As some of you may know, I had a terrible time getting a temporary passport last year. Well, I didn’t want a temporary one, but after two lawyers, almost $500 and a lot of tantrums at Citizenship and Immigration, that’s what I got. I ended up getting a one year passport (a typical Canadian passport is good for five years) on the condition that it would be extended to the regular period when I received my new citizenship card and brought it in to show them at the Passport Office. Well, after having my photographs rejected twice, sending in my original certificate of Canadian citizenship (which I did NOT want to send away), and waiting almost a year (I applied for it on August 11, 2005) I still am not in possession of said new citizenship card. I want to go to the Ghost Ride in a few weeks, but lucky me, my passport expires on August 12th and there’s no way they’re going to let me into the U.S. with a passport that expires the next day. So…….I decided to write to my MP, Mario Silva. Here’s my letter:
July 10, 2006
The Honourable Mario Silva, Member of Parliament, Davenport
Re: Passport Application
This letter is to inform you about recent difficulties I encountered last year when applying for another Canadian passport at the Victoria Street office in Toronto.
I arrived at the passport office armed with the following documents:
Birth certificate – born in England
Canadian citizenship card and certificate – issued at the Canadian High Commission in London, England
Ontario drivers license
OHIP card
SIN number
Photocopy of previous passport, now expired
I was denied the passport, being told that my citizenship card and certificate, which bears a number, were not valid. These were obtained by my mother, born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, from the Canadian High Commission in London, England when I was 9 months old.
Also, I did hold a Canadian passport from 1994 – 99, issued in the Hamilton, ON office. Unfortunately, I no longer have the document but only a photocopy of the pertinent pages.
I was forced to reapply for Canadian citizenship at a cost of almost $400 after having to have all my documents notarized by a lawyer and was told this could take some months. I required identification sooner than that so was eventually issued at 12 month passport at a cost of over $100. Upon receipt of my citizenship card I will need to reapply for the full passport. This procedure involved my absence from work more than once at a further cost of over $200, as I am paid on an hourly basis.
My primary questions are:
I have previously held a Canadian passport and the officers would not check this. Why must I reprove my citizenship?
My mother, born in Canada, presented her original documents to the authorities in good faith and received the citizenship card and certificate in return. She believed, until August, 2005, that these were acceptable documents of identification. Am I now to believe that she was issued invalid documentation?
I feel that I have been unfairly treated and forced to pay hundreds of excess dollars to provide information that already exists with the passport office. It is almost a year after the fact, and I still have not received my new citizenship card. I have plans to weekend in the US in August, yet by the time this date comes up my one year passport will have expired. I have tried contacting the citizenship card office in Nova Scotia to no avail. Am I honestly expected to go through this ridicule and expense every time I would like to leave the country for a weekend?
As my representative in the Federal government I would appreciate your intervention to obtain an explanation of these circumstances.
Sincerely,
Lindsay Casey
Now wait! It gets better! Today I received a letter from Citizenship and Immigration Canada telling me that I needed to send them my original Certificate of Citizenship. OH! Right, you mean the one I already sent you? The irreplaceable document that my mother went to the Canadian High Commission in London, England in 1981 to get? Right, that one. So I called them apparentlyntly all I can do is send them a letter explaining the situation. Well, I think that’s bollocks. They received my photographs, yet not the certificate. I just happen to have sent them all in the same envelope. But will they let me speak to anyone who knows what the hell is going on. Of course not! That would clearly be a waste of my tax dollars and the ridiculamountmout of money I’ve paid them for this card they don’t seem to want to issue. I don’t know exactly what level of incompetence they are striving for, but I am livid.
So I have an appointment at my MP’s office tomorrow. Hopefully they can help, otherwise someone is going to have to show up and stop me from the murderous rampage I feel coming on.
In other news………..
This is a really interesting article on the differences between swear words in the U.S. and the U.K. It’s really funny; I think a lot of people will get a chuckle out of it.
