On the passports: Do you have any old passports for your wife and kids? If you do, just include the numbers for now and put the expiry date as ten years from the issue date or Dec 31 2010(assuming you're within the 10yr validity); if its only your wife that has an old one, use the number on your wife's old passports to complete forms for wife and kids. Its been in the news that the old passports cease to be valid for travel by the end of the year, infact some countries stopped issuing out visas on them as far back as 2007, they ask visa applicants to go get an ecowas -biometric one. As far as Canada CIO is concerned, you can submit your applications with the old passport numbers, and then carry on to go get a new one after submitting, such that by the time you get the go-ahead to file in your documents at the local visa office - you can then update the passport numbers with the new one and briefly explain in your cover note that you'd gone ahead to procure new biometric passports as the old ones were being phased out-simple. It not unheard of for kids to be included on their mother's passports for travel, though most developed countries now frown on this, but you can do this to get through the initial stage. A friend did this with CIO and was OK. A few also did this under the PNP route and they were OK.EKO4REAL said:
CiC do issue out alerts in their operational bulletins regarding passports validity for countries upgrading their identity passports, and none so far has been issued on Nigeria(they'd probably issue one by dec2010), hence you can go ahead to submit and then update in the intervening time.
If no passports held at all, then i'll advise you wait till you get one for them before you go ahead to submit. It can't be that long to get new passports anyways, people get their passports now in three days or so. So you can just hold on till you have the passports sorted. Its your call entirely.
On the application procedures: Pls go thru the forum, there are lots of info about this in previous pages. Also, see the guides, and Accra specific documentation checklist which you can begin to work on after submitting to CIO.. Please do a fresh download of the forms or check that the copies you have filled in have the same info as the latest ones on cic site.
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/EG7.pdf
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/guides/E37100.pdf
Hope it all goes well for you.
