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How to get a Canadian passport now – CTV News

Published

2 years ago

May 5, 2022

As summer grows ever closer, Canadians are becoming more and more interested in travelling again — but with reported delays in acquiring or renewing a passport unlikely to end any time soon, understanding the process is key.

At the moment, if you visit the page on the government website pertaining to passports, a notification at the top of the page reveals that they are “experiencing very high call volumes right now.”

“Wait times are longer than usual,” the alert states. “If you do not have travel plans in the next 2 weeks, we suggest you wait to call us.”

Some of the delays are due to the increased interest in travel compared to the last two years of the pandemic. Between April 1, 2020 and March 31, 2021, Service Canada issued around 363,000 passports, but from April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, the agency issued 1,273,000 passports, according to a spokesperson.

One family that began renewing their passports in February told CTV News that they didn’t receive the last one until April, just days before a trip for which passports were required.

So how does one renew or acquire a passport in Canada, and how are those processes currently being affected?

RENEWING A PASSPORT

QUALIFYING

Only adult passports can be renewed, according to the Canadian government’s website. Those under 16 will need to apply for a new child’s passport instead of a renewal.

Adult passports can only be renewed if they have were issued within the last 15 years, and have the same gender marker, name, date of birth and place of birth as you would like on your new passport. Otherwise, an adult must apply for a new passport.

If you’re still unsure if you qualify for renewal, the government has a quiz you can take on their site to ensure you fit the requirements.

WHAT YOU NEED ON YOUR APPLICATION

All applicants for a renewal need to fill out an application form (which can be found online), have passport photos taken, and find two references who are not a family member and who have known you for at least two years. They also can’t be a spouse or common-law partner, or anyone related to a spouse or common-law partner, and they must be older than 18 and agree to you using their name and contact information on your application.

The photographer who takes the passport photos must write their name, their complete address and the date when the photos were taken on the back of one of the photos.

You must also turn in your old passport with the application, with the exception of cases in which it was lost or stolen.

This is a new development – prior to last month, if your passport was stolen, lost or had expired more than a year ago, you would have to apply for a new passport. Part of this was because the renewal application asks for the date your passport was issued, as well as the expiration date and the passport number, which many would not know without their old passport at hand. But at the end of March, the government announced that if your passport was stolen, lost, damaged, or had expired within the last 15 years, you would now be able to apply for a renewal, which is much simpler than applying for a new passport.

“As international travel resumes, we need to continue to modernize and improve our passport services to make sure we meet the needs of Canadians,” Immigration Minister Sean Fraser said in a press release at the time.

To renew a passport or apply for one, it costs $120 or $160, depending on whether you are applying for a five or ten year passport.

For those who need a passport quickly, there are additional fees associated with obtaining a passport in under 10 days. If you are required to show proof of travel, this can include an airline ticket, a travel itinerary with proof of payment, or proof of death or illness in the family that requires immediate travel.

“Depending on the reason for your travel, you may need to show further proof that your situation is urgent,” the website states.

APPLYING FOR A NEW PASSPORT

QUALIFYING

To qualify for a new passport, you must be a Canadian citizen and older than 16 years of age to apply for an adult passport. Children under the age of 16 can receive a child’s passport, which last for a maximum of five years and cannot be renewed.

Always check first to see if you qualify to renew your adult passport, as it is a simpler process than applying for a brand new one.

WHAT YOU NEED ON YOUR APPLICATION

There are many more requirements for a new passport than for a renewal.

The first thing all applicants need is to fill out a passport application form, which can be found online.

Then you’ll need one piece of proof of Canadian citizenship. Crucially, you have to submit original documents, not photocopies or photos, which will be returned to you once verified. Things that count as proof include a birth certificate if you were born in Canada, a Canadian citizenship certificate, a certificate of naturalization, a certificate of registration of birth abroad or a certificate of retention of Canadian citizenship.

There may also be province or territory-specific documents which can be accepted as proof of citizenship. Proof of citizenship can have either your new or old name on it if you are seeking a passport with a new name.

