Here is how I went about getting Drake's passport.
In Canada, babies under the age of 3 can get a passport for $22 CAD and is valid for 3 years.
Fill out the application form: It is pretty straight forward, only two pages. One parent can be the applicant on behalf of the baby and the other parent (or relative) can be the guarantor. Baby passports don't need a signature, I almost accidentally signed the signature box on Drake's behalf.
Birth Certificate: One of the required document for Drake's passport application is his birth certificate with our birth information. The certificate can be ordered online which was a disastrous experience. Greg (yes, he is taking the fall for this one) filled and submitted the online form with the wrong birth province, his own birth province. I thought I just had to pay the fee and submit the online form again to receive the birth certification with the right information. When I received the new certificate, it still had the wrong province on it. Apparently the form can only be submitted once and that one was the one that counted. There was no changing it online due to security reasons but when I ordered it the second time there was no prompt to warn me that the information I entered was different from the first one to stop me from paying second time for the wrong information. To correct the situation, Greg had to pay for a notarized copy of his birth certificate and pay a change fee. Finally a $27 certificate cost us almost $100.
Passport photo: Not every passport photo shop will do infants (ie: Costco). Walmart and Sears will do passport photo for infants. We went to Lens and Shutter in downtown Vancouver. The photographer laid Drake down on a white mat on the ground. He took quite a few shots since Drake decided he was going to put up a fight and not make this easy. The best one out of the bunch had Drake not looking straight at the camera (not to mention it is a bad picture of, in my none-bias opinion, my very photo generic and cute baby which is proof that no one takes good looking passport photos). I was a bit concerned whether the passport office would accept them. The photographer said they tend to be more lenient with babies. Besides, if they were not accepted Lens and Shutter would retake for free. Cost: $9.99 CAD plus tax.
Trip to the Passport office: the Downtown Vancouver passport office opens at 7:30AM. I was there right at 7:30 hoping I didn't have to wait too long. Apparently everyone else had the same idea. There were at least 40 people ahead of me and I had to wait about 45 minutes for my turn. They did accept Drake's passport photos. Phew.
Two weeks later the passport was delivered to me at home via Canada Post.
In Canada, babies under the age of 3 can get a passport for $22 CAD and is valid for 3 years.
Fill out the application form: It is pretty straight forward, only two pages. One parent can be the applicant on behalf of the baby and the other parent (or relative) can be the guarantor. Baby passports don't need a signature, I almost accidentally signed the signature box on Drake's behalf.
Birth Certificate: One of the required document for Drake's passport application is his birth certificate with our birth information. The certificate can be ordered online which was a disastrous experience. Greg (yes, he is taking the fall for this one) filled and submitted the online form with the wrong birth province, his own birth province. I thought I just had to pay the fee and submit the online form again to receive the birth certification with the right information. When I received the new certificate, it still had the wrong province on it. Apparently the form can only be submitted once and that one was the one that counted. There was no changing it online due to security reasons but when I ordered it the second time there was no prompt to warn me that the information I entered was different from the first one to stop me from paying second time for the wrong information. To correct the situation, Greg had to pay for a notarized copy of his birth certificate and pay a change fee. Finally a $27 certificate cost us almost $100.
Passport photo: Not every passport photo shop will do infants (ie: Costco). Walmart and Sears will do passport photo for infants. We went to Lens and Shutter in downtown Vancouver. The photographer laid Drake down on a white mat on the ground. He took quite a few shots since Drake decided he was going to put up a fight and not make this easy. The best one out of the bunch had Drake not looking straight at the camera (not to mention it is a bad picture of, in my none-bias opinion, my very photo generic and cute baby which is proof that no one takes good looking passport photos). I was a bit concerned whether the passport office would accept them. The photographer said they tend to be more lenient with babies. Besides, if they were not accepted Lens and Shutter would retake for free. Cost: $9.99 CAD plus tax.Two weeks later the passport was delivered to me at home via Canada Post.
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