dlenski.......

1. Yes, depending on the exact day that you went, it could have been done in as little as 4 days, generally less than 2 weeks.
2. DoS employees at heart are NOT hard workers, they are barely 9-5'ers and when dealing with the public they often are 2 day a weekers. So yes you were suckered. However having to spend 20 minutes getting through security is standard in many places and not a good excuse.
3. That special envelope would have cost you five minutes at any Canadian Post office, and has been noted above, there are a half dozen reasons that you could have used to insist that you could come and get it at the Consulate when done.
To answer your last question, if you have read through this thread you would have seen a pattern of US missions abroad trying to reduce foot traffic at their facilities, what is convenient for them is not what is convenient for you, and unfortunately you fell for it.

mordakky

1) No one on this entire thread has said that you need to stay in a country for 2 months, nor even one month, many of us have reported that one can get it back within a week at times, so you should be fine with a month.
2) No you cannot.

A normal 10 year passport at embassy taking only 1 week? I've never heard of it that fast.
Do you mean the 1 year emergency passport? If so, I don't want that one.

That's good to know, thanks. I'll keep that in mind for when family members need to renew passports in the next couple years.

Right. Picking it up would actually be the most convenient.
True. Lesson learned!

Thank you GUWonder. Very interesting. I wonder if the internet archives still show that language somewhere.

So, one arrives with an expired US passport or a valid Passport Card (or whatever) and an ESTA-endorsed VW country passport at check-in. One shows only the latter non-US passport. Let's assume it shows a US place of birth. How does one answer the likely question from the check-in agent or ICTS person: "I see you were born in America. Are you an American?"

US Citizen Living in Canada - Renew in Person or By Mail?
 

I'm a US citizen renewing a US passport. I live near Vancouver. I will travel to the States in early August. Should I renew my US passport by mail or in person at the Vancouver consulate? I don't want to cut things close and I don't want to spend the summer sweating out a passport wait. But, at the same time, I don't want to have to travel into Vancouver and go through the security hassle etc at the consulate. Any advice? Is expedited by mail possible?

By land or by air?

If by air, yeah, you need a valid passport (or Nexus card) to fly between US and Canada. The airlines simply won't let you board without it.

If by land, you can use an expired passport (or perhaps other docs you have, like birth certificate or other proof of citizenship and residency) to get into the US and back into Canada.

You'll probably get some questions and grumpiness about it (especially from the US side), and maybe even a delay if you have insufficient docs, but the US can't legally turn away its own citizens, and on the Canada side CBSA officers officially have a fair amount of flexibility as to what documents they will accept.

I personally have travelled out of and back to Canada several times by land, armed with my expired passport, Canada work permit, and BC driver's license. I've simply explained apologetically that my passport is being renewed and it's taken forever; haven't had any issues.

Given what I know now, and the fact that it took ~10 weeks from when I mailed my passport until they mailed it back, I would definitely renew at the consulate. (I also live a 10 minute walk from it.)

Yes. For an extra US$60.

But as others above have suggested, you stand a good chance of getting it back even faster than expedited-by-mail if you go there in person. Also, if you go in person you may be able to convince them to let you keep your current passport (whether already expired or not) while they're processing the renewal, so that you can use it to travel by land.

Dlenski,

Thanks for the excellent reply!

Coming back into CA is no problem as I am a dual national and have a CA passport. It's only the American entry I'm worried about. I'm flying to the States, so I don't think I have much leeway to argue with someone at a check-in counter.

Thanks to your input and other Googling, I'm afraid I'm going to have to make the trip to the consulate in Van and put up with the hassles. I guess I'll have to figure out something else to do in Van to make the trip worthwhile.

Thanks again for your input!

Wait a sec… if you're a US/Can dual citizen, you've got nothing to worry about.

With your Canadian passport, you can fly to the US with none of the hassles (ESTA, I-90, visa, etc) that third-country passport holders have going to the US.

Thanks, Dlenski!

But aren't US citizens required to enter the USA with their American passports?

As mentioned above, you only need proof of citizenship to get through CBP -- not necessarily a valid US passport. It is a legal requirement to have a US passport when entering as a citizen, but there is no penalty if you don't, and the CBP policies require them to let you in if you have satisfactory evidence of citizenship.

Thanks, Joe. Problem is, I'm flying from Toronto into the States. And, I'm traveling with my kids, so I don't want any particular hassles (their passports are up to date).

This is crazy fast. Check status online today on 5/27 and it showed shipped on 05/26

Passport time line:

4/17 Mailed renewal app with expedited process with regular shipping.
4/19 Check cashed and show "in process"
5/26 Shipped with USPS tracking

Locator 69

I was curious how some people managed to get a US passport issued in the US so quickly this year -- think an issue date a couple of weeks within the baby's birthdate. They got an appointment at their local US passport agency office on the basis of someone's imminent medical appointment in Canada. When they showed up at the passport agency office for the appointment, no one asked for proof of the medical appointment abroad -- just asked that they had an appointment for the passport application. They had proof of hotel stay bookings and the appointment in Canada, but no one seemed to care at the passport agency office.

That legal "requirement" was made toothless decades ago for those US citizens who could get to a US port of entry. And even from the beginning, it was chalk full of official "exceptions" -- which really weren't even "exceptions" from the start -- for those able to get recognized as US citizens at US ports of entry. For many decades, Americans have been lawfully entering the US even with the use of regular US DLs+US birth certificates at US land-ports of entry.

More like an "unlikely question" than a "likely question" based on what I've seen a lot. It's up to the US to decide who is and is not a US citizen and who is entitled to a US passport and is not. I don't have a count of how many people born in the US are not US citizens, but it's at least in the six figure range and possibly even the seven figure range by this point given the combination includes those who relinquished US citizenship, those who renounced US citizenship, and those who were born in the US while not subject to US jurisdiction. The count is down by one with Tina Turner's mortality.

The language the CBP had online which you can use to search the archives on your own or use for FOIA purposes:

If you want to discuss this further, there are other threads for that.

How is it that you were able to mail a renewal packet to St Albans? On my renewal paperwork it says it MUST be mailed to Texas (I'm in Florida). The MUST is capitalized. Thanks!

National Passport Processing Center Irvin Texas sent the passport application electronically to St Albans- NOT the applicant. The NOT is capitalized.

All mailed applications are sent to one of two places (Irvin, TX or Philidelphia, PA) where the checks are deposited. The Centers then dole them out to one of many passport adjudication and printing locations. That location can be identified by the first two numbers of your application location number. Irvin or Philly is just the first step of the application journey. Load leveling, applicant location, and urgency play a part in which printing center eventually produces and mails the final product(s).