Passport Help

Passport Canada is in the process of hiring 300 additional workers to deal with the surge in demand from Canadian travellers on tight winter-vacation schedules, a spokeswoman for the federal agency said on Friday.

Passport Canada had already hired 200 workers to deal with the demand created by tighter U.S. regulations, Francine Charbonneau said. Staff had been able to process 20,000 applications a day in the weeks before the current crunch, up from 13,000 a day. However, daily applications surged to 21,000 in January, and Passport Canada is facing a delay of 25 business days on top of the standard 20 it requires to process an application by mail.

Those who cannot afford to wait 15 days for Passport Canada to send back their original documents are now pursuing a second option: getting an emergency birth certificate ($30, plus a $15 rush fee) so they can then apply for an expedited passport in person for an additional $70. (The old birth certificate is immediately cancelled for security reasons.)

Jason Wesley, a spokesman for the Ontario Ministry of Government Services, said the high volume of passport applicants has spilled over into the issuing of birth certificates.

“We believe that increase is mainly due to the fact that Canadians need passports now to travel to the United States. And in order to receive a passport, Passport Canada requires a valid birth certificate,” he said, noting there was an 11-per-cent increase in the number of applications received this January, compared with the same period last year.

Those requesting an emergency birth certificate must show up at the Toronto office, he said, or get their MPP to fax their documents for them.