I’m off tomorrow afternoon to CancĂșn so that I can go to the Canadian Consulate on Wednesday morning first thing to do what I need to do to get a replacement passport.
My original post was much longer and detailed how much of a racket it is to replace a Canadian passport abroad, but I’ve decided that nothing in Canada is capable of changing. So it’s time to stop railing about it and focus on the new life I’m building here.
As a recap, my passport was damaged through no fault of my own and only due to a known defect that all Canadian passports have: the “laminated” identification page is actually not even remotely water resistant and all it takes is getting a single drop of water on it to ruin the page. An official put a wet thumb right over my photo and that was that. đ
These are the fees anyone would have to pay to replace their Canadian passport abroad (all amounts in Canadian dollars):
-passport fee for issuance abroad: $260 for 10 years
-fee to replace a damaged passport: $45 (this one is buried so deeply in the fine print that the wonderful consular staff missed it!)
-fee to have the consulate act as your guarantor because they make you start from scratch for replacing a damaged passport: $50 — this is the most egregious one — who on vacation has someone to act as their guarantor?!
Total: $355
Note that if you pay the $260 and $45 fees by credit card instead of with cash in the local currency, there is a credit card processing fee of $1.50 per $50 increment. So there would be an additional fee of $4.50.
I also have to add in:
-photos: $20
-bus fare: $50
-hotel: $30
-prepaid envelope: $40
-dog sitter: $35
-time lost from work (three days, one to prep everything, two for travel as this can’t be done in a day trip): $600 (actual value of contracts I had to turn down this week — OUCH, but I had the dog sitter all lined up)
Grand Total: $1,130
They are also making me submit my birth certificate. If that gets lost, then I’m looking at a trip back to Quebec and months there to get that sorted out (six weeks there wasn’t enough last time and seven years of trying to do it by mail proved that that can’t be done).
More of the story, folks, don’t let anyone near your Canadian passport unless you give them a towel first and make them dry their hands.
Hoops, hoops, and always more hoops. With a fee attached to each hoop. I’m pretty sure it was Will Rogers who once said something like, “Be glad we don’t get all the government we pay for.” But they are sure trying.
In the local pape today, there was an article about how there will be no booze sold in the days around the election. One man replied “They are treating us like children! Rules won’t stop those intent on breaking them.”
I replied, “I’m from Canada and this is how our government treats us for every little thing.”
To which he replied, “Wow. You expats suddenly make more sense!”
And why I’m happier here also makes more sense.
We had our four passports stolen in Barcelona 2014, well everything else too. Our son had to help drive back to Amsterdam in a bathing suit and towel. Arrived in the Netherlands by 3 P.M. Saturday having left Barcelona around 6 P.M. the evening before. We preferred to rely on the Dutch staff at the Canadian embassy in The Hague over any other choices which is why we drove across Europe overnight.
Our total costs at the embassy the following Monday morning was $1450 plus a $45 fee to use a VISA card. Included in the above were the fees for 4 five-year passports but my wife and I were only issued a 2 year passport because my we couldn’t provide access to our Canadian citizenship card while a friend was able to deliver the birth certificates for our son and daughter to the passport office in Mississauga.
The very nice and helpful Dutch lady reassured me that our passports would be there on Friday, our flights were Saturday and told me to take the family on a nice trip for the rest of the week and to stop worrying.
Passports were there Friday as promised and we made it home on our temporary white passports without further problems.
Not included are the costs for passport pictures, transportation including our children’s friend who had to pick up the birth certificates from our home and deliver them to the closest passport office.
We were happy to receive the passports on time and avoid missing our non-refundable flights but the costs to replace the passports was a shock.
I saw your pictures from the opera and I agree that your new home seems to suit you.
It’s criminal, isn’t it, the government profiting from our misfortunes?
Nine months here and I don’t have the Itch. Amazing.