Federal passport offices are giving strong emotions to travelers who need to renew their passports by dictating a secret rule, absent from the website and whose existence the department refuses to confirm, according to which only applications submitted within 48 hours of departure are processed.
Like several other testimonies collected by The duty, the process of obtaining a passport for Anne-Sara Gendron turned into a veritable roller coaster of emotions, punctuated by a refusal of service because her plane ticket was dated a week too late. He was asked to come back, only 24 to 48 hours before his flight.
“We were living in great uncertainty of missing our flight. Me, I can’t afford to buy tickets, ”drops the Montreal mother. She says she finally waited in front of the Saint-Laurent passport office for about ten hours with her three-month-old baby in her arms before successfully obtaining the precious document required to make the family trip: a rare visit of his relatives abroad.
“If we had had the right time, it would be something else! It leaves people in permanent stress until the moment of departure. »
The government is facing an unprecedented volume of passport renewal applications, linked to the resumption of travel after the COVID-19 pandemic. Impressive queues can be seen in front of passport offices, especially in the Montreal area. In recent weeks, Service Canada has extended the processing time for regular passport renewal applications from 25 to 45 days, after saying it would give priority to people whose travel is imminent.
However, the federal government ignores the fact that this last instruction is interpreted in the most radical way possible by certain offices: it is useless to go there if you cannot provide proof of departure within two days. This information was absent on Friday both from the government website and from the page of the Saint-Laurent Passport Office, one of six in Quebec that offers the “urgent withdrawal” service at an additional cost of $110.
Employees still took the trouble to write the unofficial instruction on a sheet of paper taped to the front door, found The duty during its passage. In an email dated Friday, the Department of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) claims that it is still possible to file a passport application 3 to 45 days before departure at one of its specialized offices, including that of Saint-Laurent or Complexe Guy-Favreau in Montreal. This is contradictory with many testimonies collected.
very last minute
“Who here is leaving tomorrow?” Around 3 p.m., an employee of the passport center, located in a small shopping center on boulevard Marcel-Laurin, in Saint-Laurent, sorts through the long line always present to find desperately urgent requests among the category of requests already more urgent.
Fanny Bond left Sherbrooke at 4 a.m. to obtain a passport requested in March. She had been shivering in line on her chair for several hours in the hope of renewing her document on Thursday afternoon. His trip is scheduled for the following Monday and his only hope lies in obtaining the document.
“I think I’m going to sleep in my chariot tonight. […] If I don’t go there, I don’t know what to do. My bosses won’t let me have another vacation this summer. »
Like her, several travelers who took action in advance did not receive their document within the times posted online and whose deadlines were recently extended. They are doomed to join the already well-stocked ranks of very last-minute applicants, found The duty. However, the minister promised that they would not have to pay the additional costs.
During the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government offered an extension of the deadline for renewing a passport, and even advised waiting for a travel plan to apply for it. Ottawa is now inviting those not expected to leave within the next nine weeks to file a regular application, either in person or by mail.
The Gatineau and Quebec offices, in particular, also agree to process the files of those who leave in less than 25 days, an “express withdrawal” at a cost of $50. At the Complexe Guy-Favreau Passport Centre, applicants in this category are invited to make an appointment online. However, no appointment is available in the Montreal area, any more than in Laval or Gatineau, and the earliest time slot offered for Quebec is July 29; for Saguenay, July 14.
Those who try their luck without an appointment in Quebec – which is not possible in Montreal – see the instructions change every day, at the end of the afternoon, noted The duty. An hour before closing time, at 4 p.m., an agent advises the queue that only the files of people who take the plane within 48 hours will be processed. Before the appointed time, he is content to say that there will be “other instructions at 3 p.m.”.
“It’s really not correct”, drops Marie-Christine Resendes, who must leave for Mexico on Sunday with her spouse and her baby. Crossed in the corridors of the passport offices of Quebec on her second day lost in the long line, Thursday, she warns others of what will be announced so that they do not wait for nothing.
“We applied for a passport on the 1er april. We hadn’t taken it by “express” because the passport agent guaranteed us that we would have it on May 27, at the very end of May. We waited until the end of May, we tried to call, but they didn’t take any lines. »
Known problem
After repeated requests on this subject, the office of the minister responsible for the file, Karina Gould, admitted to being “aware of these reports” and assures that the minister “personally raised the question with her officials”. It was not possible to find out why the requirement for a plane ticket dated two days later at the latest is not indicated anywhere other than on a loose sheet installed on the door of the Saint-Laurent passport office. .
Its director of communications, James Cudmore, wrote in an email that it would be “wrong” to conclude that this information is a “secret”. “We understand that this situation is difficult and stressful,” he wrote.
Minister Gould reiterated this week that 600 employees have been hired in 2022 to assist Service Canada officers, and that her officials are being asked to work overtime in the evenings and on weekends. The majority of new employees are assigned to the Mississauga and Gatineau offices. However, nearly 250 employees, out of the 29,000 employed by Service Canada, are currently suspended for not having been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The chaos in passport offices was highlighted by opposition parties in Ottawa, who hounded the minister this week. “The federal government has let the delays accumulate and it is its duty to correct its error,” chanted Bloc Québécois MP Maxime Blanchette-Joncas on Friday in the House, whose party is calling for offices to be open on weekends.
Conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus says his constituency office is overwhelmed with calls from distraught citizens worried about missing their flights. “The system is completely disorganized, and people are being asked to pay more [les frais de 110$ pour un retrait urgent]. Where are we going? »
In May, Ottawa made passport renewal procedures easier: it is no longer necessary to provide original identity documents and designate a guarantor. In an email to To have tothe ESDC department reports that 75% of Canadians who apply for their passport receive it within 40 business days, and that 96% of those who apply for an expedited application obtain their document within 10 days.
“If you show up with a ticket, 48 hours before your departure, you have it, your passport”, also nuances Moscow Côté, president of the Association of Travel Agencies of Quebec. “Yes it’s stressful, yes it’s boring, but it doesn’t cause cancellations,” he believes.
Delays do not only affect Canada. French nationals abroad must wait “several weeks” to have their passport renewed, and American citizens must wait between 5 and 7 weeks to obtain it through their expedited service.
With Jean-Louis Bordeleau and Isabelle Porter