"Pent-up travel demand": Massive lineups spotted at Vancouver's passport office
If you need to renew your passport, you’ll want to pack a lunch, as long lineups have been seen in recent days at Vancouver’s Service Canada passport services office.
Its website shows the wait time at nearly four hours as of 11 am Monday to speak to someone at the Sinclair Centre on Hastings Street, one of just a few locations in Metro Vancouver offering an alternative to mailing their application forms in.
Someone on Reddit noted that the lineup was about 200 people long.
It seems like things have picked up since Christmas, with many noting that it’s been much busier in January than they expected. People have been lining up as early as 6 am, more than two hours before the office opens, to get their applications processed before lunchtime.
“I was in the line last week as well. Same amount of people. Application was submitted at 12, so took 3:30. Not the worst,” one person said.
Another noted that if you hadn’t gotten a number by lunchtime, there was no guarantee you would speak with someone by the end of the day.
For many, it’s one of the few spots to go in person in hopes of getting their passport back fast.
“Doesn’t surprise me, there’s pent-up travel demand. When I tried to get Mexican peso in November, the guy said they ran out of 20 bills long ago,” one person wrote.
According to the website, if you have no travel date, there are no appointments available for you.
However, if you are travelling soon, you are encouraged to visit one of the specialized passport offices in Canada in person. You can make an appointment, but as of Monday, the earliest appointment date is in March for the office in Victoria. No appointments were available at the Surrey, Richmond, or Vancouver offices.
While many have complained about the long waits to renew, it doesn’t appear that there are delays once you’ve applied to get the documents.
“It ebbs and flows and hard to predict how long the lines will be — I went to the Service Canada location in Coquitlam in November, and walked right up to the counter — in and out in 20 minutes, and got my passport in two weeks,” another person suggested.
If you aren’t travelling soon, your best bet is likely to just mail in your application form, experts suggest.
Daily Hive
Daily Hive has reached out to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada for details and will update this story when that information becomes available.
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