So i hear some bad news yesterday, my grandmother in Dublin Ireland just passed away. Very sweet lady and she lead a wonderful long life. I decide that I am going to fly out on Wednesday night to attend the funeral which is on Thursday morning. I arrange for a last minute flight which costed $1100
Only one problem... My passport just expired 3 weeks ago. So I decide to go down to the passport office in Toronto to get an emergency passport renewal. So I stayed up all night last night so I could be at the passport office (an hour away) first thing today.
I get there 20 minutes after they open 8:20am, and there is already a lineup out the door of the mall where the office is located. So I wait an hour and a half in line to finally get to a person who tells me that my birth certificate is invalid because she can't see the first letter of my last name on my birth certificate (the one side of the document is a little ruffled). However my registration number and certificate number are totally legible and I also have with me my expired passport, valid drivers license and guarantor documents certifitying who I am. Plus 6 other forms of ID.
The clerk would not accept the birth certificate as a valid form of ID! She said I would have to get another birth certificate, which would make me have to drive to the other side of Toronto and have to get ANOTHER guarantor plus spend another $85. So I would have to drive home (an hour away), get my guarantor to sign this other document and fill all the paperwork out. Then drive an hour back to the birth certificate office (another hour) with no guarantee I would get the birth certificate that day. (I was supposed to fly out tonite). Then drive back to the passport office and show them the new birth certificate with my FULL last name. This passport office bitch crossed her arms and was a total and absolute ***!! I even explained to her the necessity of the passport and my grandmother passing away. She didn't give one shit...
Anyways after no sleep for 30 hours and total and absolute frustration I decided to throw my cards in and give up. Just would like to thank the Canadian government for making me miss my grandmother's funeral and wasting a bunch of my time and money. I can't believe the systems they have in place for simple passport renewals, absolute bullshit. It's not like I didn't already have a passport and was applying for one! Just a renewal!!! I am going to contact my Member of Parliament and let him know my frustrations
Thanks for listening to my rant.
DH