Passport Emergency

August 4, 2012 8:03 PM

Friend is going to Hawaii in the Morning, sunk 10k on the trip already, his passport needs renewal. and he just realised this. Lives in Toronto, Monday is a stat, any ideas?
posted by PinkMoose to Travel & Transportation around Hawaii (6 answers total)

Best answer: It shouldn't be too late to change his flights. If he puts them off until eg. Wednesday, that should get him enough time to get an emergency temporary passport or whatever. My boss is Canadian, lives in Australia, and also realised the day before travelling overseas that his passport was expired. He had to pay about $500, but that got him a temporary passport, valid for a couple of months, I think, and it took about 24 hours to arrange.
posted by lollusc at 8:18 PM on August 4, 2012

Response by poster: The problem is that it is like a week and a half, and Wednesday might be too late...
posted by PinkMoose at 8:39 PM on August 4, 2012

If you pay extra, you can get a passport within 24 hours. If he has the money for the travel and the passport fee, he can head to Montreal on Monday (passport offices in Quebec are open), get a 24 hour passport by Tuesday, and be back Tuesday night for a Wednesday AM flight. Alternately, he can go to the airport and hope he gets a nice customs agent going to the US.
posted by jeather at 8:43 PM on August 4, 2012

Gatineau (across the river from Ottawa, in Hull region) also has a passport office; however if I recall it's nearly as fast to drive to Montreal from Toronto as it is to drive to Ottawa.

I would advise trying to get to the passport office as early in the business day as he can, since expedited passports are processed in the order that they are received. He should bring proof of his flight and hotel reservations to justify expedited service. If he is there right when the office opens at 8:30, there is a *slim* chance of same day processing, otherwise they can probably arrange overnight renewal. There will be a substantial extra fee, $500 sounds right.

In this post 9/11 world, I would not even bother attempting to enter the US with an expired passport. They are supposed to refuse entry to anyone with less than six months remaining before their passport expires.
posted by ceribus peribus at 9:34 PM on August 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

Seconding everything ceribus peribus said in his/her 2nd and 3rd paragraph. I did this in December and was given an expedited passport by 2pm the same day. I'm pretty sure it was less than $150.

Ask the airline to re-ticket for Monday evening or Tuesday morning and explain why. It's better to pay a change fee (which they kindly waived in my case) than to be refused boarding and forfeit the ticket. Get photos, guarantor, forms, and payment all sorted and get in line first thing Monday morning.
posted by lunaazul at 11:18 PM on August 4, 2012

I also thought of the radical plan of flying domestically into Montreal very early on Monday (you can use an alternate form of ID for domestic flights), showing Monday night plane tickets to the passport office, getting an expedited renewal that afternoon, and then flying directly out of Montreal on Monday night.

Alas, it looks like all flights to Honolulu from this general longitude leave in the morning. Passport pickups are always in the afternoon, so your friend might as well spend the evening driving back to YYZ with his renewal.
posted by ceribus peribus at 11:56 PM on August 4, 2012