So, we have our trip booked for end of January- and we get our passports in the mail this week. So whats the first thing i do when i get my 6 year old daughters? Void the entire thing by signing it myself! To top it off, this means a 10 hour round trip jaunt to the nearest passport office to reapply in person- plus an entire day of standing in lines, and a day off work for my husband. I cried for 1/2 an hour and even now can barely believe how dumb I am. This better turn out okay!:crying:

I'm sorry. I wish I knew more to say to help, but I don't. It will be ok, just get it done soon so that it will be done. Good luck!

So, we have our trip booked for end of January- and we get our passports in the mail this week. So whats the first thing i do when i get my 6 year old daughters? Void the entire thing by signing it myself! To top it off, this means a 10 hour round trip jaunt to the nearest passport office to reapply in person- plus an entire day of standing in lines, and a day off work for my husband. I cried for 1/2 an hour and even now can barely believe how dumb I am. This better turn out okay!:crying:

Oh! I am so sorry . . . and don't feel alone, we have all done "dumb" things that we want to kick ourselves over and over for.

Any hey . . .you can't be all that dumb, you have your birthday on the coolest day of the year. I will turn 53 the day you turn 31 ~ celebrate at DL for both us! :D

Do you have a canada post office near you that handles passports (you can check the Canada Post webiste for ones that do passports)? It costs $15 more but will save you a day of driving, waiting in line and missing work. I just got our passports today and didn't notice they were supposed to be signed.

Not sure how Canada is but my 3 kids' US passports were unsigned and when we came off the cruise boat (DCL) last month a US custom's official told me that I should sign their passports and put next to it "for and my child's name". I had never heard of this and maybe someone can enlighten me more on this, but I still have not done it. My kids are 3, 5 and 9. The 9 year old could sign his, but the 3 and 5 I am not sure. Since they will have this passport awhile I was not sure what to do. But the official in customs said to sign it for them since they are minors.

Do you have a canada post office near you that handles passports (you can check the Canada Post webiste for ones that do passports)? It costs $15 more but will save you a day of driving, waiting in line and missing work. I just got our passports today and didn't notice they were supposed to be signed.
we did our first round of passports through the mail- but with the new air-travel passport deadline, the wait time has gone up considerably. We sent them in the end of October, and just received them back this week. With the holidays reducing the number of business days available to process passports, we figured a trip is the best of the worst solutions. (since we leave January 30th)
As for the signature thing- on the page ajacent to the picture, there is a 'bearer sign here' line. The small 2 page booklet that came with the passport said it nust be signed. i figured since she is a minor and I applied for the passport, ofcourse i should sign there. NOPE! I didn't read carefully- a passport belonging to a minor must be left blank until they can sign for themselves.

So, went yesterday to get the passport. Waited in line 1 1/4 hours before the office even opened. HUGE line-ups. (think Space mountain re-opening day)
But, the application was sent and now we just have to do the trip again to pick it up in January. The important thing is- its done and now we can enjoy christmas knowing we have it taken care of!

I am glad you got it taken care of. Hopefully it will arrive in time for your trip.

From the U.S. State Department's website:


My child is too young to sign his/her own passport. How do I sign my child's passport?

In the space provided for the signature, the mother or father must print the child's name and sign their own name. Then, in parenthesis by the parent's name, write the word (mother) or (father) so we know who signed for the child.

-
For US citizens, signing, on behalf of your minor child, does not invalidate the passport. The information received with the passport, however, may contradict this, but I just looked it up, so I think that this information is current. I believe that I signed my daughter's passport, and we had no problems using it to travel overseas, but that was a few years ago, so I wondered if the requirement had changed. The biggest change, in the past few years is that both parent must be physically present to apply, unless one parent submits a notarized statement. A few months ago, we renewed our older daughter's passport, and she also had to be present when we submitted the application, which was not the case several years ago. Canada's rules may be different, and I presume that the OP did the correct thing, in her case, by reapplying.

Someone explained it to me as this:
In Canada, it is manditory to leave a minors passport blank- in case he can sign for himself. If you are the parent, DO NOT sign! The customs agent may ask an older child to sign if it is left blank when they arrive at the border. This is much the way a childs bank account works- because the signature changes as the child ages.
Oh well, hopefully MY whoops helps someone else out there.

Someone explained it to me as this:
In Canada, it is manditory to leave a minors passport blank- in case he can sign for himself. If you are the parent, DO NOT sign! The customs agent may ask an older child to sign if it is left blank when they arrive at the border. This is much the way a childs bank account works- because the signature changes as the child ages.
Oh well, hopefully MY whoops helps someone else out there.


It seems like a very easy error for a parent to make, and the instruction not to do so, should not be buried in a seperate instruction sheet. Perhaps you can contact your government representative and recommend a simple change, such as the passport agency putting a sticker on all passports for minors stating "Do not sign on behalf of minor." so the parent won't be tempted to go ahead and sign for them. In the U.S., for purposes of applying for passports, at age 14 a person can apply for themselves; below that age, both parents must approve the application (this is because of possible child custody issues). I assume, also, by that age, the signature is pretty well set as well.

You have my empathy! I waited for two hours in line to find out I didn't have the right birth certificates for my children, it said they "recommended the large one with both parents name" not that it was "necessary", so I had to shell out extra money to order them and have them sent express. I then too had to make another hour and a half trip back to stand in line 4 hours this time!!!!Arggg! What really got me is my sister in law went two weeks before me and only had the small reg. birth certificates and had no problem! Anyway the trip will be worth it right! I'm glad you passed on the info about the signing or I would have probably done the same thing.

