You can now get your passport within 10 days at the Surrey office
Thankfully the days of standing in long queues for days to get your passport are gone. The South Surrey Service Canada Centre just announced that it is making passport services even quicker.
The centre is now offering a 10-day turnaround time for those in urgent need. This is a new initiative from Service Canada that is now available at specialized offices and 20 Centres in the country.
You can avail of this service by applying on-site at offices offering express or urgent pick-up services including the South Surrey Centre located at 103-15295 Highway 10.
The passport will then be ready within 10 business days and can either be mailed to the receiver’s address or picked up from the office. Applicants will have to pay an additional fee for the expedited services.
The Sinclair Centre in Vancouver. Photo credit: Luis War/Shutterstock
This service is an extended and quicker version of the regular 20-day service by Service Canada Centres.
This move is believed to “relieve the pressure on the passport office in the Surrey Central City Shopping Centre,” according to Karina Gould, minister of families, children and social development.
“We are confident that this will help address the needs of Canadians in the Surrey region.”
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This move comes after Canadian passport offices faced an overwhelming demand from citizens who were in need of services post the slow pandemic spell.
Other centres offering the 10-day service include:
- Prince George, British Columbia
- Lac-Mégantic, Quebec
- Gaspé, Quebec
- Saint-Georges, Quebec
- Timmins, Ontario
- Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec
- Dryden , Ontario
Last year in May, the passport offices saw days-long queues. One TikToker even documented their 17-hour-long wait outside the Vancouver Sinclair Centre to apply for a file transfer. Another Tiktoker, @kenzo9999_, documented their three-day-long wait outside a Surrey passport office.
@kenzo9999_ Canada is killing it right now ☺️
That is not all. Many professional “line standers” popped up on online marketplaces offering to stay overnight in queues for as high as $800.
In the last fiscal year, Service Canada issued 3.35 million passports according to the Passport Program statistics. Since April 1, 2023, the office has already issued almost one million of them.
Now you can also check the real-time status of your application by visiting the Passport Application Status Checker.
What do you think about this new service by Service Canada? Tell us in the comments.