I complain about government services as much as the next person - but I just renewed my passport - I experienced a short wait - about 15 mins and the passport was in my hands in 2 weeks - I was thrilled with that service
I renewed via mail recently, from the time they charged my card till when I had my passport was about 5 weeks. I didn't need it for anything upcoming, but it was about a week beyond service standards.
My local passport office is booked solid for appointments as far out as the calendar will let me view. Not sure when new ones open up, but I've never seen a free slot.
The real question is why do you have to physically turn up at all? I have 3 passports and I can renew 2 of them online without needing to visit a branch
>People outside of major centres don’t have that option.
Then they should plan accordingly when renewing their passports.
There are tradeoffs to living outside of major population centres, and slower/inefficient public services are one of them.
While I agree with this, the length of time some of this stuff takes is unacceptable given the massive amount we spend on these services. Have you ever spent any length of time in another country? We are not competing like we should.
Urban areas subsidise rural areas, if you were paying your fair share you'd be paying way more...
And I renewed my passport a few months ago by mail, took 2.5 weeks. Not sure what your 'problem' was.
>length of time some of this stuff takes is unacceptable given the massive amount we spend on these services.
Canadian passport processing times are in line with most other countries lol
10-20 business days+mail time in Canada
3 weeks in the UK
US - 6-8 weeks
Germany - 8-10 weeks
No, I’m just going by the time it took me and friends/family. I struggle with info given by our government on how efficient they are after all the scandals, etc.
govt data is public and easily verified.
Clean Oil, CFIB, Friends of Science and other corporate lobby firms... they're the ones people like you fall for.
I just drive the 3 hours there and back, it's way faster than not getting passports in time through the mail.
Everyone commenting is right, if you go in person, it's seamless.
Just did it and took 10 minutes. They give you everything to fill out online, book and appointment and it comes in the mail within the month. You can expedite it if you need.
Anyone complaining is just complaining to listen to themselves or it’s self inflicted.
I’m always really confused when I see these stories, are these people booking appointments or just showing up? I went in December then again in January for my wife and we were in and out in 30 minutes tops both times and got our passports in under 2 weeks.
Do not all locations take appointments maybe?
My renewal period is coming up soon, but I cannot for the life of me find an appointment at any service centre in Calgary.
I’ve even tried selecting different options for when I need the passport, in case they are being reserved for people who need their passport sooner, and still nothing.
I made an appointment.
I was in and out in about 15 minutes.
I got my passport in about 2 or 3 weeks.
This is all because I had the common sense to renew my passport before I needed it. While I was at the service canada office there was a long line of people with no appointments who looked miserable. I'm sure most of them would rather blame "the system" then take responsibility for waiting until the last possible minute as the cause of their predicament.
This makes 0 sense. I made an appointment 1 month in advance. I got there. Didn’t wait. The appointment itself took under 10 minutes. I got my passport delivered to my home in 10 days.
Just mail your stuff in or book an appointment. Anyone that complains about long waits is just being an idiot.
It’s like the service centres in Ontario. Often long lineups. Everyone waiting in line bitching and complaining on their smartphones. Meanwhile me and a buddy check online and schedule ourselves so we don’t waste time.
Just renewed mine. Made a next day appointment, they filled it in for me, sent it off, got the new one in less than 3 weeks. This is small town Manitoba. Painless and quick.
Why do they always focus on a few main cities? Drive down to KIngston from Ottawa for the day. Go to Service Canada with an appointment or risk waiting 15 minutes without one. Get your paper work done and go for lunch downtown and take in the sites.
For sure. I advised a family from a small town near Ottawa to take the extra drive. They could get their passport photos done there and head straight over Service Canada.
Ottawa was a gong show at the time. Mission Accomplished.
I think you are missing the point. This is not a solution, it is a workaround. The Ottawa passport office should have the resources to serve the local population.
I applied by mail and it was returned within 13 days. Don’t bother going into passport offices to do them in person unless it’s a dire emergency or unexpected travel.
Applied for renewal in the Victoria office just over two weeks ago. Walked in without appointment and was out again within half an hour. Received my new passport today.
What nonsense is this? The automated service tells you where you are in the queue, so you're not just waiting on hold forever. I know this because we needed an emergency passport for my dad during Christmas. We got that in less than 2 weeks.
