| snowandsun03:23 UTC05 Jun 2007 | hi,
i am wondering if anyone has been to a passport office lately. are the line-ups as bad as they were a couple of months ago? i will probably go to the one on hastings. i heard a couple of months ago that you had to line up at like 530am to have any chance of not waiting all day to get through. is this still true?
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| snowandsun03:25 UTC05 Jun 2007 | PS i mean Hastings, Vancouver.
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| shortsail03:30 UTC05 Jun 2007 | My office is right across the street from the passport office and haven't seen a line-up for a couple of weeks now, so they must have improved the system or taken care of the backlog.
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| kiso03:31 UTC05 Jun 2007 | They finally got around to a ticket system so yes you still have to get there bloody early but if you're early enough they'll give you a ticket and tell you what time to return at for processing (same day).
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| auntie_social03:33 UTC05 Jun 2007 | And apparently, if you fill your form out online there is a special line for those and the wait is really short.
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| slusha05:49 UTC05 Jun 2007 | i waited in line at the one on hastings about a week ago and it wasnt too bad. i got there about 745am and was out by noon, clearly still not too much fun, but relatively not too bad.
about that online form, there was a woman in the line infront of me and the people that worked there had no idea what she was talking about, so i am not too sure it will be too helpful.
just make sure you already have the forms all filled out correctly before you get there and it shouldnt be too bad.
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| BCRobyn06:27 UTC05 Jun 2007 | <blockquote>Quote
<hr>And apparently, if you fill your form out online there is a special line for those and the wait is really short.<hr></blockquote>
That's what I did 3 weeks ago. Do yourself a favour and fill the entire thing out online first. Then you print out the form and get your guarantor to sign it. Once signed, go to the passport office on Hastings late in the afternoon. I went on a Friday at 2pm. There was no lineup at the reception. I walked right up, she looked at my printed documents and made sure I had everything filled out that needed to be filled out. Then she gave me a ticket for the fast lineup. I sat down for all of one minute and then my number was called. I didn't even have time to pull out the novel I had anticipated reading (if not finishing)! However, there were at least 50+ others waiting for their numbers to be called.
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| BCRobyn06:28 UTC05 Jun 2007 | ... but by filling out the form online, I bypassed all of them.
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| cheersterry06:58 UTC05 Jun 2007 | Agree with Carmanah.
In Calgary just showing up = 1 to 3 hours wait.
Showing up with the on-line form completed = 20 minutes and you're out of there.
Cheers,
Terry
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| snowandsun08:34 UTC05 Jun 2007 | thanks for the tips!
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| lotusland211:27 UTC05 Jun 2007 | Big line-up outside today in Victoria.
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| petraofvancouver12:56 UTC05 Jun 2007 | Just letting you know that there are new options now for getting a passport. Service Canada offices in Burnaby, Coquitlam and North Vancouver are now accepting passport applications. There was an article on this in the Vancouver Sun last week. Here are their addresses:
Burnaby Service Canada Centre
4279 Canada Way, Mon - Fri 8:30 am - 4 pm
Coquitlam Service Canada Centre
100 - 2963 Glen Drive, Mon - Fri 8:30 am - 4 pm
North Shore Service Canada Centre
100 - 221 West Esplanade, Mon - Fri 8:30 am - 4 pm
They claim that the processing time is 3 weeks, and 10 weeks if you do it by mail.
Cheers,
Petra M, Vancouver
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