Aside from the proof of citizenship, you also need to provide at least one document proving your identity (more are required if you are changing your name). Documents that count include driver’s licenses, health cards, military IDs, and foreign passports, among others. These should include your name, date of birth, photo and signature, and if you have no one ID with all of these, you can submit more than one piece of ID to fill the gap as long as they have a common element to link them.

A passport application also needs two identical passport photos taken to the proper photo requirements. A detailed list of what makes an acceptable passport photo can be found on the government’s website, but many businesses offer passport photography to cut down the risk of having an improperly formatted picture.

Like with a renewal, you need two references, but you also need a single guarantor. This person can be anyone, including a family member or member of your household, as long as they fit the other requirements.

The guarantor must have known you for at least two years, be available to contact, be a Canadian citizen older than 18, have a five or 10-year Canadian passport of their own and be willing to provide their own passport information.

Your guarantor must sign your application, one of your passport photos and all copies of any supporting identity documents.

Depending on why you are applying for a new passport — such as if you want to omit your place of birth, have changed your name or are updating your gender marker — you may be required to submit other documents pertaining to those issues alongside the base requirements. Details on these extra documents can be found on the government’s website.

WHERE TO SUMBIT YOUR APPLICATION FOR A NEW PASSPORT OR RENEWAL

The process itself depends on if you are applying for a passport from within Canada or from the U.S. or abroad elsewhere. If you are outside of Canada, you may be able to apply by mail, but otherwise should inquire at the nearest Government of Canada office in the region you are in.

In Canada, there are a few different ways to process an application, and officials recommend different strategies depending on how quickly you require a passport. For far off trips greater than 26 business days or more, you can apply by mail or by either booking an appointment online at a Service Canada Centre or by just walking in if the Service Canada isn’t very busy.

However, Service Canada won’t be of any help if you need a passport acquired or renewed urgently. For those who need a passport within the next two business days, you must apply in person at a passport office — and while some Service Canada locations are consolidated and include a dedicated passport office, many passport offices are separate. A tool online can help you find a passport office near your location.

If you are applying for a new passport urgently, you must provide proof that you require it in two business days or less.

In the case of needing a passport within 3-25 days, officials recommend making an appointment at one of the 35 specialized passport service locations. You must have proof of travel or need, and you can find a list of all of these specialized passport sites in each province on the government’s website.

WHAT IT’S LIKE TRYING TO APPLY NOW

It already sounds like a lot of work, but according to reported delays, it’s particularly difficult right now to acquire or renew a passport.

Some have reported waiting in long lines at passport offices to try and file an application or renewal — something you can avoid by applying early enough in advance. If you apply at least 26 business days in advance, you can attend a Service Canada Centre instead of a specialized passport site.

But if possible, you should try to apply earlier than that to minimize the risk of delays affecting your plans.

According to Service Canada, the standard processing time for regular passport applications submitted in Canada is 10 business days when submitted in person at a passport office and 20 business days when submitted by mail or in person at a Service Canada Centre, not including mailing time.

As of April 18, Employment and Social Development Canada says the average processing time is five and 25 days respectively.

If you have submitted an application over 20 business days ago and still haven’t heard back, there is a tool to check the status of your application.

___

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Have you had to cancel travel plans due to passport processing delays? Email dotcom@bellmedia.ca.

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Mitchell throws two TD passes as Ticats earn important 37-21 home win over Redblacks

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

HAMILTON – It remains faint but Bo Levi Mitchell and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats still have a playoff pulse.

Mitchell threw two touchdown passes as Hamilton defeated the Ottawa Redblacks 37-21 in the CFL’s annual Hall of Fame game Saturday afternoon. The Ticats (4-9) earned a second straight win to move to within six points of the third-place Toronto Argonauts (7-6) in the East Division.

Hamilton visits Toronto on Friday night.

“Obviously they’re (wins) huge now,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t do ourselves any favours by getting into this position and not being able to really control our own destiny.

“But right now, we need certain people to win at certain times. Our job is to go out there and try to win the next five, then the next three after that.”

