They just had a piece on Global about a woman who drove to Toronto from Sudbury to get a passport with the intention of starting work in England in the near future. She was in line at 5:30am today (yeah, I didn't know government offices opened that early, but it's what she said) and they turned her away. Why?

Because her birth certificate is laminated. The explanation is that the lamination prevents the paper from being felt, which is apparently crucial to identifying forged birth certificates.

There are mitigating factors. Birth certificates issued before 1982 were already laminated. They are exempt. And a call by the reporter confirmed that some certificates issued in the '90s were also laminated. The woman's birth certificate was issued in 1992. However, it appears those preparing and processing passport application aren't aware of that consideration.

I've quickly looked through Global's site, but they don't have the story up. So no further details at the moment unless someone hears something more.

Anyway, there ya go. Hope that saves somebody from wasting a day.

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My Birth Cert. from 1958 is laminated (thank God!) and was never an impediment to getting a passport.

Line-ups were bad before...I can only imagine what they are like now. My current passport still has 12-months life left but I've used up 44 pages..only 4 left and I thought I'd have to renew right when this frenzy is going on. Thankfully I can wait a couple of months.

The Government should take about 1/100th of the money wasted on the gun registry and give free passports to all citizens right now.

 

> 240,000 passports applied for this month alone, 22,000 on one day!

I'll wait to renew mine.

 

I was dumb and didn't renew my passsport right when it expired (in July.. I had the new pictures taken and everything.) I finally got the stuff in a few weeks ago.
I went to go pick up my new passport on Monday, and I was waiting for over an hour just to pick it up.
People making new applications were actually being pre-screened in the lobby of the office tower, sent to another floor, and THEN being sent up in batches to the floor the passport office was on to wait for a few more hours.

 

I had to get mine back in September for some travelling and luckily it was a pretty pain-free process. After having my form all filled out and having the garuntor sign the necessary areas and my pictures taken at Foto Source and signed (the guy who runs Foto Sourcre has a 7 ) I went down to Jackson Square with all my papers and a book. I got 16 pages of reading done and I was at the wicket. 3 minutes later I was on my way back to work.

I swear Im the luckiest man alive

 

Did you read yesterday, about th 20,000 poeple that are going to find out that they're no longer canadian citizens if they apply for a passport?

Apprently, between the 40's and the 70's, if you spend your 24th birthday out of the country, you lost your citizenship the next day. People are finding this out now, as they apply for passports.

 

1958? wow that's a lot of birthdays it's nice to have the diversity of all ages of enthusiasts.

 

mines on a stone tablet ..... but still wallet size

 

Mine has "do not laminate" printed on it. I don't know if all of them do these days. I remember thinking it was weird. I found a plastic sleeve for it instead.

 

i ususally find this out the hard way since i had mine laminated to keep it in good shape. i used to use it to cross to the US all the time and the way the americans manhandle ur paperwork, it was a necessity to prevent it from being torn, it makes getting a new passport a pain in the *** since I usually have a bad habit of sleeping past the reknewal date and have to start all over again. bollocks *end of rant*