go....

BTW I got my passport in 2006 so we are good for a little while now.

 

[grover]

in terms of them not hiring people..there was a big write up in the free press today about passports..and they did hire many new people (several hundred if i remember correct) to process these.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

1 major reason .... The nearest passport office to me is over 8 hours drive time away. In BC they only have them in Vancouver. To go down to the office would be for me to take 3 days off work. 1 travel down, 1 to stand in line and get processed, 1 to travel home. So 3 days off work plus hotel room in Vancouver for 2 nights plus gas plus meals. Not to mention the sheer cost of the passports themselves - kinda getting expensive.

Maybe everyone that lives in a passport location should have gotten it done sooner so they could take those "fastpass" people out and allocate them to the people applying for a passport that can't get to an actual passport office. The further away you are from a passport office the higher up the "to do" list you go. You live in a place with a passport office, to the bottom of the barrel you go....

BTW I got my passport in 2006 so we are good for a little while now.

I like that! I live in PEI, and we don't even have a passport office at all. I was supposed to take my nephew in March, but my sister had to wait for information from his dad (who lives out west and is VERY hard to get ahold of) and then get the rest of his paperwork done. I payed for his passport and couldn't afford to take the time off, or to pay for my sister to travel to another province to get his passport ready. It sucks, but I just keep telling my nephew (and myself) that if we don't get it in time, we'll just go in August. I'd rather go in March.

 

[CanadianGuy]

Most passports are processed in Ottawa (Hull to be precise)

However, some offices can print passports locally for specific situations. It really does depend on a lot of factors.

Here in Fredericton -- they can print passports in a number of different circumstances.. I'm sorry I should have asked what all the circumstances were. But I know in some cases, where the travel dates were very soon -- the passport was issued from the Fredericton office.

It says right on your passport which office issued it. While mine says "HULL" that of a friend says "FREDERICTON" and we both walked the applications into the Fredericton office. (months apart mind you)

Go figure.

I work on the same floor of the passport office here in Fredericton. I was teasin a lady in line the other day that this line up for the passport was preparation for her trip to Disney.. where she would also stand in line a lot.

That got a laugh out of the crowd.


J