Mitchell finished 20-of-27 passing for 299 yards and an interception. He entered weekend action leading the CFL in passing yards (3,383) and TD strikes (21).

Greg Bell’s 15-yard TD run at 11:30 of the fourth and two-point convert put Hamilton up 36-21 after backup Jeremiah Masoli led Ottawa on two scoring drives. Following a 13-yard TD strike to Andre Miller at 2:53, Masoli found Dominique Rhymes on a 10-yard touchdown pass at 7:43 before Khalan Laborn’s two-point convert cut Hamilton’s lead to 29-21.

“When you’re scoring from (15) yards out on a run play, that makes offence easy,” Mitchell said. “It’s one of those things when you get down there as a quarterback, it takes you sometimes five, eight, 10 plays and now it’s ‘OK, now we have to create some stuff and find something.’

“When you hand the ball off and you’re scoring from (15) yards, it makes the offence really easy.”

Ottawa (8-4-1) would have clinched a playoff spot with a victory.

Ottawa committed six turnovers (three interceptions, two fumbles, once on downs) before an announced Tim Hortons Field gathering of 22,119. Lawrence Woods III also returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown at 11:51 of the first quarter that put Hamilton ahead 10-3.

“You’ve got to bring your best every single week and this wasn’t our best, all of us, from coaches to the players,” said Ottawa head coach Bob Dyce. “If you don’t play great for four quarters, I don’t care who you’re playing you’re not going to have a successful day.

“We should’ve made the tackle (on Woods), we had him wrapped up it’s that simple. Even though we didn’t make the play on that, there should’ve been extra bodies there to clean it up when he did break the tackle.”

Hamilton also tied the season series with Ottawa 1-1. The teams meet again at TD Place on Oct. 25.

“If we didn’t turn it over today I would’ve said we played really well offensively and that to me is what the biggest difference is,” said Hamilton head coach Scott Milanovich. “Even the turnovers today (interception, fumble), at least they were in their end and we weren’t giving them a short field.

“The biggest play of the game was Woodsie’s return. It got us jump-started, gave us the lead and we were kind of off after that.”

Ottawa starter Dru Brown was 17-of-27 passing for 164 yards and an interception. Masoli entered late in the third and finished 13-of-19 passing for 183 yards with two TDs and two interceptions, but Dyce said Brown will start next weekend against Montreal (10-2-1), which earned a 19-19 tie Saturday night with Calgary (4-8-1).

The Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s ’24 class of S.J. Green, Chad Owens, Weston Dressler, Vince Goldsmith and Vince Coleman, along with builders Ray Jauch and Ed Laverty (posthumously), was honoured at halftime. All were enshrined Friday night.

Steven Dunbar Jr. and Ante Litre had Hamilton’s other touchdowns. Marc Liegghio kicked two field goals, three converts and two singles.

Ottawa’s Lewis Ward booted two field goals and a convert.

Mitchell culminated a five-play, 96-yard march with a 20-yard TD pass to Litre at 13:34 of the third. It followed Jonathan Moxey’s interception.

Liegghio’s single at 7:05 of the third put Hamilton up 22-6.

Mitchell’s 54-yard TD strike to Dunbar at 14:18 of the second staked Hamilton to its 21-6 halftime lead. The advantage was well-deserved as the Ticats had more first downs (12-six), net offensive yards (260-144) and scored on both offence and special teams.

Mitchell was 14-of-20 passing for 210 yards and a TD, but his interception cost Hamilton at least a field-goal attempt. Dunbar had five receptions for 113 yards and the touchdown.

Brown completed 13-of-21 passes for 127 yards.

Liegghio’s missed 47-yard attempt went for the single at 12:45 to put Hamilton ahead 14-6. It followed a Kiondre Smith catch that was ruled incomplete and at the very least cost the Ticats a first down that would’ve kept the drive alive.

Ward’s 30-yard kick at 9:15 had pulled Ottawa to within 13-6.

