Yes, Passport Canada's back-ups were headline news earlier, but the backlog seems to have diminished considerably. Partly due to the fact that if you live in Canada and are renewing a passport you got when you were an adult, you no longer need 2 guarators to sign.
When Ric was claiming his Canadian citizenship, we went to the Consulate in New York. The visa section was this stark white room with folding chairs, lots of security guards and no ambience. Because Ric was applying for Citizenship (i.e., bypassing the whole visa thing), he got to go to the consular section, which was gorgeous--deep red carpet, art, paneling and, yes, that weird bulletproof glass/talking through a telephone like you were in jail kind of thing.
When I renew my US passport, I have been told in no uncertain terms to not go to the consulate. Do not even look at the consulate. Just thinking about the consulate will make the trigger happy security guards get even more twitchy. I have to do the entire thing by mail. Also, if I want to speak to someone at the consulate over the phone, I have to call a 900 number and it costs 95 cents a minute. Thank you, current Administration!
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Date: 2007-09-28 04:25 pm (UTC)When Ric was claiming his Canadian citizenship, we went to the Consulate in New York. The visa section was this stark white room with folding chairs, lots of security guards and no ambience. Because Ric was applying for Citizenship (i.e., bypassing the whole visa thing), he got to go to the consular section, which was gorgeous--deep red carpet, art, paneling and, yes, that weird bulletproof glass/talking through a telephone like you were in jail kind of thing.
When I renew my US passport, I have been told in no uncertain terms to not go to the consulate. Do not even look at the consulate. Just thinking about the consulate will make the trigger happy security guards get even more twitchy. I have to do the entire thing by mail. Also, if I want to speak to someone at the consulate over the phone, I have to call a 900 number and it costs 95 cents a minute. Thank you, current Administration!