Canadian Passport - Mail-In Application Timelines
- Thread starter zam7
- Start date
Here are my application details and updates:
Location: I sent the application via Canada post Xpress post
Application sent date: April 14, 2022
Application delivered: April 19, 2022
Destination address: 22 De Varennes St Gatineau, QC, J8T 8R1
Credit card charged: May 9, 2022
Passport print date: July 8, 2022
Passport Mailed on: July 11, 2022
Delivered to condo mailbox
Citizenship certificate received in condo mailbox: Aug 16, 2022
Thank you everyone for sharing your details and all your support. This journey is over. Now begins a new one, getting surrender certificate and OCI. Surrender application is in progress.
Called Service Canada for the second time and described my situation.
The first time I contacted them there was no help provided however this time they agreed to initiate my transfer request.
My application was delivered at Mississauga by May 27 and as per agent they started working on it by 4th August.
When I asked the agent that as per the posted timelines then my passport should be delivered by 13 weeks and I am already at 10th.. his response was -13 weeks from the day we start working on application.
he said transfer fees plus other changes will be somewhat around 150$ .. which I don’t understand but said yes for the transfer..
Cant wait for tentatively 7 months for the passport. Also, not sure why I need to pay 150$ foe a single passport or for the delays at Service Canada..
I will keep the forum posted with the updates..
Thanks
The first time I contacted them there was no help provided however this time they agreed to initiate my transfer request.
My application was delivered at Mississauga by May 27 and as per agent they started working on it by 4th August.
When I asked the agent that as per the posted timelines then my passport should be delivered by 13 weeks and I am already at 10th.. his response was -13 weeks from the day we start working on application.
he said transfer fees plus other changes will be somewhat around 150$ .. which I don’t understand but said yes for the transfer..
Cant wait for tentatively 7 months for the passport. Also, not sure why I need to pay 150$ foe a single passport or for the delays at Service Canada..
I will keep the forum posted with the updates..
Thanks
Anyone who picked up their passports after transfer to local office...
1. Did you have to pay additional fees at the time of pickup?
2. If Yes, how much?
1. Did you have to pay additional fees at the time of pickup?
2. If Yes, how much?
What phone number did you call..? I keep calling the number on the submission receipt but after the automated message it disconnects right after.
I just went to pick up my son's passport yesterday - August 16. I had it transferred to my local passport office on August 11.
1) No additional fees
2) Zero
My wait for pickup was only about 15 minutes at the Calgary downtown office. There were probably around 10-15 people in front of me at noon time and the line moved super fast because they just asked for your name and ID. I spent less than one minute with the agent.
For curiosity sake, I wandered downstairs to see the passport line and I was surprised to see that there was none. I talked to the lady at the door and she said that there were probably 30 people in the morning but not many later in the day. They only handle passports for travel within 48 hours but she said the passport rush seemed to be dying down.
Passport and certificate finally came in today August 17th.
It was delivered to Gatineau from the US on April 22nd. It took 17weeks! Hang in there y’all.
It was delivered to Gatineau from the US on April 22nd. It took 17weeks! Hang in there y’all.
I tried the 6868 number which is available on internet.. if you search passport or service canada.. it used to happen with me too when my call used to disconnect but then I tried calling them in the morning hours
Just wanted to share my story as I finally got mine & my family's passport on 12th & 15th of August.
I submitted my application at Service Canada on April 27th with a travel date of 15th September 2022, as with every one else didn't receive the passport and didn't follow up with them almost till June end which was the week 9th, In first week of July I was told that the passport is under examination, I tried getting it transferred to local office & was told Surrey office will call , no one called and I missed my trip to US because of that. My employer was kind enough to understand my scenario.
In parallel I was also following the visa requirements timelines and the consulate changed the timelines to 4 weeks from 5-7 business days.
Now, as time went I started calling them almost every week, July 1st week status was you should get in 2 weeks, call us on 15th July, and this went on till July 29th, where I finally explained got to a agent who officially sent the email for local transfer office, she kept me in cc and told me that she doesn't see any transfer request in the system. She put the date as need of Passport as 12th August. I expected a call but nobody called me till 5th August, I decided to go to Passport office in Surrey and ask what's going on, the lady outside the office was very rude and told me upfront that its not their responsibility to worry about visas , she gave me a yellow slip to come back on 17th August which was ridiculous, finally asked another and she asked us to come back on 8th August.
8th August - We all showed up at Surrey office at 8 in the morning, we were all taken to a triaging hall upstairs and over there they ask for travel dates, with no consideration of visas the officer asked us to sit at the last section of people basically with least urgency. From 8 in the morning, we were finally called downstairs at 2:30PM and given a ticket, we went to the room and after a wait of 3 hours our ticket number showed up and we went to the window, where the officer told us she cannot access our system, and instead of asking us to go to the next available counter, we were put all the way back of the queue. We all waited for 2 more hours and at 7ish we were called again, only to be told that they cant do anything and we can collect only after 7 days so on 15th August. I tried explaining the situation , but the officer had decided already and didn't budge, we accepted that date and went home at 7:30.
On 10th August I got a call about local transfer request and the lady was surprised that my transfer was done and she asked if I showed up at office which I told that I had to since I was not getting any call, she told me that there is no action on my side and hung up. She didn't mention anything about my wife's application. Later that day I received another call asking me to pick up the passport on Friday after 3PM. Now my assumption here was that the family application will be processed together.