Liegghio’s 19-yard field goal at 5:13 pushed Hamilton’s lead to 13-3. It followed the defence stopping Ottawa’s Dustin Crum on third-and-one, giving the Ticats possession at the Redblacks 40.

Liegghio’s 47-yard field goal opened the scoring at 2:42 before Ward tied in with a 24-yard boot at 8:44.

UP NEXT

Redblacks: Host the Montreal Alouettes (10-2-1) next Saturday, Sept. 21.

Tiger-Cats: Visit the Toronto Argonauts (7-6) on Friday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

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Toronto FC downs Austin FC to pick up three much-needed points in MLS playoff push

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – Needing three points to keep their playoff push alive, Toronto FC’s Jonathan Osorio and Deandre Kerr stepped up with first-half goals against Austin FC on Saturday with goalkeeper Sean Johnson doing his bit at the other end.

A 76th-minute goal by Austin’s Owen Wolff made for a nervy ending but TFC hung on for a 2-1 win.

While Toronto (11-15-3) remains on the Major League Soccer playoff bubble in eighth place in the Eastern Conference (the eighth- and ninth-place teams in each conference square off in a wild-card playoff with the winner facing the top seed in the conference), other results went their way.

Seventh-place Charlotte, 10th-place Atlanta and 11th-place Philadelphia all lost while ninth-place D.C. United tied.

Toronto midfielder Alonso Coello called it “a game we had to win.”

“It’s a big win … To see that fight tonight was important,” added coach John Herdman.

Austin (9-12-7) came into the game in 11th place in the West, two points below ninth-place Minnesota. The Texas side has won just one of its last six league games (1-4-1).

Austin outshot Toronto 7-6 (6-2 edge in shots on target) in the first half but found itself trailing 2-0 at the break as Toronto took advantage of its chances and the visitors didn’t in their first-ever visit to BMO Field, before an announced crowd of 25,538.

Toronto had a dream start, catching Austin on the counterattack in the seventh minute. A sliding Austin player dispossessed an onrushing Kerr, who had been set free by a long ball from Coello, but the ball bounced to Osorio, who beat goalkeeper Brad Stuver with a rising shot.

It was the Toronto captain’s second goal of the season in league play and his 65th for TFC in all competitions. Only Sebastian Giovinco (83) and Jozy Altidore (79) scored more in Toronto colours.

TFC went ahead on another counterattack in the 30th minute after an Austin giveaway. Osorio found Richie Laryea outpacing his marker and the wingback unselfishly sent a perfect low cross across goal for Kerr to knock home for his third of the season.

Wolff, the son of Austin head coach Josh Wolff, made it interesting with his late strike. The 19-year-old U.S. youth international, controlling a long ball, beat defender Raoul Petretta and then waited out Johnson before slotting it home for his first of the season.

Toronto survived a nervy six minutes of stoppage time as Austin pressed for the equalizer. Austin outshot Toronto 14-9 (8-3 in shots on target) and had 52.5 per cent possession.

The win evened Toronto’s home record at 7-7-0, while Austin slipped to 3-8-3 on the road.

It was a costly evening for Austin with defender Brendan Hines-Ike, midfielder Jhojan Valencia and star attacker Sebastian Driussi allpicking up cautions to miss Wednesday’s game with Los Angeles FC due to yellow-card accumulation.

Toronto defender Shane O’Neill will miss Wednesday’s game against visiting Columbus for the same reason. Toronto could be short mid-week, too. The hope is veteran centre back Kevin Long, who missed Saturday’s game after tweaking his hamstring in training, will be good to go.

Toronto has five games remaining, including three more at home as it looks to return to the post-season for the first time since 2020 when it lost to Nashville after extra time at the first hurdle.

It is a challenging road.

TFC hosts Columbus, the New York Red Bulls and Inter Miami while playing away at the Colorado Rapids and Chicago Fire. All but Chicago are in playoff positions.

The only previous meeting between Toronto and Austin was in May 2023, when Zardes scored a 91st-minute winner to give Austin a 1-0 win over visiting Toronto, which was then mired at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. That loss prompted a post-game outburst from Italian star Federico Bernardeschi about TFC’s drab play.

