Update: The U.S. government announced Thursday February 22, 2007 that children are exempt from the new passport law, which requires a valid Canadian passport to be presented at U.S. land borders when travelling to the U.S. by ground. The new exemption will not apply at airports, where children will still require passports. The passport law is already in effect for air travel, and will apply at land border crossings by June 2009.
It's that time of the year again. Public servants across all levels of government are getting ready to take off to more tropical and warmer destinations. Winter break is almost here and InterGovWorld presents a special guide to help you prepare before you say goodbye to the Canadian winter for a few weeks anyway. InterGovWorld takes a closer look at the online aspect of applying for a passport, the new U.S. passport laws, and how you can save time and energy with a passport checklist before you venture off on winter vacation.
As of January 23, 2007 the laws have changed. It is now not possible to travel by air to the U.S. without a passport. With 33 offices across Canada,
Passport Canada is feeling the squeeze from new regulations, especially now when students, public servants, and families are temporarily migrating to warmer weather.
What exactly is Passport Canada doing to alleviate the bottleneck of passport applications and how can you ensure that your hard-earned vacation away from the public service won't be sabotaged by forces beyond your control?
Take proactive and preventive action
When applying for a passport you can't complete the application process online but you can save yourself significant time and effort by filling out the initial form online. Once that is complete the information is entered into Passport Canada's secure server and becomes accessible in their database once you get to their office.
It also enables you to speed through lineups and potentially receive a priority number for already having the initial steps completed.
By filling out the form online you eliminate the probability of error and missing information because the form will not print until it has been filled out correctly. This provides assurance and confidence that there are no mistakes and nothing has been missed.
When asked what marketing strategy Passport Canada has embarked on to make the public more aware of this new online step in the application process, spokeswoman Francine Charbonneau said, "Honestly, it is something we really haven't wanted to advertise too much because right now we are so busy that the server tends to crash."
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Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) hosts Passport Canada's server called Secure Channel," she said. "There are service outages that usually occur on Mondays and we usually encourage people to use weekday evenings or earlier in the morning as the best time.
"The secure part of it is 100 per cent functional but the access to it might not be."
This isn't the first time problems with Secure Channel have arisen. Recently, Secure Channel was one of the initiatives that Auditor General Sheila Fraser gave a failing grade in her scathing
report on mismanaged public service IT projects.
However, despite the heat that Secure Channel has taken for being ineffective and unreliable, Charbonneau reassures that "the online aspect of applying for a passport is a great tool for people to use," but also noted that the more people will use it the more congested and unstable it will become.
Express options
In the event that your situation is more serious and you can't afford to go through the regular application process there are other options. You can apply for either an urgent or express passport. An urgent passport can be acquired within 24 hours and an express passport within two to nine days.
Passport Canada is applying stricter guidelines to the urgent and express applications due to the higher volume they are seeing.
"It is a case by case basis," Charbonneau said. "You have to prove your sense of urgency and we're not talking about a last minute flight to Florida because you got a good deal on a ticket."
It is meant to be for a death in the family, an illness, a sickness, needing to get to a destination such as a last minute business trip, she said.
"They are analyzed on a case-by-case basis so we are telling people there are no guarantees just because you have a last minute flight. We're really asking people to plan ahead right now."
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Planning Ahead >>
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