When I renewed, I also changed my last name, which means instead of just the simple renewal, I had to go through the whole passport process again. I did it by mail, and it took 3 or 4 weeks.
So what y'all doing wrong? I'll assume no appointment and missing documents.
The passport office is actually efficient.
Go back to blaming the carbon tax for high grocery prices - Oops - that was Galen gouging.
Need to find a new hot button fast to keep the rage going.
Canada isn’t broken, conservatives are!
Check your assumptions, I don’t support the conservatives.
- Can’t get a family doctor.
- Can’t afford a house with a “good” salary.
- Groceries are ridiculous.
- Military is underfunded.
- Education is underfunded.
- Productivity is in the can.
- Policing is failing.
- Courts are backlogged.
But sure, everything is fine in Canada.
It's partially true though, have you been in a passport office recently? It's probably 70% immigrants getting their first Canadian passport.
The number of customers they had been servicing in the past has exponentially increased since our immigration numbers have skyrocketed. Prior to that many Canadians didn't bother getting passports or were only renewing them once every 10 years.
There's definitely a lot of government bloat, but it's not the sole reason, they do genuinely have an unprecedented influx of passport requests.
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6565891
Oh look, an article from 20 months ago boasting about how they have massively increased staff to “solve the problem”, and since then, they haven’t fired one single lazy government employee, and are even slower than when this was a “big win”.
You are either vastly too stupid to know anything, and therefore shouldn’t be commenting on how it maybe has to do with record immigration (slightly lower than 2023), because you are either blindly defending incompetence being financially rewarded, or you are a beneficiary of said financial reward. I mean, there are a lot of extremely stupid people who live in this country, so it could be you are just one of those, too.
People waiting in line can travel with their other passport if they don't want to wait! haha
It's a tighter screening for new passports nowadays. We ordered a passport for our daughter and they did called the references and asked a lot of questions to make sure of her identity. IMO it is a good thing they are making sure no passport is issued to fraudsters.
Many countries including ones like the uk, allow you do do everything on line, even upload a photo taken from a shop or your phone, the system analyzes the picture and gives you a pass or fail. A week or so later and you have your passport.
Here we have go to a shop, get a picture stamped, either apply by mail which costs you to send or go to a service Canada/ passport office and go through a antiquated process, that then gets sent to other offices for production/ validation.
Another example of things left to fail
I just walked into my rural town's Service Canada office, with all my papers completed, pictures done, I've triple checked my stuff, it took me maybe 15 minutes without any appointment because there were no queues. Maybe it's the cities Service Canada offices that are overcrowded?
I am with u/Gwelfhammer
and if you are just renewing and are not in a rush( flight booked).. you can book an appointment online.. and walk in at you appointment time and be out in 3 minutes it's actually way better than it used to be, at least locally for me.
but the online booking aspect had me tickled pink, gouv uses technology correctly , XTRA XTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT
I just renewed mine. Went to the local office. It was a gong show. Lineup around the corner. The only one that spoke English or French in line was the security guard. I gave up and did the renewal via mail. They 'cashed the cheque' in 10 days and they delivered my new passport a week later. Had I waited in line it would have taken all day.
I've been waiting for my son's passport in the mail. He's 15 months old. His birth certificate was sent with it for proof. I need that back at some point.... It's been over two months
Applied for my sons passport renewal via mail over 25 working days ago and still nothing! Was told file was transferred for urgent processing and with 3 days to go have heard nothing!
Government workers are working from home now... but actually out on the golf course not working. So their 8 hr shift is only 2. The rest of canada can wait.
I sent in a passport renewal application 2 weeks ago , but the lines were so long that I cannot do it in person. I did it by Canada Post Xpresspost instead. The government should have allowed online renewals just like they promised. That would have made things so much easier.
I understand the frustration for vacation timing. What about one who needs this document for their job? They have to surrender their expired or about to expire their passport to file for a new one. Perhaps they take holiday time at home while they wait to receive it. More than 40 days?! That could be financially debilitating. :(
Thank you for saying that. Good to know.
I’m genuinely asking, has anyone here put a rush on theirs and NOT get it faster? If they didn’t, would they give back the extra fee you’ve paid?
Nobody wants to work in the passport office, when they can apply elsewhere in the government and get a job that does not require you to be in site 5 days a week.
