By La Cavaleuse
As much as I would like it to change, I’m a real scatterbrain. I have a hard time getting focused on several projects at the same time. Between full-time work and planning a trip, there is always one of the two projects that ends up being a little neglected. All that to say that this story is not among the most glorious! I’m going to tell it as if the person to whom it happened was my friend… question of getting rid of myself.
Somewhere 5 years ago…
On a beautiful summer day, one of my friends calls me to tell me that her passport has expired a week ago, but that she has to fly in 5 hours. On a Saturday! The battle was already lost, will you say! Bye bye, the all-inclusive trip to Cuba (it was her first trip with her darling, who had never flown, a very nice way to start his life as a traveller). She then tells me that she managed to reach the emergency office for Canadians abroad (it is possible to contact this office to ask for help when you get a glitch at abroad). The officers told her they would contact her soon to see what they could do. Given that patience is not her greatest virtue, my friend asks me to take her to the airport: she would try everything for the whole and see what she could do on the spot, pending the return of her call. She thought she would not be the first person not to have checked her passport before leaving, right? Maybe there was a resource for passengers like her?
Surprise! The man from the information office has already met travellers who also had an expired passport. He therefore recommends my friend to visit a passport office in Ville Saint-Laurent that was open on Saturday. Luck!
On our way there, my friend gets a call from the Canadian emergency office abroad. She was told to go to the Ville Saint-Laurent passport office. The place seemed to be the same as the one where we were already heading…
Ups! The office does not print passports. Why, then, were we told to come to this place? Talking with the security guard, my friend finally learns that there are two different passport offices. Who knows, maybe, at the other office, a secret agent prints passports on Saturdays? She has nothing to lose, apart from her trip…
« On a beautiful summer day, one of my friends calls me to tell me that her passport has expired a week ago, but that she has to fly in 5 hours. »
Surprise! The man from the information office has already met travellers who also had an expired passport. He therefore recommends my friend to visit a passport office in Ville Saint-Laurent that was open on Saturday. Luck!
On our way there, my friend gets a call from the Canadian emergency office abroad. She was told to go to the Ville Saint-Laurent passport office. The place seemed to be the same as the one where we were already heading…
Ups! The office does not print passports. Why, then, were we told to come to this place? Talking with the security guard, my friend finally learns that there are two different passport offices. Who knows, maybe, at the other office, a secret agent prints passports on Saturdays? She has nothing to lose, apart from her trip…
« On a beautiful summer day, one of my friends calls me to tell me that her passport has expired a week ago, but that she has to fly in 5 hours. »
Arrived on the spot, we find ourselves in front of a dark building that seems completely closed … The security guard of the building confirms that there is, indeed, an emergency weekend officer. Ye!!! Finally, we met this person – who takes great care in making my friend feel real stupid! After some questions and $300 later, my friend comes out, triumphant, with a beautiful new passport.
At the airport, my friend and her boyfriend can finally relax after this crazy race that lasted a little more than 3 hours… Believing their worries were finally over, they ended up boarding… without knowing that this was only the beginning of their adventure. No matter, this will be another story!
The moral of this story? Always check your passport. An emergency passport costs a little more than expected (just over $300). Yes, you can contact the Canadian office abroad. The people at the airport can still help us, but it is a bit surprising that they do not know this information…
