Passport held by Fedex - Commercial Invoice required

[Rangrez]

Thanks. I will also check with fedex people. Did you also sign return commercial invoice?

 

[pjain64]

Hi @cc31 @alexross @ryeCatcher and everyone! Could you please help with the following?

Got my passport letter request, asking to mail the passports to a P.O box address (CPC – Ottawa – PR P.O. Box 8781). FedEx employees are repeatedly saying that if the recipient is a P.O box address, then they need a valid recipient phone number. The delivery person calls on that number to get the delivery address and without that, they won't be able to deliver to a P.O box.

The problem is that there is no IRCC phone number. This page clearly states to provide my own phone number instead of IRCC phone number. FedEx says that if I do that then the delivery person will call me and ask for an address. So I can't provide my or IRCC's phone number. As a result, I'm stuck. I'm not sure if the FedEx employees are wrong or not, but I live in the U.S on a visa and it feels very scary to mail my passport with this doubt. If it gets stuck, I could be doomed.

Could anyone please advise and help? If you also had to deliver to a P.O box address, what did you do - did you provide your own phone number and it worked fine? Please advise. My deadline is approaching and I'm quite scared. I'd be very grateful and indebted for any help. Thank you very much.

 

[cc31]

@pjain64 I used the address below to send passport. I don't remember very well, but most likely I gave my own number to Fedex (At least they can contact you in case something goes wrong). Heads up, you will need to send an airway bill (for advance payment for return of your passport) with the PPR package. You can ask this to the Fedex person in-store and he/she can help you with it. They will most likely ask to create a Fedex account for the airway bill number (which I did in the Fedex store using their store computers as I did not know about this beforehand). They need this information for your payment details (credit/debit card, etc.) with your profile and they will include this information in the airway bill to charge you when the return package is initiated. You can create a Fedex account from home if you want to, to save time. (again, most likely Fedex will ask for this)

Case Processing Centre - PRC
49 Dorchester Street
Sydney, NS
B1P 5Z2

Source - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/contact-ircc/offices/case-processing-centre-sydney-nova-scotia.html

I was also in a Visa in US and was worried about sending my passport to a foreign country but sent it regardless (what option do I have other than follow their instruction). At least when you send your package with a tracking number via a reputed courier company, you can see the movement of your package and put confidence in them. Fedex sent me a proof of delivery with the person's name and signature who received my PPR package.

Hope this helps. Goodluck!

 

[pjain64]

@pjain64 I used the address below to send passport. I don't remember very well, but most likely I gave my own number to Fedex (At least they can contact you in case something goes wrong). Heads up, you will need to send an airway bill (for advance payment for return of your passport) with the PPR package. You can ask this to the Fedex person in-store and he/she can help you with it. They will most likely ask to create a Fedex account for the airway bill number (which I did in the Fedex store using their store computers as I did not know about this beforehand). They need this information for your payment details (credit/debit card, etc.) with your profile and they will include this information in the airway bill to charge you when the return package is initiated. You can create a Fedex account from home if you want to, to save time. (again, most likely Fedex will ask for this)

Case Processing Centre - PRC
49 Dorchester Street
Sydney, NS
B1P 5Z2

Source - https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/contact-ircc/offices/case-processing-centre-sydney-nova-scotia.html

I was also in a Visa in US and was worried about sending my passport to a foreign country but sent it regardless (what option do I have other than follow their instruction). At least when you send your package with a tracking number via a reputed courier company, you can see the movement of your package and put confidence in them. Fedex sent me a proof of delivery with the person's name and signature who received my PPR package.

Hope this helps. Goodluck!

Thanks a lot for your reply and help, @cc31. Yes, I did create a return label using FedEx Ship Manager and linked the billing to my own account so that I am charged when they ship the return package. The confusion is around which address to use for sending them the passport, and, what "recipient phone number" to use in the onward package.

The FedEx employee said he is fairly confident that they need a valid recipient phone number whenever the delivery address is a P.O box. He said that the delivery person needs to call on the "recipient phone number" to confirm where to deliver and is advising against providing my own number. Even the "Can I ship to a P.O. box?" on FedEx's page says "It’s possible to ship to P.O. boxes in Puerto Rico and some international destinations via FedEx Express. In these cases, you’ll be required to provide a valid telephone, fax or telex number." I have asked IRCC repeatedly, but they haven't been replying.

Since delivering to the PO box is risky and confusing, I also read in some posts that some folks had sent their passports to the NON-PO box Laurier address on this page, even though their letter had asked to send to the PO box address. Hence, I was even more confused if I should send to the Laurier address on this page, or, to the PO box address mentioned in my personal passport request letter (the latter seems safer as those are the direct instructions, but this whole PO box business is confusing).

 

[alexross]

Hi @cc31 @alexross @ryeCatcher and everyone! Could you please help with the following?

