Canadian Passport in person timeline

[trumprefugee]

what centre did you use?

Ottawa

 

[le chat orange]

Here is my experience applying in person for a passport in Calgary (Sundance Passport Centre) as a walk-in with no appointment.

There's a waiting room that opens at 7:00 am not at the main entrance, but further down the side of the building. I didn't see any signage but saw security directing people that way. At 6:45 am there were about 5 people in line and at 7:00 am employees gave us masks, asked if we were there for passports, and when our travel date is. The employees were very friendly and offered bottles of water after they led us to the waiting room. At 8:30 am when the office opened, they told us in the front row to walk to the main entrance. I would guess there were 40 people in the waiting room. My application was successfully submitted and I left by 8:40 am. I will be able to pick my passport up in two weeks and I travel in three weeks.

I hope this info helps my fellow Calgarians out and best of luck to other Canadians with the passport process!

 

[rajahoomi]

Here is my experience applying in person for a passport in Calgary (Sundance Passport Centre) as a walk-in with no appointment.

There's a waiting room that opens at 7:00 am not at the main entrance, but further down the side of the building. I didn't see any signage but saw security directing people that way. At 6:45 am there were about 5 people in line and at 7:00 am employees gave us masks, asked if we were there for passports, and when our travel date is. The employees were very friendly and offered bottles of water after they led us to the waiting room. At 8:30 am when the office opened, they told us in the front row to walk to the main entrance. I would guess there were 40 people in the waiting room. My application was successfully submitted and I left by 8:40 am. I will be able to pick my passport up in two weeks and I travel in three weeks.

I hope this info helps my fellow Calgarians out and best of luck to other Canadians with the passport process!

what did you provide as a proof of urgent processing? Flight ticket? Hotel reservation? etc...

 

[le chat orange]

what did you provide as a proof of urgent processing? Flight ticket? Hotel reservation? etc...

I printed out the email receipt/booking info of my flight.

 

[kaustubhsaha]

Hi

I went to the Etobicoke Service Canada centre as per the scheduled appointment in July 1st week and submitted my passport application. The citizenship certificate was returned immediately. I was given a file number for reference and was told that the expected dispatch date is September 15th - its been almost 2 weeks past September 15th but I haven't received my passport yet.

I raised a request here (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/check-passport-travel-document-application.html) asking for status. It's been a week and I haven't received any response yet. I tried calling the number provided in the acknowledgement receipt but it keeps on telling me to use the website to raise a status enquiry request

So my questions are:
1. Is there any alternate way to track the status of my passport application ?
2. Does Service Canada actually stick to the expected dispatch dates ? Is it normal to not receive the passport even after 2 weeks have elapsed since the expected dispatch date ?

Any insights would be helpful

 

[trumprefugee]

Hi

I went to the Etobicoke Service Canada centre as per the scheduled appointment in July 1st week and submitted my passport application. The citizenship certificate was returned immediately. I was given a file number for reference and was told that the expected dispatch date is September 15th - its been almost 2 weeks past September 15th but I haven't received my passport yet.

I raised a request here (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/check-passport-travel-document-application.html) asking for status. It's been a week and I haven't received any response yet. I tried calling the number provided in the acknowledgement receipt but it keeps on telling me to use the website to raise a status enquiry request

So my questions are:
1. Is there any alternate way to track the status of my passport application ?
2. Does Service Canada actually stick to the expected dispatch dates ? Is it normal to not receive the passport even after 2 weeks have elapsed since the expected dispatch date ?

Any insights would be helpful

Unfortunately I do not know the answers to your questions, but it is good information to see your timeline. I just went to Service Canada on Monday (Sept 26) and was given an expected ETA of early February, consistent with the "up to 17 weeks, plus mail time" listed here:
https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/canadian-passports/processing-times.html

In general, it seems that IRCC gets its time estimates based on actual recent processing times, so the 17 weeks is probably a more accurate reflection of how long applications in the last 4-6 months have been taking (basically peak backlog time).

 

[trumprefugee]

My passport experience:
Got my citizenship certificate in the mail yesterday Sept 26
Got an appointment at service Canada (Kitchener office) for today Sept 27 at 3pm. Was shocked but I took it. Spent last night and this morning filling and printing the form and taking passport photo.
Arrived at about 2.30 and was told to wait till 2.50pm
At exactly 2.50pm I was told to go in. At the counter, the lady confirmed I had all documents. Told her I was hoping to travel for Christmas holidays and she just said okay I’d put you down for expedited processing. I didn’t even book a trip yet.
Then was told to sit and wait to be called. About 10 mins later (maybe less) my name was called. Sat down, lady went over everything, took photocopies of all supporting docs. Had to change one of my references as they had the same address as me though not related.
She asked for my travel date and I said the same thing. No trip booked but I would like to travel for Christmas. S
She confirmed I’d get my passport in two weeks.
It went so smoothly I was scared it would take months.

