Passports Away!
Jan. 20th, 2006 08:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisYesterday afternoon, my Canadian passport renewal application was dropped off with UPS and is now on its way to Gatineau, QC, for processing. Kent also stopped by a post office to apply for his US passport. Mine should be back in three-four weeks, his in six.
I feel a little naked at the moment. The renewal process requires I submit my existing passport and my birth certificate. I have copies of my long-form birth certificate in my files (leftovers from my green card processing) so I can still return to Canada if desired but not having all of my documentation immediately accessible makes me feel a little vulnerable.
Canadian passports require a guarantor, a person who has known me for at least two years and is member of a specific list of occupations who is willing to certify I am who I say I am and will sign my forms, one copy of the submitted photos and a photocopy of accompanying identification documentation. Kent's boss, the managing partner of a large DC law firm, agreed to be my guarantor again --he did this for me on my previous renewal five years ago.
The use of a guarantor is all about hierarchies of trust. The gov't is trusting a class of people using their occupation as a proxy who in turn trust the accuracy of my claims. Precisely who the feds deem to be trustworthy seems somewhat arbitrary to me, and the trusted occupations varies by geography. There is a long list of eligible occupations if one applies for a passport within Canada, a smaller list if applying from the US or Bermuda --how did Bermuda get lumped in with the US?-- and a much reduced list for all other countries.
From anywhere except Bermuda, the US or Canada: dentist, medical doctor, judge, magistrate, police officer, mayor, notary public, lawyer, signing officer of a bank
In the US or Bermuda: Same as above, but add chiropractor, pharmacist, veterinarian.
In Canada: Same as above, but add minister authorized to perform marriages, optometrist, postmaster, principal of elementary or secondary school, professional accountant, professional engineer, senior administrator of a college or university, instructor of a university.
Most of the Canadian ones I understand as there are provincial or federal regulatory bodies which oversee the professions. Still, I'm not sure why postmasters and school principals are more trustworthy if they're Canadian than if they're American.
I feel a little naked at the moment. The renewal process requires I submit my existing passport and my birth certificate. I have copies of my long-form birth certificate in my files (leftovers from my green card processing) so I can still return to Canada if desired but not having all of my documentation immediately accessible makes me feel a little vulnerable.
Canadian passports require a guarantor, a person who has known me for at least two years and is member of a specific list of occupations who is willing to certify I am who I say I am and will sign my forms, one copy of the submitted photos and a photocopy of accompanying identification documentation. Kent's boss, the managing partner of a large DC law firm, agreed to be my guarantor again --he did this for me on my previous renewal five years ago.
The use of a guarantor is all about hierarchies of trust. The gov't is trusting a class of people using their occupation as a proxy who in turn trust the accuracy of my claims. Precisely who the feds deem to be trustworthy seems somewhat arbitrary to me, and the trusted occupations varies by geography. There is a long list of eligible occupations if one applies for a passport within Canada, a smaller list if applying from the US or Bermuda --how did Bermuda get lumped in with the US?-- and a much reduced list for all other countries.
From anywhere except Bermuda, the US or Canada: dentist, medical doctor, judge, magistrate, police officer, mayor, notary public, lawyer, signing officer of a bank
In the US or Bermuda: Same as above, but add chiropractor, pharmacist, veterinarian.
In Canada: Same as above, but add minister authorized to perform marriages, optometrist, postmaster, principal of elementary or secondary school, professional accountant, professional engineer, senior administrator of a college or university, instructor of a university.
Most of the Canadian ones I understand as there are provincial or federal regulatory bodies which oversee the professions. Still, I'm not sure why postmasters and school principals are more trustworthy if they're Canadian than if they're American.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 03:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 03:47 pm (UTC)I couldn't imagine having such a close business relationship with a pharmacist or veterinarian that they could reasonably certify my identity. An MD at least has to look you in the eye (if not other parts).
