Sun Jul 22, 2007 4:36 am
I had to renew mine in February, after a couple of visits to photo stores advertising 'passport photos done here while you wait' type malarky, they finally refered me to visit the Kodak photo store in the same shopping centre. Went there & yes they do international passport photos but we need to make an apointment with their professional photographer the following day. Brought in the print offs about photo specifications from the Canadian Passport website which he used to double check that his info was correct. Took about 10 minutes for the photos to be taken, and they asked for 45 minutes while developing the photos (was a digital camera so I'm guessing they were refering to downloading to the computer & then making size adjustments or something prior to printing). They hand wrote the Kodak shops address and signed & dated one of the prints. Cost was £50! Ouch!
In any case, used my local GP for the notary/official but they charge a fee for it (I'd been going to that GP for the last 3 years, think the doctor needs to know you for 2+years) and asked for 3 working days to have the forms completed by the GP. cost? £25! Double ouch!
Finally sent all the forms off with photos old passport birth certificate proof of Canadian citizenship (I was born outside Canada) and all the other malarky they asked for including bank card authorization to take payment part of the form completed. Sent the package at the local post store and opted for the more secure 'signed for' delivery to the London based Canadian Embassy, cost was about £7 (for the weight/size and signature required) if I remember correctly.
Took a week for the Canadian embassy to take their passport fee payment from my bank and another 2 weeks for them to send back all the original documents (old passport with Visa in it. think you need to check off something in the forms requesting its return?) and shiny new passport so all in all was about a month from start to finish.
I LOVE KD
