Relocation Alert!: Lining Up for Canada Passports
getmea...@gmail.com
Canadian passports have become such a hot commodity this holiday season
that former workers have been brought out of retirement to help process
and deliver.
There have been long lineups in recent months, as travellers try to
beat a deadline requring passports for all Canadians travelling to the
U.S. by air.
** WARNING ** Effective: Jan. 23, 2007
Upon Jan. 23, 2007 - ALL Canadians flying to the U.S. must have a valid
passport.
Another factor, say Passport Canada officials, is the number of the
five-year passports expiring after the upsurge in applications
following the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. in 2001.
The lineups are especially bad at the Passport Canada office in
downtown Vancouver.
David Williams, who works in the Sinclair Centre which houses the
office, said when he got to work early last Friday, there were already
people who had been there for hours.
"I got here about 6:30 in the morning and there were people already
walking up the stairs to the passport office, there were people in the
lobby waiting for the elevator, people sleeping in the lobby to the
passport office. It was just incredible."
Williams added that in all his years working in the building, he had
never seen that sort of backlog.
Passport Canada recommends that people apply for their passports by
mail or bring them to a designated Canada Post outlet instead of going
to one of the offices.
Information Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/12/22/bc-passports.html