Canadian Passport for newborn - any experience?

C

canadienne

Registered User
Hi all,
Would anyone be willing to share their experience, advice, etc., on Canadian passports for newborns? The website seems to indicate that it will take 15 business days after we've applied for the certificate of citizenship. It also seems to hint that passports will only be given before the cert. of citizenship is issued if you are in an "emergency" situation -- even though the certificate is supposed to take 14 months or so.

Anyway, I am dreading a 14-month wait for the baby's passport and hoping someone has some good news for me! Please share your experiences.

Thanks!
C.
 
when my daughter was 4 weeks old i decided to take her to canada (nothing applied for yet) because my grandmother was VERY sick.

i took both applications in on the same day. i showed them my tickets and told them the situation. they said that they couldn't guarantee that i'd get the "real" passport in time (they had 5 or 7 working days, i can't remember). they said if it didn't come in time that they could issue a special white passport that is good for a single journey (costs a lot, though).

as it turned out, i got the passport the day before we were to leave.

the consulate staff were FANTASTIC and took care of everything.

once the application for the citizenship card is made (you don't have to wait for them to issue the card) you can apply for the passport. the passport they give you is only valid for 1 year. when you receive the card, THEN you take the passport and they will extend it by a further 2 years (they just put a sticker in it).
 
I was told that I should apply for both the citizenship certificate and the passport at the same time and that the passport would take about a month but would only be good for a year, after which I would have to start the whole process over again (and pay for again too). They `hinted` at the emergency situation condition because it`s not really enforced. They ask for a date of travel on the passport application and you can supply them with your air tickets, but it`s not absolutely necessary and would probably just delay it a bit since it wouldn`t be `priority`.
I decided not to do it and just went for the citizenship certificate because luckily my son is also Japanese (whose passport policies are a lot friendlier than our country`s) so we just got him that one instead. But as soon as I receive his Canadian citizenship after he`s 14 months old, I`ll be going for his Can. passport.
 
We applied for the citizenship and passport at the same time (my daughter was about 2 months old) - we had plans to travel and supplied an itinerary at the time of application. The temporary passport took the usual amount of time (something like 3 weeks) and was good for one year. I recently had to get the passport renewed as we are currently in Canada and the passport would have expired before we return. This was pretty straight forward as well, again I supplied an itinerary. I did receive the citizenship certificate before the 14 months - it took about 10 months. So, I'll have to re-apply for a new passport when the temporary one expires. A few trips to the passport office, but really pretty straight forward.
 
yes, you can apply for them at the same time, but if memory serves me correctly, they will call you up for the citizenship application first... then you wait a little longer and they will call you up for the passport.

if your child's FIRST passport is only valid for a year... you JUST apply for an extension... they grant it for 2 more years... THEN you apply for a new passport.

i have done this with both of my kids.
 
I applied for my son's passport and citizen card on the same day. We were traveling to Bali for a vacation and that was a good enough reason for them to issue the passport before the citizen card was issued. It only took 15 days for the passport and the passport is good for three years. We did this in June 2009. We had no trouble with any of it. Was easy and staff was helpful.
 
you apply for them both at the same time and you get them at separate times...i got my daughter's canadian citizenship card when she was 11mths and haven't received her passport yet (she's 16mths) since I didn't have any plans to travel so I didn't think of asking for the passport sooner....gosh, why are they SO slow?!? I thought it was a misprint..."Weeks" instead of "months"...the process is straightforward though...you get all the forms from their website.
 
it should only take a few weeks for the passport... if i were you, leslie, i'd be calling the consulate tomorrow morning!
 
Where do I go to apply for my newborn's passport and citizenship and what is the website that you got the forms from? Thanks for any help you can give me. Also what do I need to apply for her citizenship and passport?
 
if you google canadian consulate hong kong, you'll get the website. from there just have a look for passport services. everything is on there as is a list attached to every form detailing what you need.
 
I've just revewed my own passport in Dec2009 and asked about applying a passport for my son. The staff there had mentioned that new policies was enforced in Apr2009 limits Canadian citizenship to the First Generation of children born outside Canada to Canadian citizens. Because of this, tighter policies & longer processing times for newborn applications.

You can apply for both citizenship card and passport at the same time but the staff said they generally issue the citizenship card first (usually child is 12months+) then the passport (usually valid for 1yr). Of course she mentioned that there are special cases where they may issue passports before citizenship cards.

She also mentioned that if I was in a hurry to travel an alternative is to apply for a HKSAR passport since my boy was born in HK, he's entitled to one. The leadtime for a HKSAR passport is about 2weeks.
 
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