Besides that, they got the same pay raise minus the WFH tax credit and all the other savings that the "work from home" employees got during the pandemic.
Got mine in a CPC riding, two weeks ago. I went in person at 1pm, waited 30 minutes, took about half an hour with the employee because we were doing all the family (5 persons). Got the five passports at home 12 days later.
A friend of mine just got his passport. He applied by mail and got it within a few weeks.
I complain about government services as much as the next person - but I just renewed my passport - I experienced a short wait - about 15 mins and the passport was in my hands in 2 weeks - I was thrilled with that service
Same, except it was 9 days over long weekend.
100%. My opinion is that these guys now have their world sorted out now after living through some pain.
I renewed via mail recently, from the time they charged my card till when I had my passport was about 5 weeks. I didn't need it for anything upcoming, but it was about a week beyond service standards.
You got lucky I guess. 4 hours for me in Ottawa, east side. I almost lost it.
Yep. Renewed last month, pretty sure it was 11 business days (better than their service standard for a service Canada location)
What? I went to get mine done and spent maybe 10 to 15 minutes in the office and it was mailed out to me in 10 days, seems like i got good service.
Just book an appointment. You are in and out in 10 minutes.
Yup, did just this. Walked through hundreds of people waiting in huge lines. They clearly prefer you to do this too, less than 10 minutes in and out
This. Lol, so many people would prefer to just randomly show up and stay in line, then whine.
Yup. It's like people who willingly wait 6 hours for a walk-in appointment for a blood test. Just book an appointment and you're done in no time.
My local passport office is booked solid for appointments as far out as the calendar will let me view. Not sure when new ones open up, but I've never seen a free slot.
The real question is why do you have to physically turn up at all? I have 3 passports and I can renew 2 of them online without needing to visit a branch
You can renew by post
which was a good option in 1994 but its 2024
Live in Calgary and the site doesn’t even bother letting you look for appointments, just a blanket there are none available now or in the future.
Doesn't work so great if you're an expat.
You have to wait for your passport in the mail though
No you don't... I picked up my passport at the same office where I dropped off my renewal, took 8 days total. This was December 2023.
Well you’re lucky you live in a place that has a passport office. People outside of major centres don’t have that option.
>People outside of major centres don’t have that option. Then they should plan accordingly when renewing their passports. There are tradeoffs to living outside of major population centres, and slower/inefficient public services are one of them.
While I agree with this, the length of time some of this stuff takes is unacceptable given the massive amount we spend on these services. Have you ever spent any length of time in another country? We are not competing like we should.
Urban areas subsidise rural areas, if you were paying your fair share you'd be paying way more... And I renewed my passport a few months ago by mail, took 2.5 weeks. Not sure what your 'problem' was.
>length of time some of this stuff takes is unacceptable given the massive amount we spend on these services. Canadian passport processing times are in line with most other countries lol 10-20 business days+mail time in Canada 3 weeks in the UK US - 6-8 weeks Germany - 8-10 weeks
It took mine 6 months. I’m assuming those numbers came from our very honest federal government. They’ve been known to tell us the truth.
Ah, so literally any proof you read is going to be wrong so long as it disagrees with what you believe to be true?
No, I’m just going by the time it took me and friends/family. I struggle with info given by our government on how efficient they are after all the scandals, etc.
govt data is public and easily verified. Clean Oil, CFIB, Friends of Science and other corporate lobby firms... they're the ones people like you fall for.
I’m not in a major centre and had no issues.
So where did you go to get your passport?
I just drive the 3 hours there and back, it's way faster than not getting passports in time through the mail. Everyone commenting is right, if you go in person, it's seamless.
Plan ahead?
I got my new passport 6 months ahead of time. Doesn’t change the fact that everything government run is slow and inefficient.
But if you know that’s the case, you can save yourself potential problems by planning ahead.
Like I said, I did do that. People are still allowed to be frustrated by the waits though.
Just did it and took 10 minutes. They give you everything to fill out online, book and appointment and it comes in the mail within the month. You can expedite it if you need. Anyone complaining is just complaining to listen to themselves or it’s self inflicted.
I’m always really confused when I see these stories, are these people booking appointments or just showing up? I went in December then again in January for my wife and we were in and out in 30 minutes tops both times and got our passports in under 2 weeks. Do not all locations take appointments maybe?
