Description
To meet immediate needs of Canadians, Passport Canada has introduced the temporary passport, a highly secure and internationally respected travel document.
The temporary passport is an eight-page, machine-readable passport issued by a Canadian Mission for urgent, proven travel situations or residency requirements. It is not intended to replace a regular, diplomatic or special passport; it is designed for interim use only. The decision regarding issuance of a temporary passport lies solely with the Government of Canada Passport/Consular officer.
The temporary passport features a white cover, a bio-data page, four visa pages, a digitized image of the bearer and various security features.
A white cover? It looks pretty fake. But why did I need one? It's a silly story: A month ago I saw that my passport was getting dangerously close to that six month expiration time. Most countries will not allow you beyond immigration if your passport expires in less than six months. I thought, now is the time to renew and get a new one. I filled out the passport application form, collected my requirements, and took everything to the Canadian Embassy in Manila. According to the application the embassy requires 15 working days to get your new passport to you. I checked my calendar and noticed I wasn't leaving the country again until 20 workings days. So with this knowledge I knew the embassy had plenty of time to get my new passport to me.
Within 10 workings days I was called by the embassy informing me that 'there's a strong possibility the passport will not arrive within the 15 working days. There is also a strong possibility it will not arrive within 20 working days.'
'But I'm leaving the country in 20 working days,' I said.
'No worry sir, we can offer you a temporary passport for your travels
'But,' I asked. 'Why should I have to pay when it's not my fault the new passport is going to be late? And where is the real passport?'
The consular replied, 'It's policy sir and your new passport is still currently somewhere in Ottawa.'
currently somewhere in Ottawa.
I was asked to 'wait and see' because there was a slim chance the real passport would arrive in time. A week later I got another call from the embassy. They told me the passport has left Ottawa and will arrive in Manila on the Saturday - the day I'm leaving the country. I got excited because my flight wasn't until the evening so there was plenty of time to pick up the passport. Guess what? The embassy is closed on Saturdays so although the passport would be sitting there screaming out my name there was absolutely so way I could pick it up. The solution: the damn white fake looking temporary passport. I went to the embassy the next day and sat in the waiting room listening to the same four Lorreena McKennitt songs played over and over. My number flashed on the screen and I walked in the consular office. I grumpily paid the 70 dollars Canadian and within 30 minutes received my temporary passport. 30 minutes! You can get a temporary passport in 30 minutes but a real passports takes almost a month. Doesn't seem right does it? I left the embassy and wondered if the two countries I was going to, Thailand and Singapore would give me a hard time with this crazy cartoon passport. What ended up happening? Well, amazingly enough, everything went fine. Thailand let me pass through immigration with no problem. Singapore, on the other hand, held me back for 10 minutes while they tried to figure out if the temporary passport was allowed. Eventually, none of them could decide so they just let me through (thankfully it wasn't, 'none of them could decide so they just threw me into a prison cell).
My trips to Thailand and Singapore were amazing experiences. I'll be posting blogs about both in the coming weeks.
As I type this I have my shiny new REAL passport sitting beside me. It's a beautiful thing!
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