Passport Canada

Every time I went there were long lines and I usually got there 45-30 minutes before opening time. I was told a different story EACH time... the 4th time, I went there with proof of travel 3 weeks out and was told to leave and come back in 2 weeks as I was "too early"... forcing me to pay for a rushed service. I was given an appintoment but told it isn't guaranteed I will be served then either... how does this make sense?

A total disorganized mess. Show up maximum 24hrs before your date of departure with proof. Prepare to line up for hours. So bring a chair and food. I lined up at 4am and I had already 50 people in front of me. Security guards on the other hand, do an excellent job.

If you need a passport *urgently* processed (ie 2 business days so they publish on the website), the truth is: - Arrive the day before your travel date (ie if you travel Friday, come apply for your passport on Thursday) - Expectation is if you arrive in the morning, you should pick up your passport around 2-3pm - make sure your references are ready to pick up the call within the hour of your application, otherwise you risk a hold up - if you are travelling Saturday / Sunday you need to arrive Friday to get your passport urgently. They are pretty ruthless, this lady came at 5am, with a 7month old and ... Seems like the workers recommend her to come on Friday. - having arrived at 5am and was first in line, when the doors opened, we still had to wait for those who had an appointment to get processed first (about 10 of them...), I was able to step through the doors at 8:50am and was out the door by 9:10am. ----- I got here at 5am to lineup. There was about 6 people that also arrived around that time. You have to wait outside (Renee Levesque door) until 5:30am before they let you into the building. From the urgent line, by 6am there were 12 people in line. By 8am, there were 32 people in line. --- Rushed service topped me at $270 :( ??‍♀️ but I guess the passport will last me for a decade!

Show up at or before opening or you may not get a place in line. Even with express. I write this as I wait in line for a “same-day” passport express service as I have a flight Sunday and the office is closed on weekends. I arrived around 15 minutes after opening (8:45am), and the line was closed for the day around 9 am. I am sure the workers are doing what they can to handle the massive influx of customers (I see over 150 today), but I hope services Canada is considering hiring more hands to open for longer hours and on weekends to deal with the constant rush.

As is the case with just about any Service/Passport Canada location, there can be many delays and hiccups waiting for service. Beyond this, however, staff are all quite friendly, attentive, and bilingual. Due to current COVID restrictions, there are tight limits on how many people can be in the room, resulting in long lineups in the hallway outside. I waited about 4 hours before being served, despite coming around at around 9 am on a weekday. As a result, I would recommend dedicating your whole day to being here if you plan to get some paperwork filled in.

Was extremely impressed by the speed and quality of service. Big thanks to Ronnie at the counter for the kindness and pointers that made the application go smoothly. Had to have my passport renewed same day and the team was able to make it happen. Thank you!

I needed a passport within 1-2 weeks but that doesn't seem possible with the current process. I was told that I needed proof of travel and could come maximum 2 days before my trip and get express service which is what I ended up doing. Otherwise I might have had to wait for a month or more to get a passport. I came on Thursday morning, there were only about 12 people in line downstairs but the line moves veeeery slowly, they took 2 people at a time to go upstairs at a time, but it seemed to take 20-30 minutes until they called the next 2 people. I waited for 3 1/2 hours total, standing most of the time since there is no seating for people waiting in line. I had read reviews and expecting to spend a few hours waiting but it gets tiring to stand for so long, certainly not for everyone. If I had to go again I would bring a camping chair. The bottleneck seems to be that they have very few employees processing the paperwork upstairs, there were only 2 processing the first part of the paperwork so it went quite slowly. There seemed to be more agents for the next step of the process (taking your documents and processing the payment). At least there were seats upstairs after you go through the first step but the longest part of the wait was downstairs. It was also not very clear how the process works from the start, where to line up for what etc. In the end I did get my passport the day after applying but I can't imagine the stress of having to have it the same day. Bring snacks and all your patience!

Sharing my experience in the context of a crazy COVID passport renewal surge. For express renewal people start "camping" outside at the entrance at 2 am (some even earlier). Around 5:30 doors open so people can continue waiting inside. The line was well organized until 7:30, when someone from the passport office came in and started calling people independent from where they were in the initial line, which, to put lightly , is quite unfair and caused a lot of frustration. Well, they call people who are leaving the same day or the next morning. People who came for the second/third time to try their luck shared that sometimes there is a quota of approx 25-30 ppl they can take a day. Today it was more, but only ppl departing tonight and before noon tomorrow. Proof of travel is needed in order to stay in the line. (People departing in the afternoon the next day got their docs checked and were given tickets with numbers from a passport employee (a quite unpleasant and rough older man, who clearly lacked empathy to people who spent their night waiting outside). They could come back tomorrow after 8am to a semi-organized line.) The only other two options were: 1. Come when your flight is less than 24 away 2. Apply at service Canada and receive your passport in 1.5 months. There is nothing in the middle and when asking about it all employees just shake heads and say it is what it is. I had to book a ticket for the next morning in order to stay in the line (non refundable but a cheap bus ticket to US). Please note that the express fee is 110 cad and you will get your passport the same day. I stayed in line from 3 am, submitted papers at 10am, came back at 2 pm. To get my passport with a wrong birthday date. After sitting and waiting for it to be corrected (40 mins or so) I was called again....to see the same exact passport! With the same wrong birthday date.???‍♀️ At this point it feels like a terrible joke. It's almost 3pm and I am still waiting for my corrected passport. I wish there was an option to get a passport for 20 years,so I wouldn't need to think about going through this again for that long. ?‍? Please note that the rules seem to change all the time, so by the time you go this whole procedure might be outdated. In any case, good luck!