Comments on: Shut Up, Passport Office

By: adam875

adam875 — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:26:17 +0000

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.

By: donnakat27

donnakat27 — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:44:19 +0000

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!

By: kerri

kerri — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:55:54 +0000

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.

By: Tara Ariano

Tara Ariano — Thu, 31 May 2007 18:14:39 +0000

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.

By: SharonEB

SharonEB — Thu, 31 May 2007 02:08:43 +0000

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!

By: nic919

nic919 — Wed, 30 May 2007 21:48:11 +0000

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.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 30 May 2007 20:40:01 +0000

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.

By: LTG

LTG — Wed, 30 May 2007 18:15:19 +0000

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.

By: Quinn

Quinn — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:16:02 +0000

Go in person and youâ€™ll be fine. I got my Canadian passport rushed and it only took a few days. Donâ€™t hesitate to burst into tears either , itâ€™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.

By: LTG

LTG — Wed, 30 May 2007 16:59:58 +0000

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.