Embarassed to say but 24 years ago when I was in University I had a Christmas flight from Montreal to London to visit my parents who were there for the year. I bought my ticket two months in advance. Two months went by and two days before my flight I suddenly realized that my passport had expired. Luckily I was living in Ottawa so I went to the Foreign Affairs building and they said, no problem, we can issue a passport within 24 hours if you already have an international ticket. Great, here you go. ....AND get a guarantor to sign your renewal application. Unlike now, in those days you had to know a guarantor for at least 2 years and they could only be a teacher, professor, lawyer or doctor. I had only been attending university for a year and a half and it was already Friday afternoon. I raced back to my university, found a prof, explained my situation, he signed, I ran back to Foreign affairs before it closed, got my application for renewal in, then went back the next afternoon, picked up my passport and caught my bus at 5 to Montreal for my 10 pm flight. I JUST made it.