CanadianInGasgow

Hi All,

Bit of a length post coming up ... my apologies.

I contacted the ontario government back in january to get a replacement birth certificate ( was lost in my parents move many years ago) this took months to come through. I then applied for my canadian passport back in may, after it not arriving i have spent a week going back and forth with the embassy in london, only to find out they have lost both my application and my birth certificate. I am moving to vancouver on the 28th july to start a new job.

Now i don't have enough time to get my passport from here, and i don't meet the requirements to get my passport within canada as i don't have anyone in the country who can sign for me that has known me 2 years. Obviously due to the ETA thing i need my passport.

It was suggested that i make the passport application from here and have it sent to my parents address and have them send it on to me in vancouver.....however the only way i can get into canada now is with my british passport and a birth certificate, also still need to get my SIN number which requires my birth certificate.

The embassy have gone from being extremely helpful to not answering the phone or replying to emails now that its been established that the application and birth cert has been lost

have no idea what to do now......advice needed please

bert07

Welcome to Canadian bureaucracy at its finest!!

Ok, fly in on the U.K. Passport and get the 6month visitor visa.

Once here, visit service Canada and they should be able to reissue birth cert. (Check on Canada immigration/passport page as they have info for exactly how on there).
Then go to get sin.

As for getting Canadian passport....see my saga. It's a >snipped< and I don't have an answer just yet! Hopefully will do soon - once you have birth cert and sin the 6month visa in the uk passport is forgotten anyway.

bert07

Also, get any documents you might need to be certified copies (solicitor can do this) so you have recognized spares for when things go missing (note not if but when!!)

CanadianInGasgow

I still have my short birth certificate not sure if that's enough

bert07

I don't know about short cert either - but am pretty sure that would make getting long one a lot easier at service Canada in person

bert07

Are you moving to the same province you were born in?

I'm in Alberta so looked at their info and it's fairly straightforward once here

http://www.servicealberta.ca/Birth-certificates-how-to-apply.cfm

You can do it in person and generally paperwork comes through within a week. More complicated if out of province thoygg

CanadianInGasgow

I'm just wondering if I fly in on British passport with my short birth certificate and go get my SIN. Leave a completed application with parents, then post back my short birth certificate and my parents can submit my application to london then post me my passport and birth certificate back when they receive it. What a mess ! Plus being born in Ontario I would still need to request another birth cert online because I will be in Vancouver working. Although concerned that I only got it replaced a few months ago that they may find it suspicious that I'm requesting it yet again

bert07

I think that works as a plan!

I am currently trying to sort my passport but have issues with references knowing me for 2 years so you may be able to do it from there.

Technically, you can apply from within Canada but as an outside application but I'm having problems with that too.!

CanadianInGasgow

I have the same issue no one in Canada that can sign for me as I won't have known anyone 2 years

CanadianInGasgow

So I explained my situation to the Edinburgh consulate looking for help this is the reply I got

"I am not sure what you are asking me to do, but if it relates to a Guarantor, and you do not have one, you can sign the attached form. This must be signed in front of a lawyer or a consular official and if you want me to do this for you please call on the number below. I have to charge £29 for doing so."

I'm actually shocked that the consulate is this useless

bert07

Honestly, that's nothing compared to what will happen here.

The response here would have been "sorry, I can't help you"
Everything is made ok by the word sorry!

You have to very clearly spell out what they have to do for you. Then they will probably just pass it on to someone else because they don't want to deal with it. It drives me crackers, I can see why so many Canadians never leave the country!

CanadianInGasgow

Yeh I replied to the consulate explaining again that I'm having issues with the embassy in London and was looking for help.He told me to talk to them lol Impressive that the only support a Canadian consulate can give is to charge me £29 to sign a document. Not sure why they are even there to be honest, waste of tax payers money

TrishP

If you enter Canada on a British passport and a visa is stamped for 6 months, once you receive your Canadian passport, you would be advised to contact CBSA to enquire as to further action that may or may not be required re the visa, as you don't want them to come looking for you (as they will think you're a Brit on an expired visa).

CanadianInGasgow

I think the cbsa would probably question that I'm trying to enter as a visitor with all my positions with me ? I would have thought my British passport and my Canadian birth certificate would be enough to allow me to enter rather than fraudulently getting a visitors visa ?

TrishP

When it comes to meeting requirements at borders these days, it's anyone's guess! Seems to be down to the discretion of individual officers. Best thing is probably to call them and ask them in advance, make sure you get the name and badge # of the person you speak to, should there be any issues at point of entry.