If you weren't married when your child was born and you need to get a passport...

[mivvers]

Hi everyone.
Went today to the passport office in Kitchener to get passports for my kids to have for the cruise (December 8 Wonder) Our DD was born in 94, we got married in 97, and DS was born later that same year.

Even though we all have the same last name, they would not process my DD's form with her regular birth certificate because my husband and I weren't married at the time of her birth. Instead, I need to get a long-form birth certificate that lists both our names on it (for $35 + $15 to expedite, it normally takes 4-6 weeks) from the Registrar General's office in Thunder Bay. I have to get a guarantor to sign this form as well, which I then need to fax to Thunder Bay, and then I'll receive a copy in the mail a week later. By this time, I will also need to pay an additional fee so that the passport itself can be expedited, since the cruise is less than a month away.

I am so angry! And hurt!

I could understand it if my DD had a different last name, or if we still weren't married, but this is ridiculous. A $35 child's passport will now be costing us $100. And yet they processed our son's no problem! And the funny thing is, they look identical in their pictures.

Sorry for such a long message, but I just wanted to let anyone in a similar situation know about this so that you can be saved all the hassle from the folks at the Canada Passport Office.

Maureen

 

[Scratch42]

It's amazing how they are sticklers for people who are born in Canada but others ......?!?!?!?

One of life's mysteries.

Scratch

 

[PoohBWV]

Stuff like this frustrates me to no end!!! Do they really think your child who is obviously yours is not a Canadian? I'm afraid I would have lost my patience and temper.

 

[mivvers]

Thanks for your replies, Scratch42 and PoohBWV. I've calmed down a little bit (bit still not much!).

They want the long-form birth certificate to prove that my DH fathered her (since we weren't married at the time). Her regular bc was issued four months after she was born, and obviously, she has his last name. We got married when I was four mos. pregnant with my son, and they were able to process his no problem. Is that not ridiculous!!!!

It's a cash grab, if you ask me, and nowhere on the instructions for a child's passport is this listed. grrrrrr..... We got our lawyer to guarantee the application for the long-form certificate and have faxed it to Thunder Bay, so we *should* have the form sent by registered mail next week. Then I can go back to passport office and pay them extra $$ to speed the process up. Nice.

At least we'll be at the Magic Kingdom three weeks from today!

 

[CdnMom2]

Thanks so much for posting your experience! I never knew about that and I feel for you.

We JUST decided to forgo the passports for our 4 kids (3 -- all ours, but before we were married) after a SNAFU at Sears. We picked up our Theme Park Passes from Sears Thursday eve & got the FREE passport photo vouchers for all 6 of us. Nice savings: 6 x 14.99 + taxes. Walked to photo dept next door and they told us no appt necessary, getting busy with Xmas photo packages, weekday eve least busy. Arrive with 4 kids Monday eve and find out clerk broke camera 20 minutes earlier. New camera not arriving until Friday at earliest! Only Sears in town. We're cutting it pretty short for getting our passports now as a drive to Toronto twice is a logistical nightmare for us before we leave. The Passport Mailing policy is "we try to get in mail back to you by 20 WORKING days" & with Xmas mailing season it looks pretty tight. Although I was appreciating the $ saved with our decision to forgo getting them I was anxious over not having them.

Now I feel a lot better about our decision. I never realized we'd have the extra cash grab you're talking about times 3! I just have normal Birth Certificates on my kids. These list their last names as they always have been & still are -- my husband's. I changed my name to his when we got married a year after the birth of our 3rd.
Does your DD's Birth Certificate have your maiden name on it?

Sorry to hear about the extra hassle & expense for you. Have a great cruise!

 

[mivvers]

Hi Cdnmom2, thanks for your reply. It's a good thing you aren't going on a cruise too, because the kids HAVE to have passports, or else I'd be foregoing them for sure! I wanted to warn others in the same boat because it's just so completely ludicrous, and I have not been able to find any information on the government's website.

My daughter does have both my maiden name and my husband's last name on her bc (in that order, but not hyphenated). You would think that the signature of our guarantor (our family doctor, who has known us since before she was born) would be sufficient. Why go to the trouble to get one then???

Hope I save someone else this headache! And I hope you have a wonderful family holiday!!!!