Wow that is great! When I went on Monday to the Ottawa Service Canada, I told my agent that I might need to travel in December, and he said that the ETA would be early February, and if I was really sure about traveling in December, it would be faster to wait until I had tickets booked and then go to the passport office. Since I am not that sure if I will need to travel by then (at this point I'd say it's 50-50 and would also depend on the COVID situation in the coming months), I decided to submit anyway and be ready to have to wait until Feb.

 

[singviet]

Just adding another data point here (Vancouver, new citizen first time passport application):

- Have proof of travel for early December
- Visited the passport office on Sept 13th at 11am. On arrival, they immediately told me they will schedule me for an appointment.
- Appointment for Sept 21st
- Arrived with all forms completed, photos, and documents ready
- Process completed quickly. Paid and was told expected mail out date for my passport will be Oct 6th. Fingers crossed it arrives soon after that.

Overall a lot smoother than I expected. A big thing I noticed is a LOT of people show up with incomplete applications (or no application, no proof of travel, etc.). Doing a bit of legwork and getting everything ready beforehand can save a lot of time and headaches.

 

[phoenix232]

Hi Guys,
quick question : I became citizen in July 2022 but didn't apply for passport at that time. Now I have some family get together that i need to attend in US in mid Oct. Would you recommend a walk-in like 20 days before my travel date? Adding on to this I live in Winnipeg but I'd be driving to toronto for work and then driving to Newyork for the get together. Not sure "pick up your passport day before travel" would work for me as I won't be home or they would transfer my file to somewhere in Toronto.


appreciate if anyone could advise on this.

An update on this.

Did a Walk-in at Service Canada in Winnipeg today. Checked online that waiting time was 30mins but couldn't do it in the morning and went in the after around 2:45pm when the waiting was like 1hour 25mins at the website. Still took a chance and went there.

The security guy at the entrance only checked if I was travelling else he was advising to mail in the application. Went to the first window got the token an sat there waiting to get called. Took 30mins before I was called. There were maybe like 4-5 windows where they were dealing with people.

Took some explaining to do as I wasn't in the city and needed passport 10 days before my actual travel date. ( Insert Pikachu confused gif here ). I had all the printouts of my bookings including where i'll be staying in Ontario before my trip to US. I had to write a self declaration where I just gave them my travel plans and signed it. Total time 30 mins of waiting + 10mins of head butting + $210 fee and I was out.

Pick up date is 11th Oct.

 

[ryalla]

hi all, small question. our passports had a mail out date of October 7, that means are they going to be mailed on 7th or received on 7th?

 

[tren253]

Hi, has anyone submitted a passport application without a QR code. When I printed out the forms, for some reason, the QR code was not there. My application was all handwritten. I'm planning on submitting the application in person and I just found out that there is QR code that normally comes with the first page of the passport application. Does anyone know if this would be an issue? Thanks

 

[trumprefugee]

Hi, has anyone submitted a passport application without a QR code. When I printed out the forms, for some reason, the QR code was not there. My application was all handwritten. I'm planning on submitting the application in person and I just found out that there is QR code that normally comes with the first page of the passport application. Does anyone know if this would be an issue? Thanks

Same here. I had to print out the form a few months ago when I happened to get access to a printer and before I was ready to fill it out, so I ended up hand-writing it last week when I was ready. I also submitted in person at Service Canada last Monday Sept 26 and they took it without complaining about the lack of QR code.

 

[somm2202]

Here is my experience applying in person for a passport in Calgary (Sundance Passport Centre) as a walk-in with no appointment.

There's a waiting room that opens at 7:00 am not at the main entrance, but further down the side of the building. I didn't see any signage but saw security directing people that way. At 6:45 am there were about 5 people in line and at 7:00 am employees gave us masks, asked if we were there for passports, and when our travel date is. The employees were very friendly and offered bottles of water after they led us to the waiting room. At 8:30 am when the office opened, they told us in the front row to walk to the main entrance. I would guess there were 40 people in the waiting room. My application was successfully submitted and I left by 8:40 am. I will be able to pick my passport up in two weeks and I travel in three weeks.

I hope this info helps my fellow Calgarians out and best of luck to other Canadians with the passport process!

Thank you so much for this update

 

[lingow]

My Ottawa passport office experience this morning: was there at 6:30am, about 20 people ahead of me. They let us inside at 7. Around 8 they triaged the line into three: one for super-urgent applications, another for those with travel within 10-business days (that was me), and a general one for everyone else (travel within 45 days).

I was out of there by 11. Other than the wait time, the process was smooth for me, but there were a lot of people around me frustrated for various good reasons.

If you're not traveling within 10 days and end up in the general line, my sense is that you might not get served at all, given the size of the 10-day line and the speed at which it moves.

 

[annie.yu567]

I printed out the email receipt/booking info of my flight.

For pick up service at Harry Hay, do we need to wait a really long time?