what is the point of paying $15 to Passport Receiving agent?

[disneyfan2]

..when it makes no difference in speeding up time? i could have save the $$ and mailed it and would be the same?
The service agent did advise tha t20 days to receive passports and this was what was on the Passport Canada site, and 29 days later it is still not processed!!1

 

[SaraMc]

Im sorry Im confused, When I went to get DS passport I did pay the extra $10 to pick it up at the office, on the reciept if gave me a specific date to come and pick it up ( Which was 2 weeks later) What was the $15 for? Did you mail it in or go in person? Did you want it mailed to your home or are you going to pick it up?

 

[Candid]

The $15 fee of for Canada Posts "Courtesy Service" of looking over your application to insure that it has been filled out correctly and that all required enclosures are there.

 

[Bea]

We paid the $15.00 for a receiving agent. At the time I was questioning it as I felt (like you said) I could have easily put the applications in the mail. But when I was there I realized why we paid the money.

For one, they provide you with a piece of paper that lists what id they have taken from you (ie. birth certificate, citizenship etc). I like having that proof, incase my birth certificate doesn't get returned to me. The other thing that happened to us is my son's (who is 18 months) pictures were not acceptable. The receiving agent told us he couldn't send them in becuase they wouldn't "scan" properly. I was grateful that he was an "extra set of eyes" as I would never have guessed that there was anything wrong with them (we paid $16.00!for them). I would have been really upset had we mailed it in and then 2 months later got his application back saying his pictures weren't acceptable. and then have to start the whole process over again.

Because of my son's application, we are not longer able to fly to Florida in March. By the time we were able to get his photos redone and get ahold of our guarantor, we knew we didn't have enough time. We are driving though, so not all is lost.