Competitive jiu-jitsu athlete receives passport after family speaks out

A competitive jiu-jitsu athlete from Delta, BC, finally got a new passport last week after her father shared his frustrations with Daily Hive about the six-month delay.

Vincent Leelin applied for new passports for himself, his wife, and his daughter Sybila in mid-July, thinking he had plenty of time before the 14-year-old’s fall competitions got underway.

A note on the door of the Burnaby Service Canada advised them not to make travel plans on or before November 17. Fine, Vincent thought, because Sybila’s first competition wasn’t until late November.

But the competition came and went, and there was still no passport for Sybila — even though her parents received theirs on November 20 and 21.

“That’s a lot for a child. I mean, go through all that [training]. And the next thing you know, there’s only one that’s holding you back, which is your passport.”

Vincent came to Daily Hive in January, more than six months after he submitted Sybila’s passport application. He’d followed up with the federal government and had to cancel Sybila’s December competition, too. He wasn’t sure if he should register her for the next one in late January.

Sybila was ranked first among other jiu-jitsu athletes in her bracket this summer, but after missing the November and December meets, her rank dropped to fifth.

“She trains three to four days a week. She’s taken home a lot of gold for Canada, but … one of the major reasons holding [her] back is a travel document. It just gets very frustrating,” Vincent said.

When he contacted Service Canada, all they could say was that her application was still being processed and that they could transfer it to the passport centre in Surrey.

When Daily Hive asked Employment and Social Development Canada about the delay, things appeared to speed up. Daily Hive contacted the bureau on January 4 and, on January 6, received an email from a spokesperson that Sybila’s new passport had been approved and was ready for pickup that same day.

Vincent confirmed a representative contacted him on January 6 about the new passport. While he’s happy the family can finally cross the border, he doesn’t think it should take a news article to get a child’s travel document.

“We deeply regret the circumstances that resulted in the inconvenience to this client as a result of this situation,” an Employment and Social Development spokesperson told Daily Hive. “While the timeliness of passport processing has improved over the fall and winter, our teams continued to work through a backlog of applications such as this one over this period as well, and as a result, this application has fallen well outside our standards.”

Long waits for passports became common as demand for travel surged after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. Passport offices underwent pandemic layoffs, but requests for passports rebounded this spring and summer before staffing levels were back to normal. Some people reported waiting multiple days in line for a new passport, while some entrepreneurial individuals charged hundreds to hold a spot in line.

Online, other parents are also complaining about long waits for children’s passports.

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Bonnie Cheng said she submitted her daughter’s application in August and is still waiting for the passport — even though an adult application she submitted at the same time already came through.

Marco Roy submitted his 13-year-old son’s application for a new passport in March 2022, and although he’s got his original documents back, there’s still no passport in sight. He hopes his son will receive it in time for a cruise planned in May.

Some people have also taken to the government’s official channels to complain.

Staffing levels are now back to normal, and passport applications submitted in person after October 3 are processed within 10 business days 98% of the time. But there’s still a backlog in the applications submitted before October 3, the government admits.

The government notes child passports cannot be renewed — a guardian must apply for a new passport when the old one expires, and each application is assessed separately. New passport applications also take more time than adult renewals.

“The high application volume in the first half of 2022, combined with the health and safety measures in place, led to a build-up of inventory that exceeded our capacity to process applications within service standards,” the spokesperson said. “all efforts continue to be made to process applications received prior to October 3, including having dedicated resources processing these applications.”