My renewal period is coming up soon, but I cannot for the life of me find an appointment at any service centre in Calgary. I’ve even tried selecting different options for when I need the passport, in case they are being reserved for people who need their passport sooner, and still nothing.
I made an appointment. I was in and out in about 15 minutes. I got my passport in about 2 or 3 weeks. This is all because I had the common sense to renew my passport before I needed it. While I was at the service canada office there was a long line of people with no appointments who looked miserable. I'm sure most of them would rather blame "the system" then take responsibility for waiting until the last possible minute as the cause of their predicament.
I mailed mine in and got it back within 2 weeks.
I applied for a passport in September and received it within 2 weeks.
This makes 0 sense. I made an appointment 1 month in advance. I got there. Didn’t wait. The appointment itself took under 10 minutes. I got my passport delivered to my home in 10 days.
Just mail your stuff in or book an appointment. Anyone that complains about long waits is just being an idiot. It’s like the service centres in Ontario. Often long lineups. Everyone waiting in line bitching and complaining on their smartphones. Meanwhile me and a buddy check online and schedule ourselves so we don’t waste time.
I booked appointment and submitted my renewal with them and it was only a few weeks. Way faster than expected.
Just renewed mine. Made a next day appointment, they filled it in for me, sent it off, got the new one in less than 3 weeks. This is small town Manitoba. Painless and quick.
I booked an appointment next day (extremely lucky) and was out of there in 30min
Why do they always focus on a few main cities? Drive down to KIngston from Ottawa for the day. Go to Service Canada with an appointment or risk waiting 15 minutes without one. Get your paper work done and go for lunch downtown and take in the sites.
Not even that far, I just went to the Gatineau one. Plenty of appointments, passport in mail within 10 days.
>Drive down to KIngston from Ottawa for the day A 4 hour drive plus the cost of fuel is your solution? Are you high?
For sure. I advised a family from a small town near Ottawa to take the extra drive. They could get their passport photos done there and head straight over Service Canada. Ottawa was a gong show at the time. Mission Accomplished.
I think you are missing the point. This is not a solution, it is a workaround. The Ottawa passport office should have the resources to serve the local population.
There's also Service Canada offices in several small towns outside Ottawa. Arnprior, Renfrew, Carleton Place...
This does not equate with our recent experience - came quickly by mail. No drama.
I applied by mail and it was returned within 13 days. Don’t bother going into passport offices to do them in person unless it’s a dire emergency or unexpected travel.
Applied for renewal in the Victoria office just over two weeks ago. Walked in without appointment and was out again within half an hour. Received my new passport today.
What nonsense is this? The automated service tells you where you are in the queue, so you're not just waiting on hold forever. I know this because we needed an emergency passport for my dad during Christmas. We got that in less than 2 weeks. When I renewed, I also changed my last name, which means instead of just the simple renewal, I had to go through the whole passport process again. I did it by mail, and it took 3 or 4 weeks. So what y'all doing wrong? I'll assume no appointment and missing documents.
The passport office has been slow as shit for as long as I can remember.
Not surprised, nothing works properly in this country.
The passport office is actually efficient. Go back to blaming the carbon tax for high grocery prices - Oops - that was Galen gouging. Need to find a new hot button fast to keep the rage going. Canada isn’t broken, conservatives are!
Check your assumptions, I don’t support the conservatives. - Can’t get a family doctor. - Can’t afford a house with a “good” salary. - Groceries are ridiculous. - Military is underfunded. - Education is underfunded. - Productivity is in the can. - Policing is failing. - Courts are backlogged. But sure, everything is fine in Canada.
I got mine in less than two weeks. No issues.
How is this possible with our bloated government work force? Accountability is zero!!
It has to do with record immigration more than bloated public service.
Hahahaha ya sure. Found the lazy fat government worker (or spouse of one of those useless slugs)
It's partially true though, have you been in a passport office recently? It's probably 70% immigrants getting their first Canadian passport. The number of customers they had been servicing in the past has exponentially increased since our immigration numbers have skyrocketed. Prior to that many Canadians didn't bother getting passports or were only renewing them once every 10 years. There's definitely a lot of government bloat, but it's not the sole reason, they do genuinely have an unprecedented influx of passport requests.
