ExpatCanadian

Hi, renewing my British Passport from Canada. Does anyone know if any businesses can do the digital photo code here in Canada (as opposed to just a straight digital photo)? Someone had told me Staples does it, but I checked with them and they do not. Shoppers Drug Mart will do a digital photo for upload, but they want an extra $15 to buy their USB stick to put it on, they won't allow me to use my own which is ridiculous.

BristolUK

Isn't that just a security requirement because they don't want a virus from an unauthorised, unknown stick? It's standard isn't it?

When I was working we were never allowed to use our own in an official computer.

ExpatCanadian

Yes, I would say that's likely.

MidAtlantic

Just do your own pic and upload it. It worked well when I did it.

printer

We found a place that did it and they just sent an e mail with photo attached, worked great. London Drugs would have done it but their unit was out of paper and couldn't print. When i said we need digital she tried in vain to do it but nobody knew how to override the system which refused to allow a photo to be saved because the no paper error was up.

ChrisBan

How long is renewal taking these days? I’m heading back next week, passport is up for renewal and I figured I’d just do it there and have it delivered to my mothers

printer

We literally got ours back 2 months from date of application then old passports followed a week later. Very impressed.

Gozit

2 months is impressive? People used to get them back in 2-3 weeks.

pennyhp

I too need to renew my passport.
Just to clarify, does Staples do the digial with the code? I have no problem paying $15 for their USB stick.
In the grand scheme of renewing a passport I don't think that will put me off.
We both need to do it so I am asuming that they will put both on one stick.

ChrisBan

To be honest you could probably just do it yourself. My mum submitted one from her phone that she had taken by my sister infront of a white wall. Passport was approved.

pennyhp

Possibly but I jut don't really want the hassel. Our walls are grey not white. Our house is a little dark as well. I don't even think I have a white heet to hang as a backdrop.
So my preference would still be to find a place that produces digital photgaph with the magic number I need.
I appreciate the encouragement to give it a try. It may well come to that. I will have to invest in a white sheet.
Walmart here I come.

puggirl

we took a photo at home and uploaded it it tells you straight away if its accepted or not, it actually took 3 weeks to get the passport delivered here we were expecting it to be way longer

pennyhp

I may have to be brave and do it. I was just put off as the website says its more likely to be accepted from a photographer.
But having the instant confirmation of whether its ok or not is actually quite good.

ChrisBan

yeah honestly for all their faults the UK passport process was a lot easier than the Canadian one IMO. I got caught in that Canada passport backlog in April/May and I spent 3 months of my summer wondering if they were going to reject my application for an unacceptable photo; I had my photo done at Walmart and heard numerous stories of photo rejections for those.

anyway, good luck whatever you decide. I just renewed my UK passport Dec 18th (while I was in the UK) and got an email on the 30th telling me they’d approved and printed the passport so considering the time of year they’re going pretty quickly. I assume the longest part of my application is going to be the time it takes to get back to Canada

lmartin1000

If helpful to anyone. I did my own photo etc. This is the timeline, I got my passport today. It also took me a few days to get to the post office to send the old passport etc. Very impressive and updated at all stages by text and email. So, seems to take about two weeks in total.

Application history

Passport printed 12:19am on 17 January 2023
Application approved 9:20am on 14 January 2023
Documents received 12:59pm on 12 January 2023
Application received 7:03pm on 2 January 2023
Application submitted 7:03pm on 2 January 2023