Leaving Tomorrow.Lost Wallet Today

December 5, 2006 11:17 PM

Help! My friend is travelling from Vancouver, Canada to London, England(due to a death in the family) and she just lost all her id. What can she do !?

Yesterday, she lost her wallet containing all her identification that shows that she is Canadian (she is a canadian citizen born in england).When she got home tonight she realized that her British passport has expired 2 weeks ago.
She still has her british birth certificate.What options does she have ??
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
you can contact me here [e-mail]

posted by grex to travel & transportation (13 comments total)

Where is she right now? Britain or Canada?
posted by watsondog at 11:19 PM on December 5, 2006

Oops, I only notedvthat she is leaving tomorrow in the title.
posted by grex at 11:21 PM on December 5, 2006

She is in canada
posted by grex at 11:22 PM on December 5, 2006

If she wants another British passport she should head to the consulate with her expired one.

If she wants a Canadian Passport she may be able to get a temporary passport then:

Urgent or express services are available for emergency or compassionate reasons on a case-by-case basis. These services are available only for those applicants who can apply for a passport in person at a Passport Canada service location. A valid reason for travel along with a proof of travel may be required.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:29 PM on December 5, 2006

Emergency rather, not temporary.
posted by Pollomacho at 11:30 PM on December 5, 2006

There is no British consulate in Vancouver -- all British passport applications must be mailed to Ottawa.

If she naturalized as Canadian, she should have a citizenship card which hopefully she wasn't also carrying in her wallet, right? That, in concert with her expired British passport might do the trick.

I'm quite sure she'll have to delay her flight though -- by at least a day if not two.
posted by randomstriker at 12:45 AM on December 6, 2006

British Consulate-General
800-1111 Melville Street
Vancouver, BC V6E 3V6

Telephone - [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Office hours: 8:30 to 4:30 Monday through Friday
posted by Pollomacho at 1:10 AM on December 6, 2006

I've come back to Canada on an expired Canadian passport, no problem. Of course, I couldn't go back to Germany (where I lived at the time) without first getting a new Canadian passport.

So, chances are they will let her in Britain (actually on the flight to start with) with her expired passport, but she'll have to arrange for an emergency passport or such (Canadian or Britsh) once she gets there.
posted by bluefrog at 6:30 AM on December 6, 2006

You can get a Canadian passport very quickly if you pay for the emergency service (at an actual office of the passport agency, not someplace else that you can turn in a passport application). But you have to provide an original proof of Canadian citizenship (e.g. Canadian birth certificate or record of birth abroad, or a citizenship card)
posted by winston at 7:03 AM on December 6, 2006

Thanks for the answers guys.
She called the British consulate in ottawa via their afterhours/emergency number (613 239 4288) and it seems that she will be able to get through with the expired passport due to compassionate circumstances.
posted by grex at 7:10 AM on December 6, 2006

I am American-born living in Canada with Canadian citizenship, and I was in the exact same situation. I needed to go to Hawaii and my Canadian passport was missing and I had had my Canadian citizenship card stolen from me years before and I hadn't replaced it. I called Canadian immigration (you can get to them easily by calling 1-800-O-Canada and asking for them) and they said "no problem", I would just have to show, when I came back to Canada, that I lived in Canada, so a gas bill or electricity bill would have been fine. I had a current American passport so getting into the US would have been no problem as well.

I ended up finding my Canadian passport before the trip.

As an aside, to get a new Canadian passport she will be required to show the citizenship card, so it will behoove her to start the paperwork for that as soon as she can. I think it takes them months to get the card made.
posted by some chick at 7:44 AM on December 6, 2006

Note some_chick that your experience is going to be invalid come January 23rd, 2007, Canadians and Americans will need passports to fly between Canada and the US (and vice versa). The rules were more lax in the past.

Passport proccessing loads are way up. If there is any chance one will be flying between Canada and the US for the first couple of months after the cut off date and one doesn't have a passport you should apply now. Preferably in person if possible so your documents can be verfied without mail delays.
posted by Mitheral at 9:01 AM on December 6, 2006

One final note for Canadians- if you are applying for a passport, fill in the info online and print it up and take it to the passport office- that allows you to jump the queue- which in my case was about 100 people and saved me 1/2 a day!!
posted by Panther at 10:15 AM on December 6, 2006