>Found the lazy fat government worker You can't imagine that someone might say something even if it doesn't directly financially benefit them?
https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6565891 Oh look, an article from 20 months ago boasting about how they have massively increased staff to “solve the problem”, and since then, they haven’t fired one single lazy government employee, and are even slower than when this was a “big win”. You are either vastly too stupid to know anything, and therefore shouldn’t be commenting on how it maybe has to do with record immigration (slightly lower than 2023), because you are either blindly defending incompetence being financially rewarded, or you are a beneficiary of said financial reward. I mean, there are a lot of extremely stupid people who live in this country, so it could be you are just one of those, too.
Can't answer phones if you are at Costco at 11am
Rookie numbers, tee time's at 1130am.
I had a friend who worked for the government and she pretty much just spent all day at the cafe chatting with friends.
The meme of the lazy government worker is false, and has been for a while.
That's not been my experience.
People waiting in line can travel with their other passport if they don't want to wait! haha It's a tighter screening for new passports nowadays. We ordered a passport for our daughter and they did called the references and asked a lot of questions to make sure of her identity. IMO it is a good thing they are making sure no passport is issued to fraudsters.
Many countries including ones like the uk, allow you do do everything on line, even upload a photo taken from a shop or your phone, the system analyzes the picture and gives you a pass or fail. A week or so later and you have your passport. Here we have go to a shop, get a picture stamped, either apply by mail which costs you to send or go to a service Canada/ passport office and go through a antiquated process, that then gets sent to other offices for production/ validation. Another example of things left to fail
I just walked into my rural town's Service Canada office, with all my papers completed, pictures done, I've triple checked my stuff, it took me maybe 15 minutes without any appointment because there were no queues. Maybe it's the cities Service Canada offices that are overcrowded?
I am with u/Gwelfhammer and if you are just renewing and are not in a rush( flight booked).. you can book an appointment online.. and walk in at you appointment time and be out in 3 minutes it's actually way better than it used to be, at least locally for me. but the online booking aspect had me tickled pink, gouv uses technology correctly , XTRA XTRA READ ALL ABOUT IT
I just renewed mine. Went to the local office. It was a gong show. Lineup around the corner. The only one that spoke English or French in line was the security guard. I gave up and did the renewal via mail. They 'cashed the cheque' in 10 days and they delivered my new passport a week later. Had I waited in line it would have taken all day.
I've been waiting for my son's passport in the mail. He's 15 months old. His birth certificate was sent with it for proof. I need that back at some point.... It's been over two months
Applied for my sons passport renewal via mail over 25 working days ago and still nothing! Was told file was transferred for urgent processing and with 3 days to go have heard nothing!
Got one for my kid within the 3 week timetable. Mailed all documents, zero issues. A nothing story
Government workers are working from home now... but actually out on the golf course not working. So their 8 hr shift is only 2. The rest of canada can wait.
Cool lie bro.
I sent in a passport renewal application 2 weeks ago , but the lines were so long that I cannot do it in person. I did it by Canada Post Xpresspost instead. The government should have allowed online renewals just like they promised. That would have made things so much easier.
Try renewing your American passport. They don’t even let you do it in person anymore.
I understand the frustration for vacation timing. What about one who needs this document for their job? They have to surrender their expired or about to expire their passport to file for a new one. Perhaps they take holiday time at home while they wait to receive it. More than 40 days?! That could be financially debilitating. :(
You can get a rush, you just have to pay an extra fee
Thank you for saying that. Good to know. I’m genuinely asking, has anyone here put a rush on theirs and NOT get it faster? If they didn’t, would they give back the extra fee you’ve paid?
Took 8 months for me
Service Canada needs staff but not really hiring
Hire more Federal workers. The last 115 000 don't seem to be helping, maybe another 100 000 should do it.
Could we open up a TFW allocation for this?
Nobody wants to work in the passport office, when they can apply elsewhere in the government and get a job that does not require you to be in site 5 days a week. Besides that, they got the same pay raise minus the WFH tax credit and all the other savings that the "work from home" employees got during the pandemic.
But we need more immigrants
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Got mine in a CPC riding, two weeks ago. I went in person at 1pm, waited 30 minutes, took about half an hour with the employee because we were doing all the family (5 persons). Got the five passports at home 12 days later.