August 12th , I showed up at Passport office at 3:30PM and were asked to go back to room upstairs, they again made us sit for hours where they worked on application , finally called my name and was taken downstairs, i was handed passport around 5:30, but my wife's passport was not there, I told the officer about situation and he said , her passport isn't even processed yet and cannot be done because all the processing officers have left and only printing is being done now. come back on Monday.
August 15th , the slip showed pick up time as 1:30PM, and finally after serving almost 90% of the people I was finally provided by wife's passport at 9 PM.
Nuggets from my experience:
1) Officers at Surrey office told me they don't have time to make calls for people requesting transfers, if you really want the passport just show up and ask for passports.
2) Not all people are carrying proof of urgency, I am sorry to say that but I saw so many people there just lying about their dates and got their passports in front of people who were just telling the truth.
3) Calling the call center agents have no impact on the officers, none is reading notes they are leaving on the files. They might be read when someone decides to open our file, but my file wasn't touched although i clearly exceeded 16 weeks.
4) In my case my MP did nothing, and as per the MP office all they could do for me was to just get the status update, they were not even ready to issue a letter showing urgency of passport.
5) Rather than wasting time on phone, (i was averaging almost 60 minutes every day on this for almost a month)just take couple of days and go to the office if you need it.
6) If you really need it, they will issue the passport but just be ready to be there for a long time.
7) The officers don't care about the proof, i was told to book appointments at triaging room when I was trying to get my application expedited and when I booked it at the consulate for 17th, the officer said i don't need to see it. So not sure why she made me do all the work which was clearly not easy to get.
I submitted my application at Service Canada on April 27th with a travel date of 15th September 2022, as with every one else didn't receive the passport and didn't follow up with them almost till June end which was the week 9th, In first week of July I was told that the passport is under examination, I tried getting it transferred to local office & was told Surrey office will call , no one called and I missed my trip to US because of that. My employer was kind enough to understand my scenario.
In parallel I was also following the visa requirements timelines and the consulate changed the timelines to 4 weeks from 5-7 business days.
Now, as time went I started calling them almost every week, July 1st week status was you should get in 2 weeks, call us on 15th July, and this went on till July 29th, where I finally explained got to a agent who officially sent the email for local transfer office, she kept me in cc and told me that she doesn't see any transfer request in the system. She put the date as need of Passport as 12th August. I expected a call but nobody called me till 5th August, I decided to go to Passport office in Surrey and ask what's going on, the lady outside the office was very rude and told me upfront that its not their responsibility to worry about visas , she gave me a yellow slip to come back on 17th August which was ridiculous, finally asked another and she asked us to come back on 8th August.
8th August - We all showed up at Surrey office at 8 in the morning, we were all taken to a triaging hall upstairs and over there they ask for travel dates, with no consideration of visas the officer asked us to sit at the last section of people basically with least urgency. From 8 in the morning, we were finally called downstairs at 2:30PM and given a ticket, we went to the room and after a wait of 3 hours our ticket number showed up and we went to the window, where the officer told us she cannot access our system, and instead of asking us to go to the next available counter, we were put all the way back of the queue. We all waited for 2 more hours and at 7ish we were called again, only to be told that they cant do anything and we can collect only after 7 days so on 15th August. I tried explaining the situation , but the officer had decided already and didn't budge, we accepted that date and went home at 7:30.
On 10th August I got a call about local transfer request and the lady was surprised that my transfer was done and she asked if I showed up at office which I told that I had to since I was not getting any call, she told me that there is no action on my side and hung up. She didn't mention anything about my wife's application. Later that day I received another call asking me to pick up the passport on Friday after 3PM. Now my assumption here was that the family application will be processed together.
August 12th , I showed up at Passport office at 3:30PM and were asked to go back to room upstairs, they again made us sit for hours where they worked on application , finally called my name and was taken downstairs, i was handed passport around 5:30, but my wife's passport was not there, I told the officer about situation and he said , her passport isn't even processed yet and cannot be done because all the processing officers have left and only printing is being done now. come back on Monday.
August 15th , the slip showed pick up time as 1:30PM, and finally after serving almost 90% of the people I was finally provided by wife's passport at 9 PM.
Nuggets from my experience:
1) Officers at Surrey office told me they don't have time to make calls for people requesting transfers, if you really want the passport just show up and ask for passports.
2) Not all people are carrying proof of urgency, I am sorry to say that but I saw so many people there just lying about their dates and got their passports in front of people who were just telling the truth.
3) Calling the call center agents have no impact on the officers, none is reading notes they are leaving on the files. They might be read when someone decides to open our file, but my file wasn't touched although i clearly exceeded 16 weeks.
4) In my case my MP did nothing, and as per the MP office all they could do for me was to just get the status update, they were not even ready to issue a letter showing urgency of passport.
5) Rather than wasting time on phone, (i was averaging almost 60 minutes every day on this for almost a month)just take couple of days and go to the office if you need it.
6) If you really need it, they will issue the passport but just be ready to be there for a long time.
7) The officers don't care about the proof, i was told to book appointments at triaging room when I was trying to get my application expedited and when I booked it at the consulate for 17th, the officer said i don't need to see it. So not sure why she made me do all the work which was clearly not easy to get.
Thanks for the response. "Proof of need" seems vague, do you know what it includes?