Got my passport letter request, asking to mail the passports to a P.O box address (CPC – Ottawa – PR P.O. Box 8781). FedEx employees are repeatedly saying that if the recipient is a P.O box address, then they need a valid recipient phone number. The delivery person calls on that number to get the delivery address and without that, they won't be able to deliver to a P.O box.

The problem is that there is no IRCC phone number. This page clearly states to provide my own phone number instead of IRCC phone number. FedEx says that if I do that then the delivery person will call me and ask for an address. So I can't provide my or IRCC's phone number. As a result, I'm stuck. I'm not sure if the FedEx employees are wrong or not, but I live in the U.S on a visa and it feels very scary to mail my passport with this doubt. If it gets stuck, I could be doomed.

Could anyone please advise and help? If you also had to deliver to a P.O box address, what did you do - did you provide your own phone number and it worked fine? Please advise. My deadline is approaching and I'm quite scared. I'd be very grateful and indebted for any help. Thank you very much.

Hi @pjain64 sorry for the late reply. The fedex person told me something similar as well, I just gave the IRCC phone number from the IRCC website. I don't think any delivery person ever calls the number, the local delivery people are familiar with IRCC I expect. I didn't have any problems with my delivery to the PO box even though I gave the generic IRCC number.

 

[pjain64]

Hi @pjain64 sorry for the late reply. The fedex person told me something similar as well, I just gave the IRCC phone number from the IRCC website. I don't think any delivery person ever calls the number, the local delivery people are familiar with IRCC I expect. I didn't have any problems with my delivery to the PO box even though I gave the generic IRCC number.

Hey, thanks @alexross - I did the same thing eventually. However, it led to some confusion. Sharing in case anyone else in the same boat is facing this confusion as well.

I also gave IRCC's generic phone number (and mine in addition) as recipient phone number. However, it showed FedEx delivery exception and they said that package cannot be delivered. FedEx insisted that they do not deliver to this PO box. They themselves suggested they will deliver it to the 365 Laurier Av. address instead. They said all the mails for IRCC go there. So I agreed and they changed my label to 365 Laurier Av. eventually instead of returning it to me.

However, the next day, the package was ultimately delivered to a third address - "2303 STEVENAGE DR", some 20 minutes away from Laurier address. I was surprised and called FedEx, but then I found that all the packages/mails to the Laurier address are first sent to this address. It is some kind of sorting facility and all packages are first sent here and only from there they go to the Laurier address. I found some other posts saying the same - https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/fedex-delivered-to-2303-stevenage-ottawa-on-k1g5b3.554353/

So long story short, I gave PO box address, but it was finally changed to Laurier address by Ottawa's local FedEx officials and finally delivered it to this new address. Now I have no clue what's happening after that, since there is no way to track things beyond that. FedEx status is complete and return label has not yet been activated. So also kinda scared a bit.

@alexross - Do you or anyone else perhaps know that if there is a way to get the acknowledgement of the receipt of the passport by IRCC? Thanks!

 

[_ladyj]

I went through a trauma for last few days. CPC Ottawa wont respond back on emails and FedEx wont release my documents.
Finally, one of the agent suggested to submit commercial invoice by myself. I did it and after 1.5 days approx it got released. The format is available online. I received my passport today.

I just wanted to updated in this forum.

Hi,
I am facing the same issue. Where did you send the commercial invoice to? Thank you

 

[pheejhay10]

Hey, thanks @alexross - I did the same thing eventually. However, it led to some confusion. Sharing in case anyone else in the same boat is facing this confusion as well.

I also gave IRCC's generic phone number (and mine in addition) as recipient phone number. However, it showed FedEx delivery exception and they said that package cannot be delivered. FedEx insisted that they do not deliver to this PO box. They themselves suggested they will deliver it to the 365 Laurier Av. address instead. They said all the mails for IRCC go there. So I agreed and they changed my label to 365 Laurier Av. eventually instead of returning it to me.

However, the next day, the package was ultimately delivered to a third address - "2303 STEVENAGE DR", some 20 minutes away from Laurier address. I was surprised and called FedEx, but then I found that all the packages/mails to the Laurier address are first sent to this address. It is some kind of sorting facility and all packages are first sent here and only from there they go to the Laurier address. I found some other posts saying the same - https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/fedex-delivered-to-2303-stevenage-ottawa-on-k1g5b3.554353/

So long story short, I gave PO box address, but it was finally changed to Laurier address by Ottawa's local FedEx officials and finally delivered it to this new address. Now I have no clue what's happening after that, since there is no way to track things beyond that. FedEx status is complete and return label has not yet been activated. So also kinda scared a bit.

@alexross - Do you or anyone else perhaps know that if there is a way to get the acknowledgement of the receipt of the passport by IRCC? Thanks!

Hi @pjain64, may we know the conclusion of youe experience, what happened to your passport? Were you able to receive your passport even though you provided an IRCC number, albeit generic number? Or did they asked you to generate a new shipping label with no tel. no? Asking because I also put a tel no. as the UPS associate was also insisting that a tel. no. is needed.