Any options for travel during passport renewal period?
 

I have a renewed Nexus card - good for 5 years.

My Canadian passport expires in a couple months, so I'll be applying to renew it.

BUT - as I understand the process - the instant I submit my application for renewal - they will invalidate my old one (e.g. clip page corners) - even though I might have a month remaining of paid-for validity. (I think they will give the mutiliated passport back to me if I apply in person - at the time of application.) The Canadian passport folks are understandably concerned that I not hold two valid passports at the same time - but they seem unclear on the concept of "holding" a passport - they seem to think it somehow starts on my date of application for a new one.

I travel to the US frequently for work, and often with short notice. And sometimes I have to travel every week for a month or two. I know you can pay extra for express (or "urgent") passport service - but even so, there seems no way around the fact that there will be some period of time when I won't be covered by a valid passport - regardless of the expiry date on my old one.

So - has anybody been in a similar situation and found a way around it? Specifically, would a valid Nexus card, together with an invalidated passport (but one that is not past its expiry date) - together with my receipt for a passport renewal - work???

Of course the ideal solution would seem to be a change in process - they give you back your valid passport at the time you apply for a renewal - but they don't give you your new one until you surrender the new one - in person.

You may want to wait until 2011 when the Canadian 10 year passports will be available.

I didnt know Canada was changing to a 10 year passport. When is the official introduction date? I need to get a new one very soon/

The expiry date on your passport becomes irrelevant if they've invalidated it - an invalid passport is no good, much like an expiry date on your credit card means nothing if its canceled prior to that date - you can swipe it as many times as you want, but there still isn't credit on it.

Furthermore, your Nexus is tied to that passport. Once your passport becomes invalid, your Nexus is flagged until you update your passport info. So even if you tried to use Nexus, you would be pulled over and asked to provide it. If you had merely forgotten to update it with new info, you might get lucky, have the agent take a copy and let you through. Without it, you'd almost certainly be denied entry to the US, have your Nexus membership revoked, and would likely be invited to secondary for a long time to come, if not barred from entry for a period of time.

For you, it sounds like the ideal solution would likely be to anti up the express passport fee - can't they do it within a day or two? If you need it quick because you are on call to the US with work often, then perhaps you should talk to them about reimbursement of the express fee.

I have made a trip to the passport office and have had a 24 hr turnaround. Requires some logistical planning.

Over the past 12 years, I have had 2 cycles and I travel every week (almost). The hardest is getting visas for countries like Brazil and India where they insist on pasting the visa in the passport.

No official date yet. Just 'sometime in 2011' when ePassport is introduced.

A bit more here:

http://www.ppt.gc.ca/articles/20090929.aspx?lang=eng

Unlike, say, Canada or the US, which - shocking! - insist on pasting the visa in the passport too.

Thanks very much - the one thing I wasn't sure about was whether the Nexus system got notified at the time of passport invalidation-by-application. I should be able to make the express system work. And I guess I should be grateful that things are so much better than they used to be! And with any luck I'll hit the window for 10-year passports.

Just as a curiousity - if anybody knows why they can't wait until the physical handover of the new passport before invalidating the old one - I'd appreciate hearing it. Wouldn't be a trivial change to implement, but it's hard to see any fundamental reasons why they can't do it.

My US visa is stapled not pasted. :)

Is that a TN visa? If so, it is not a travel visa, but rather a work authorization (much like Canadian work permits issued at the border, which are also stapled). Everybody else has to hand in their passport for two weeks and gets a big fat stamp. Canada does the same, and if you are from some "select" list of countries (much larger than you would expect), they reserve the right to keep your passport up to a month.

I think others replied already, but I read this as meaning you can go through a regular lane if you don't want to do a TDC.

I still have my printed TDCs, but I'm wondering how much you have to fill out online. The instructions say you can do the personal details ahead of time, print it out, then finish in ink. Can you do the entire thing in ink? It would then be a good idea to print out a few and keep them in the car (for that matter, even _with_ some personal info preprinted).

I believe that after my last driver's license renewal, I phoned and they just took the new expiry date, since all other info was identical. That's from memory though.

Possibly because they normally mail out the replacement, so there's no point of physical contact where they could trash it. Also historical reasons, since it's not that long ago the point of using the passport wasn't networked to a remote database with that info.


BTW, I called the YUL Nexus office today, they called back and confirmed that after a passport renewal, updating on GOES is all that's needed. Which is what the CBSA website says.

=aw

NEXUS is down again right now in YYZ T1. Went through the crew lane, same as last weekend...

Yesterday afternoon at 4 all but one were down at yyz. The machine tells you to go to the regular lane when it displays the out of order notice. I was told when I applied to use the crew lane or diplomat lane, but that was a long time ago so I wasn't sure if the rules had changed. Nice to hear you could go through the crew lane.

I think Nexus IT is staffed by people who couldn't get jobs at either AC or Thales. :D

UAL online checkin now allows Nexus cards as an ID for secure flight. If you have to see a UAL agent though, they will still insist on swiping your passport at YYZ at least.