Thanks Canadian Government!!
 

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 :ak47:

Thanks for listening to my rant.

DH

that fucking SUCKS dude - you should write a letter to your MP with the names of the gov't employees who did that to you - they should be FIRED.

Call your MP and your passport will be ready for you in the morning...

They dont fuck around.

oh, man. That bites. :(

Yep, totally. They like to be nice once in a while. I think they get just as frustrated with the system as we lowly citizens do.

Some government offices and employees seem to forget that their job exists for the BETTERMENT of society, not so they can feed their ego by taking a little power trip. They are there to SERVE, not torment.

Get your MP to send that office a little reminder of that.

I went through a similar situation trying to get passports for my kids. It took me 5 months and $7,500 bucks in lawyers and gov't fees to get them. We only got them 2 days before we were scheduled to leave.

I am so sorry to hear of your loss.

Yes DH sorry for your loss and best to the family.

Sorry to hear man ! My condolences.........

Sorry about your grandmother :(

government employees are the worst

Sorry to hear about your grandmother, it really sucks that you missed the funeral. The Canadian bureaucracy needs changing in a bad way. A friend of mine just moved here from Costa Rica and her son missed a YEAR of school because he was waiting for immigration papers. He actually went to school for a week and they kicked him out because of it. It was a really shitty thing to do to a 10 year old little boy who just wanted to be with the other kids.

Bad news dude. Sorry about your troubles.

Lesson learned for all of us. Renew your passport 6 months before it expires.

And getting help from an MP a week after an election is not a slam dunk.

:(

Sorry about your loss DH :(
doesn't matter where you live bureaucracy is everywhere with bitches like you met :mad:

I think most civil servants exist solely for the joy of fucking us over whenever the "regs" say they can.

Sorry to hear about your grandmother DH. Its hardly even worth trying to travel anyplace these days. :(

Maybe they thought you were a terrorist.

They blame all the fucked up new government rules in the U.S. on terrorism now.

damn that sucks ass

Sorry about your loss Mark..yea our government is totally anal sometimes :(

Rant away - bud.

I lost my Canadian birth certificate and it's quite the pain to get another.

Ever since 911 - don't lose your ID in Canada.
grrrrr ...

Sorry about your grandmother, and sorry you had to deal with unsympathetic bitches like that lady.

Just take care you always have a valid passport. Sounds more like you fucked up.

sorry to hear that bro... bureaucracy sucks big time

holy shwitz DH , sorry to hear that garbage happened to yah ... yep thats our system for you !!