So here’s the situation, in timeline form.
June 15, 2007 (approx.): Move from Toronto to New York.
July 14, 2007: Friend gets married in Toronto.
August 2, 2007: Passport expires.
August 11, 2007: Cousin gets married in Regina.
Maybe you see where the problem is? Let me help: it occurs on August 2. And with new regulations governing air travel between Canada and the U.S., the passport offices in both countries are backed up like mad crazy; mailing your application, you can apparently count on a ten-week wait for your new passport to arrive — and in the meantime, you have no passport AND no birth certificate, because both are part of your application. If you go to the office, it can still take up to three weeks.
In order to cross into the U.S. to take up American residency and activate my visa (or whatever the term is), I need to have a passport. I’ll also need it, as my only piece of picture ID, when I’m doing things in the U.S. like setting up a bank account, getting a credit card, arranging for various services in the apartment, etc. And in order to come back to Canada for our various weddings and stuff, I’ll also need it — at least, I will if I want to fly.
So here’s the quandary: do I keep and cross with my current passport, mail an application once I’m in the U.S., and hope for the best? Or do I apply for a new passport in person now — like, tomorrow — hope there’s some kind of “super-rush” option, and just sit here and wait for it before crossing? I’ve pretty much resigned myself to the latter (plus hoping that maybe if I can work up some tears at the office, it’ll help), but GODDAMMIT why did these new regulations have to come into effect the year my passport expired and I wanted to move to America?
{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
I think you may have to spend the entire day tomorrow in line. Or pay someone for thier spot (since it happens). Have fun! I’ll bring you a sandwich if you like.
You most likely won’t be able to cross in the first place – Most countries will not allow you to enter, even with a valid passport, if it’s within six months of expiring. I had to do an expedited renewal because my passport was expiring only a few weeks after I was scheduled to travel to Mexico last year.
I don’t know how it works in Canada, but in the US you can usually pay an expediter to get it done in 48 hours, or wait online yourself for same day service.
There is a super-rush service! I know this because invariably it’s what John and I have to use when we realize three days before a trip that our passports have expired.
You still have to stand in line at the passport office to give them your filled-out application and get things started, and I believe you have to stand in line again to pick up your passport (though there may be an express mail service you can use, too; I’m not sure), but the process always takes the amount of time they say it will. I think it’s something like five days, guaranteed.
For the US, you can have the passport expedited for an additional fee of $60, plus the shipping, plus the regular cost. The website has that at about 2 weeks. http://www.state.gov for passport info. good luck!
Sounds awfully confusing to me! Hopefully you can expedite like we can here in the US.
But more importantly – YAY! We should have a Welcome to New Yawk party when you get here!
Definitely go stand on line at the passport office.
If you go down there in person, you won’t have to surrender all your ID, like you do if you mail the application. At the passport office, they’ll check to make sure all the information on your application matches your ID and give it back to you. That way, you can keep and use your current passport for whatever you need until it expires.
Also, they’ll look over your entire application to ensure you haven’t missed anything crucial, thereby saving you from the hideous possibility of having your application returned to you.
I also recommend that you go in person. Their even a rush option for people who realize at the airport that their passport expired.
Don’t despair!
While this won’t help with your re-entering the U.S. problem, your lack-of-photo-ID problem can be resolved once you arrive in NY if you go to the DMV and get a NY driver’s license. You have to fill out some paperwork, provide some ID, and trade in our Canadian license, but you won’t have to take a road test, so it shouldn’t take more than a day of your time.
Go in person and you’ll be fine. I got my Canadian passport rushed and it only took a few days. Don’t hesitate to burst into tears either , it’s what I did when my OHIP card expired and the person in the health office was mean to me when I went to apply for a new one ; I totally faked cried and got my card renewed.
Thrilled for you and Dave and New York.
Of course crying works at the Canadian passport office — y’all are so soft up there. Try that in the U.S. and you’ll wind up in Rudy Giuliani’s personal gulag.
I work in an industry that requires lots of international travel often on very short notice. Between that and getting emergency calls from colleagues and consultants about lost passports I’ve learned there are many tricks.
I know that in the US with the passport offices, if you call and schedule an appointment there is lots and lots of standing in line to be done, but the appointment moves things along.
In Canada are you allowed to carry 2 (Canadian) passports? I am allowed to have 2 US passports, one that is good for 10 years and one that is good for 2 years. If so, you could start the process on the 2nd and hopefully it would be ready in time for the 2nd wedding and you could travel on that (and you would only be without your birth certificate as opposed to the passport and the birth certificate). Depending on the regs, it may require you to buy a fully refundable ticket to a country that doesn’t have diplomatic relations with one of the countries stamped in your passport, so that you can show the itinerary to the passport people as a justification and then you could return the tickets and get you money back. Yes gruelling and potentially expensive, but it gets the job done.
Expeditors are probably your best bet though.
Here is the Passport Canada site : http://www.pptc.gc.ca/can/submit.aspx?lang=e
and scroll down to Urgent and Pickup services. You have to go in person to get this done, but considering you reduce the chance for the Canadian bureaucracy to lose your birth certificate and other essential ID, it is well worth it.
I also strongly suspect that there is a US requirement for passports to be valid at least 6 months after your date of entry, especially if you are looking to apply for a visa.
Echoing the suggestions to go to the passport office in person. I renewed mine in March. I got up at the ass crack of dawn to stand in line, but I was one of the first people in and out of the office that morning.
I didn’t put a rush on mine, and I didn’t put a travel date on the application either. I got mine in the mail I’d say about 2 1/2 weeks later. My friend who came with me put a travel date and a rush on her application, and it came within 3 weeks. I don’t claim to understand how that works, but like others have already said, it can be done fast. If you’re concerned at all, I’d say pony up the bucks to guarantee it gets to you before you move. It’s worth it to have it and be rid of all the stress.
Go tomorrow! Do it!
Thanks so much for the wise counsel, everyone! I did go down today and was in and out in less than an hour; I get to go pick up my spanking new passport in two weeks. And the new photo is much better than the old, oh my God. My current passport makes me look like a mug shot from when I got arrested for drowning my kids or something.
Sweet on the two weeks. I’m a Canuck living Stateside and my passport expired in April. I mailed in my app the end of March and this week I found out the mail-in processing is now up to 12 weeks. According to the nice lady on the phone they are just beginning the applications received the first week of March. I don’t have to travel anywhere (I gave everyone at home strict orders not to get terminally ill or die in some hideous crash because emergency travel is not an option at the moment) but if I did, I’d be stuck.
Something else I didn’t know…if you send mail to Canada from the US via Global Express, you can track it via Canada Post’s web site once it arrives in Canada. I thought USPS was the only way to do it and the tracking info wasn’t detailed in the least; Canada Post gives you the entire tracking history. You might find this handy once living in NYC.
Here is another site to try for expediting passports: http://www.us.cibt.com/. They process US and non US passports, and can do so extremely quickly (within a week for US passports). Good luck!
I know this isn’t the point of the post, but you’re moving to New York? Welcome! We’re not all assholes here, I promise.