Expedite Canadian passport?

Does anyone know where these folk are located? The previous poster said that they were with him/her in Toronto and I cannot find a link to them.

did anyone resolve what problem, and where are which folks located?

Answering a few questions:

-> the service I used was Certificates Express, they are based in Toronto. I'll try to post the link hopefully it works:

http://www.certificatesexpress.com/passports/index.php

Like I said, they were excellent and fast, but it cost an extra few hundred dollars and in the end they didn't do anything I couldn't have done if I knew how.

Basically, here was the process they led me through:

(1) I faxed them my filled-in application two weeks before the appointment, they checked it over for problems (there were none);

(2) I got a letter from my company saying I needed to fly back to the US the next day and I needed my passport immediately for business reasons, and I had a return plane ticket for same (actually it was an e-ticket so I printed the itinerary);

(3) I gathered the required stuff (birth certificate, old passport, etc.);

(4) I needed a passport photo with my face and notary signature as per the app requirements, however the photo quality was irrelevant since we didn't actually use this photo (see below) -- in fact, I used the photo that Passport Canada had already rejected;

(5) I flew to Toronto for my appointment, we showed up at the passport office downtown Toronto at 7:20 a.m. and waited in line, at around 7:45 we got a number for when the office opened;

(6) we then went to the photographer whose office is right there, and he took a perfect passport photo and got it developed right away, this was the one that went in my passport;

(7) went up to the office, our number was called at around 8:30, we handed over all our crap, did our thing with the guy, and left;

(8) we came back around noon to pick up my passport, showed ID and the claim stub, and that was it.


-> yes, if you make one tiny mistake in your passport application or photo, they reject the whole thing and send it back to you without warning or giving you a chance to fix it.

This is actually preferable to at least one alternative, where they keep your "incomplete" file in some remote office someplace. So if their bureaucratic incompetence gets to you, and you decide to do it in person at your local passport office, you have to wait an extra couple of weeks while this remote office sends your file to your office!

FYI, I had to renew my son's passport a few months after mine. We sent it off around September and it came back in mid-November, about 2 weeks "early", which is to say before the "worst case" date the list on their website. I think that was 10 weeks at that time. So 8 weeks to renew a passport by mail. still ridiculous but at least it was done.

This was after the nightmare I went through to get mine done, where they rejected everything and I ended up spending $1500 to fly to Toronto and do it in person.

This time I paid the extra money for a professional photographer to take the pictures. And this time I knew to look for microscopic shadows and teeth and reflections and wayward strands of hair and all the other excuses Passport Canada uses to reject photos.

Found a private company that is the third the price of certificates and gives the best service. They seem like a big company and are located in Ottawa, which means they are in the city where the passports come from. The company is call passporthelp.ca and do everything for 99 bucks! They rock! got us our passport in no time.

-- Tue Apr 28, 2009 10:55 pm --

I found another company like express, except they do everything for 99 bucks! Forget about using the Canadian government services; that is enough to make you want to give up your Canadian citizenship. Passporthelp.ca totally rocks and has also helped out all my friends. Very happy that free enterprise is alive and well in Canada.
Desert Boy

You would NOT believe the amount of trouble I had to go through just to get back to Canada. I was in the US and my passport ended up expiring and they wouldn't let me come back even though it was just under a week expired!! So I contacted passporthelp and my application got rejected and nobody even called me back after all the messages I left.. I tried a couple times afterwards and I googled online to see if there was a lawyer or something that would help me but nothing except other private companies which i was NOT going to use again. So I tried calling the consulate and nobody got back to me.. I sucked it up and called my mom who recommended a private company even though I told her what happened to the last one and she said that she used them to get her citizenship card and passport replaced and they were really fast and good. Even though I was skeptical I called them anyway. It was Certificate Express and they charge $200 but my mom paid for it so I didn't really mind.. anyway, the girl (i think her name was anna or something i am bad with names) at certificate express was so nice to me and she really helped me get everything right and done so I could come back. a trip that was only supposed to be a couple weeks long ended up being 5 months!! anyway, i would recommend certificate express for sure!