Then-coach Bob Bradley benched Bernardeschi for the next game.

Current coach John Herdman made four changes to his starting 11 with Bernardeschi and Osorio returning from suspension and Coello and Kerr also slotting in. Coello, who had missed the last eight league games with a hamstring injury, was impressive in his 59-minute return.

Both Toronto and Austin suffered home losses last time out going into the international break. Toronto was beaten 3-1 by D.C. United while Austin lost 1-0 to Vancouver.

—

Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

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CF Montreal finds its groove with 2-1 win over Charlotte

Published

3 hours ago

September 14, 2024

Anne Joseph

MONTREAL – CF Montreal is back in the win column after securing a 2-1 Major League Soccer win over Charlotte FC on Saturday night at Stade Saputo.

Montreal’s form had suffered of late, with just one win in MLS since July, but Laurent Courtois’ squad showed a level of poise and control over the tempo of the game that had not been seen since the beginning of the season.

“What we’ve changed in the last few weeks or months in terms of our methodology or coaching, is nothing. We did the exact thing, We had the exact same words, and we expressed them the exact same way,” said Courtois. “Today, everything just clicked.”

Caden Clark scored for the first time as a Montreal (7-12-9) player in the 23rd minute, in addition to Bryce Duke’s goal three minutes later that ended up being the winner, while Tim Ream found the back of the net for Charlotte (10-10-8).

Montreal had the first major scoring chance of the match after 15 minutes of play. With a free kick roughly 25 metres away from goal, Gabriele Corbo sent a near-perfect shot smashing off the crossbar.

Montreal would continue to dictate the tempo in the opening phase, finding first blood just seven minutes later.

Following a phenomenal triple-save from Charlotte goalkeeper Kristijan Kahlina, the ball fell to Clark who volleyed the ball into the wide-open net, picking up his first goal for the club.

“I think you don’t lose the feeling (of scoring), everything happens for a reason, you just can’t lose yourself in the chaos,” said Clark, who had missed a full season due to injury and was briefly without a club, but was grateful for Courtois’ confidence in him.

“(To have a coach’s confidence) is huge and is something I’ve had both ends of so you just can’t take advantage of that in the wrong way. I’m going to keep my discipline with the game plan and keep my head right.”

With momentum completely on their side, the home side doubled the lead just three minutes later. Montreal continued to build up play on the left flank and found a streaking Raheem Edwards in behind the defence who cut the ball back to Duke, sending the Stade Saputo crowd into a frenzy.

Just after the half-hour mark, Charlotte pulled one back through a set piece — something Montreal has struggled defending all season — as Ream rose above everyone at the back post to score his first with his new club.

The second half began in a similar fashion to the end of the first, with Charlotte pressing high up the pitch and forcing several turnovers in dangerous areas. After surviving the pressure, Montreal began to regain control of the game near the hour mark, enjoying the lion’s share of the possession while Charlotte looked to hit back on the counterattack.

“I think when we conceded that goal we were like ‘here we go again.’ 2-1 is a tough lead before halftime … and at the beginning of the half we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and they pressed a bit more, they moved a bit more forward and that opened some gaps,” said captain Samuel Piette.

“I was happy with that, it shows character. At the end of the day, we just wanted the three points and that’s what we got.”

As the game progressed, Charlotte pushed harder to find an equalizer but to no avail. With only one shot on target conceded, the second-worst defence in the league put up an impressive front and confidently rebuffed every single Charlotte attack.

“I’m a big fan of the back five’s performance in their discipline, competitiveness, and synchronization with balls in behind,” said Courtois.

“We can’t explain sometimes in a game it’s not there, they’re capable and today they showed it. Let’s see tomorrow.”

UP NEXT

Both teams are back in action on Sept. 18 away from home as Montreal will look to avenge a 5-0 rout against the New England Revolution while Charlotte visits Orlando City SC.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 14, 2024.

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