Canadians queue for days to try to renew passports amid travel resurgence

Some Canadians wait outside government offices for days in a bid to renew their passports amid a resurgence in travel sparked by the lifting of many COVID-19 restrictions.

Travelers have taken to social media in recent days to express their frustration at the lines surrounding passport offices. Service Canada spokeswoman Natalie Huneault said the department is seeing an increase in passport applications due to the recent lifting of some travel restrictions, and she understands the concern that lines and wait times are causing applicants. .

“During the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of passport applications was relatively low, due to a reduction in travel following the imposition of public health restrictions and travel advisories,” said Ms. Huneault in an email. “With the relaxation of restrictions and the resumption of travel, Service Canada has seen an increase in passport applications across the country.”

Ms Huneault said that Service Canada issued 363,000 passports from April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, the first year of the pandemic. That number jumped to more than 1.27 million the following fiscal year; during that same period, passport application calls have reached more than 200,000 per day, up from 5,000 calls per day before the pandemic.

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The department has standard service times of 10 working days for passport applications received in person at a dedicated passport office and 20 days for those mailed or submitted in person at a Canada Service Centre. Ms. Huneault said that while some applications submitted at a Canada Service Center or by mail take an average of 25 business days, applications received in person at passport offices are processed in approximately five business days.

However, the problem is getting into one of the 35 passport offices in the country.

Maral Karimi of Toronto was appalled by the struggle she faced trying to renew the passports of two members of her family ahead of a trip to the Dominican Republic. They booked the trip a month ago and immediately tried to renew the documents. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to schedule a passport renewal appointment over the phone and online, Ms. Karimi was told to go to a passport office a few days before her departure to get expedited documents.

For three days in a row last week, Ms. Karimi and her husband waited in shifts for hours outside a downtown Toronto passport office in cold, rainy weather.

“There was a lady with a seven-week-old baby. There were so many people with children under one year old and strollers. There were old people. There was no where to sit. There was absolutely no sympathy,” she said.

On the third day, her husband arrived at 4 am to stand in line. Five hours later, they let him in because he was able to prove that they would be traveling in the next few days.

Mrs. Karimi joined her husband and once they finally reached the passport office, he said that only three kiosks out of a dozen were open. Physical distancing protocols mean only a limited number of kiosks can operate at one time. The family’s only option was to pay for expedited processing, plus the cost of the passports themselves, which resulted in $334 in unexpected fees.

Speaking poolside in the Dominican Republic, Ms Karimi said she was relieved they got the passports, but the whole process turned out to be an “extremely stressful” few weeks.

Flavio Volpe, president of the Association of Automotive Parts Manufacturers, booked a last-minute trip to Rome after his 17-year-old son, Alessandro, received an invitation to play for Italy’s under-18 baseball team. Alessandro’s passport expired two days after he was scheduled to return, so he needed a new one to travel. Mr. Volpe’s other son also needed a new passport.

Over a two-day period, Mr. Volpe spent hours at various passport offices in the Greater Toronto Area, but was unable to obtain new passports for his children due to waiting times.

“I saw hundreds of people in each row,” Mr. Volpe said. “In Mississauga…it was a meandering line inside the mall, taking up all the interior space and then wrapping around the building.”

Last Thursday, on the eve of the long weekend, he called the passport program’s call center in a last-ditch effort to get an emergency appointment before his departure on Sunday. She got a time slot at the Mississauga passport office on Easter Sunday and her children received their new passports three hours before they were due to leave for the airport.

Although grateful to have arrived in Italy, Mr. Volpe said the government needs to give its passport teams the resources they need.

Service Canada hired an additional 500 employees specifically to support passport application processing, Ms. Huneault said, and staff are working overtime and weekends to support the influx.

In the meantime, the government is asking applicants who won’t be traveling in the next 25 days to apply in person at a Service Canada location or by mail so dedicated passport offices can focus on processing urgent files.

Richard Smart, president and CEO of the Travel Industry Council of Ontario, said the organization recently learned of some passport renewals taking up to 12 weeks. He said that TICO is encouraging travelers to work with a registered travel agent to book their trips and obtain adequate insurance. Although travel insurance will not cover passport delays, some terms and conditions may allow the traveler to rebook for a later date if they are unable to obtain their document on time.

In a statement Friday, the Conservatives said the federal government should have been able to predict the surge in demand for passport renewals as countries reopen their borders.

“Unfortunately, the Trudeau Liberals have shown that they have no plan to get back to normal life or to deal with this virus,” said conservative immigration critic Jasraj Singh Hallan.

“Canadians hope that the Trudeau Liberals will resolve these delays and quickly get passport renewals back on track.”

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