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 03:56 pm (UTC)Now there's a scary thought...
no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 06:14 pm (UTC)If it were allowed I'd use him as a guarantor (but he'd probably tie me up and make me beg for it first).
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 03:57 pm (UTC)I looked up Bermuda on the Canada Consular Affairs Website. The consul there is honourary. The actual consular services are handled by one of the Canadian Consulates in the US, hence the same standards for Bermuda and the U.S.
Because we live in Canada, when Ric applied for his passport, having never lived in Canada before, finding a guarantor was difficult. We had to fill out an additional form, which the Passport Office was clear they did not like handing out. So, besides a guarantor (which was my immigration lawyer), we had to provide the names of 3 Canadian citizens living in Canada whom he had known for at least 2 years. Fortunately we had 3 and the Passport Office called all three of them. We asked my lawyer about this and he said that trafficking in Canadian passports was a concern both in Canada and the US, especially after 9/11.
I have to renew my US passport before I can apply for Canadian citizenship. I have until late 2007, so I have time, but I am dreading it. Going to the US Consulate in Montreal is painful--it is hard to find, all of the windows are blacked out and the entrance isn't really marked. If one has any type of bag, one has to pay the depanneur across the street to hold it. The security is a little hair-trigger and the last time Ric went he got a Republican-tinged rant from the consular official about the evils of taxation. The notion that our US taxes paid for her salary seemed to have been lost on her.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 04:15 pm (UTC)Suddenly the only way to know the building on University Ave was the consulate was to look for a very small brass plaque well hidden from public view. The flower beds in front are concrete reinforced roadblocks decorated as public art. It wasn't exactly a welcoming building anymore. Lord knows what its like after 9/11.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 04:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-20 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-26 06:10 pm (UTC)If you have an old passport you're required to send it in, but that's mostly to allow them to punch holes in it, and because it serves as ID. The passport office claims that it will instate a real renewal process in the future, making it unnecessary to provide all that data every time, but I'm not holding my breath.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 05:46 am (UTC)It's a matter of how easily traceable the guarantor is, that is, the gummint of Canada needs to be able to confirm that the guarantor is who you/he sez s/he is. They DO call back to confirm the application -- I'd say it's about once in three for the applications I've signed, but the proportion may have gone up since September of 2001.
The US Consulate on University Avenue in Toronto is pretty easy to pick out -- it's where there are decorative concrete planters on the sidewalk stopping anything larger than a bicycle from passing along (well, maybe a wheelchair). Back in a previous incarnation (1980, before Regan's assassination attempt even, and certainly before the current crop of embassy bombings) one of my tasks was to drive in to Toronto (from Cambridge ON) to do some paperwork about a passport / visa to the US for one of the clients. Immediately inside the front door I explained to a security guard (a Canadian) why I was there, and he said I needed to go to Room 23 (or whatever) along to the right - so I went there, and he buzzed the door open for me. This was a big waiting room, with clerks like bank tellers at one end - you took a number (just like a the delicatessen counter) and waited until called. 20 min later, I was up at one of the clerks, looking at her through 5cm bulletproof transparent stuff, handing papers through a double-sided drawer, talking into a microphone. (and if you wanted to go to the loo while waiting, the door had to be buzzed open again by front door security. This was 26y ago, I'm sure the security is greater now. And the only person I actually saw up close enough to breathe the same air was the Canadian security guard.
To answer Robert's question -- one of the things the guarantor is signing about is saying yes, this photo does look like the person applying. So yes, you need a guarantor each time you apply.
[(back of hand to forehad) I said I could sign your passport application for you but did you listen? No! But I'm fine, really, just fine. Don't mind me. I'll just sit here in the corner up here in the frozen northland, you don't need to worry about me, I'll be fine, really]
no subject
Date: 2006-01-21 03:57 pm (UTC)I'm sure the passport form instructions said something about requiring a drama-free guarantor. I'll check again. :-)