Long wait times, but smoother sailing at city's passport office
Long lines continued at Canada Place with more than 100 people lined up for passport services early Thursday morning.
Lance Colak arrived at 6 a.m. to get passports for his two children after his wife waited in line for seven hours last Friday and was turned away with just a few people left ahead of her in line.
Colak said he arrived earlier to be safe, but noticed the long lines were moving more smoothly on Thursday.
“What I'm seeing is they've worked hard to improve the processes,” he said.
“There's more people communicating for one, inside there, so it's not just security people who don't always know the answers, it's the actual passport office people who are coming out and trying to help.”
Colak said an employee told him they were processing up to 200 passport applications per day now, compared to about 100 last week. There have been noticeable adjustments made on the ground, he said.
Samantha Miedreich said she arrived at Canada Place around 5:30 a.m. and there were already 140 people ahead of her in line.
“I heard that there was a long wait, so I came a little bit prepared but I wasn't prepared for how many people were ahead of me, but I did manage to get through,” she said.
Miedreich was getting passports for two children, aged 10 and three, ahead of a future road trip down the Oregon Coast. It took six hours to get everything done, but Miedreich said it was a smooth process for her.
“Everybody was very friendly,” she said.
“I know a lot of situations of people ahead of me and behind me were saying they're getting on an airplane tomorrow, they've been waiting months for their passports, so it was obviously more stressful for them.”
Across the hall from the long lineup was a Service Canada centre where at most there were 10 people standing in line for non-urgent requests. Nicole Carson booked an appointment online on Wednesday for 10:30 a.m. on Thursday morning to get a passport for her five-month-old son. She said it was a “pretty seamless” and easy process.
Multiple people from Vancouver were also in line at the Edmonton office on Thursday after Whitney B., a local food blogger, posted a Tiktok of her experience flying from Abbotsford to Edmonton via Flair Airlines to get her replacement passport last week. Her round trip flight cost $87.
“It was impossible to get it in Vancouver without camping out at 7 p.m. the night before or paying $300 (to $1,000),” she told the Vancouver is Awesome website.
Whitney B. was in and out of the Edmonton office, passport in hand, in just under two-and-ahalf hours. However, it did take some preplanning as she booked an appointment at the Edmonton office the day before by constantly refreshing the online appointments calendar, which she said adds same-day or next-day slots each morning between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.
Colak said if you show up to the Edmonton office for 6 a.m. you will get to the front of the line, it just may take some time. He recommends those looking for information regarding the passport process to come down to the office and ask workers on site for the most accurate and up-to-date information.