You have my empathy! I waited for two hours in line to find out I didn't have the right birth certificates for my children, it said they "recommended the large one with both parents name" not that it was "necessary", so I had to shell out extra money to order them and have them sent express. I then too had to make another hour and a half trip back to stand in line 4 hours this time!!!!Arggg! What really got me is my sister in law went two weeks before me and only had the small reg. birth certificates and had no problem! Anyway the trip will be worth it right! I'm glad you passed on the info about the signing or I would have probably done the same thing.
We had the small birth certificates too, but if there is ANY kind of issue with your childs names, or if theirs or your last name is not the same as the fathers you can have BIG issues. I guess We were lucky, and that didn't turn out to be our problem. I think sometimes too, if they decide to give you a hard time its just luck of the draw (if you can call it luck).

Hey there mommy-san;

Did you get your passports at the Edmonton office? If so, can you line up inside the building, or does the lineup extend outside? We will soon have to do this with 3 kids and I was wondering about logistics at Canada Place.

thanks,

paperclip

We first did them by mail- about 1 month turnaround time on those. My mistake resulted in a trip to Edmonton, yep, Canada Place. We were there at 6:50 AM, we were about 100th in line. By 8:00 there was easily 250 people waiting. But we were all inside, thank goodness. When they opened the office doors at 8:00 or 8:15 we shuffled in and were handed a number with a letter prefix. We sat down for about 30 minutes. We got through very quick- but we only had 1 passport to do. Families that had more than that were given a different B-D prefix and they seemed to take forever. (we were A20 and were finished but they were still only serving B-5.) When my husband flew back to pick-up the passport last friday he said there were about 5 times more people in the line-up 11:00 when he got there and that the offices themselves were packed to the rafters. So, grab a large double double and a bagel from Timmie's and get in line before 7:00 AM.

Important: if you have all the paperwork done and the proper notary signatures etc. you DO NOT need to have the child present to apply for a passport.
If you go back to pick the passports up in person you don't have to wait in the big line again.

I so feel for you! My sister and her ex have gone to Canada Place 3 times, the first time they werent even close, the second time they were told that they needed the long form birth certificate (I did warn them they may need it as they were not married when their oldest was born), then they get that and go back in and then they find out the pastor that signed the passports was too busy showing her pictures and telling stories of when they took their grandkids and missed signing something. So that has made us very worried, they needed to send the application to vital stats to check her out and make sure she is still licenced, if all goes well they will get them on the 29th of January, they leave on the 9th of February.
and my own story. . . . My sons (12yrs old) given name is Nicholas, he signed the application Nicholas, but when we get the passport he signed the line Nick. I freaked out thinking we will have to express one (because we leave on Feb 5)but when I contacted passport canada (an hour and a half dialing the phone over and over plus hold time), the guy said they might ask him to sign a piece of paper and we should take his student ID card that says Nick on it. Passport guy told me that rarely do they look at the signature. And I lost a whole nights sleep over this.
I cant wait 2 more weeks and I will be seeing Mickey! WHO HOOO I know all the headaches will be worth it to be down there! I am SO excited!!!

I would STRONGLY recommend getting the large size BC for any child with a name difference. At the end of september, the local MP had people in town to gather applications from people and then send them. I asked about my daughters name and they said it didnt matter. Well, about 2 weeks later I get a letter saying that they needed her large BC, so 30$ more and another week, I sent that in. I got my passport on halloween, almost a month later. Christmas came and still no BC for her. I started calling offices and being told its not here, it was mailed, it must have got lost. It finally showed up the first week of school. That took just over 3 months! It was just my luck, eh?! I didnt miss my trip though, so alls good, so far.

I think I have the worst kid passport story ever. Didn't happen to me, but to a very close friend. The family was flying to Canada to go on a cruise with a bunch of other family members. She went to get passports for all the kids and discovered she didn't have an official birth certificate for her 10 year old, the one with the embossed seal and all. So she goes up to the nearest LA County office to request one. They have no record of her daughter's birth. They start questioning her about who her daughter is, why is she trying to obtain a birth certificate for this child who does not exist in their database. She drives all the way to the hospital where the child was born, gets an official affadavit that her child was indeed born there on said date and goes back to LA County office. They say that because the b.c. was not issued at the time of birth she must submit all evidence of her child's birth and existence such as the statement from the hospital, baptismal records, vaccination records, etc. to the State of California and in about 6 months she will receive a birth certificate. Well, that doesn't leave enough time to get the passport. Finally after going thru much red tape and many people at the state department she was able to take her daughter and a stack of documentation to the Federal Building in LA and get a temporary passport, good for one year only issued, in time for the trip.

It seems like a very easy error for a parent to make, and the instruction not to do so, should not be buried in a seperate instruction sheet. Perhaps you can contact your government representative and recommend a simple change, such as the passport agency putting a sticker on all passports for minors stating "Do not sign on behalf of minor." so the parent won't be tempted to go ahead and sign for them.

I just got mine and my daughter's passport today. Passport Canada must have been listening because they had slipped in a Notice on the Signature page of both passports and the first page noted that parents MUST NOT sign the passport of a child who cannot sign.

Having the right documents ensures that you don't have endure more than one wait at the passport office. The long form birth certificate is a must for children especially if you are a single parent, separated or divorced and make sure you take custody orders or any other agreement pertaining to custody.

I made my plan at the beginning of the month to go and on that day it snowed in Victoria (a rare occurrence even in January) - I thought that would keep everyone away but I guess even us Islander Canadians are made of hardy stuff. I waited about four hours - the lines have not died down since then, some people have waited as long as six hours from 4:30 am.:eek: