Passport Offices Jammed As Last Minute U.S. Deadline Looms
Posted January 22, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Enduring the hassles of an airport used to be the one thing Canadian travellers dreaded the most.
Now it’s simply getting the right documents they need to board that plane in the first place.
Passport offices were crammed again Monday, 24 hours before new rules kick in about going south. They mandate that anyone flying into the U.S. must have the official papers, a requirement designed to help tighten border security.
Most Canadians understand the new rules, but are having a far harder time figuring out why the government didn’t anticipate the rush that was inevitably coming as the deadline loomed.
Some were forced to take the day off work or come in late as they waited in increasingly lengthening lines to pay for the privilege of getting the precious document.
“This is totally outrageous,” gripes future passenger John Sequeira. “It’s just doing more paperwork and I think it’s just a big cash grab … I think they’re taking it a little too far, with Homeland Security. I can see with foreigners, but we’re supposed to be their neighbours.”
Filling out the form requires a guarantor, a trusted person who can testify you are who you’re supposed to be. That presents a different kind of problem for Parker Sheehan.
“Not having a stable doctor, not having a dentist makes it a lot harder to get a guarantor,” she sighs. “I wish there wasn’t so much red tape that I had to go through to get this done.”
Even those who already have an old passport are angry about having to update their documents.
“I think it’s ridiculous, I got a passport here,” Chris Sero grumbles as he scans the endless line in front of him. “I got all kinds of I.D. cards here. I’ve been a citizen for the last 52 years, and now they send me back. I need the card.”
Under normal circumstances, it should take between a week to ten days to secure what you need. But with the crush, the wait is now up to a month – and could get even longer.
As with anything involving government red tape, most expect things will only get worse.
That includes Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Wilson. “We cannot rush into this and have a cold-turkey implementation without appropriate flexibility,” he told the Empire Club Monday.
He warns of clogged border points and a slowdown in trade and tourism, fearing some passengers will simply find it too inconvenient to bother heading out of their own country.
If Americans stop coming here because they need a passport to get past customs, one study suggests it’s Canada that will pay the price. They estimate it could cost us as much as $3 billion.
At least 20,000 additional Canadians are applying for the booklet every day. And this could be a preview of things to come. For now, the new regs. only apply to flyers. But by June 2009, anyone crossing into the U.S. by land or sea will also have to present a valid passport at customs or be denied entry south of the border.
To find out how to apply for a passport online, how much it costs and what you need to know to get the process started, click here.
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