Canadian Passport Requirements - Ensure That You Can Travel to the USA on Time

I've just found a great deal on a trip to Miami, what documents do I need to have in order to travel?

This is a common questions that I am presented with. It is important to consider the requirements before booking an international trip of any kind: you would hate to miss your vacation due to being turned away at the airport!

You will need a passport. As of January 2007, Canadians flying into the USA require passports. You are still allowed to travel by car, train or bus without a passport, but by January 2008 these travelers require passports as well. I recommend getting a passport now if you have travel plans of any kind. Your passport should be valid until at least six (6) months after your return to Canada.

How do I get a passport, and how long does it take?

This depends on your situation, if you have a Canadian passport issued after January 2002 there is a new simplified process to obtain a new passport. Canadian Citizens applying for their first passport, or renewing a passport issued before 2002 have a more complicated application to submit. If you are a Permanent Resident (Landed Immigrant) of Canada, you are not allowed to apply for a Canadian Passport, and must follow a different process altogether.

All application forms/ instructions are available at your local post office. Be sure to check with Passport Canada for unique situations (my passport was stolen!), updates and office locations for applying in person.

Simplified Passport Renewal

If you are an adult looking to renew a passport that was issued after January 31 2002, and you do not need to change your name, replace a lost, stolen or damaged passport, you may be able to take advantage of the new simplified passport application. This option is available only to those that are residing in Canada and were 16 years of age or older and residing in Canada when the previous passport was issued.

This application allows you to skip the Guarantor process, and avoid submitting proof of identity, as well your birth certificate or citizenship card. You must submit the application form, two (2) new photographs, a processing fee of $87, and your previous passport.
Passports applied for in person can be ready in as little as two (2) weeks. Passports applied for by mail will take at least six (6) weeks.

Panama Instant Passport and Residency Programs

Panama offers a multitude of programs enabling one to fairly easily obtain a Passport, Visa, Residency and Citizenship. Panama is an excellent place for a second passport (2nd passport). The plans are outlined below. Do feel free to ask questions. We do not advise attempting to deal with the immigration authorities without adequate legal representation by a competent attorney.

Warning: All of our passport programs require you to be physically present at the immigration department for fingerprinting and photographing. These are NOT the "Pay someone off in the dark" programs you see on the internet which do not require you to go to the country physically and come with a passport, identity card and driver's license. There are numerous stories on the internet if you look for them of people getting arrested all over the world when they attempt to travel on these passports. What is often done is passport blanks that come back from the manufacturer slightly defective (bad printing, stitching etc.) are marked as not usable by the government and are then sold by unscrupulous immigration officials through third parties. The problem is when the country that issued those does an audit of their immigration department they pick these things up and then the passports are flagged as fraudulent or stolen and this is sitting in some unfortunate person's wallet waiting to be used and can cause a police detention with likely arrest to follow. There was just a raid recently in Guyana and the corrupt immigration officials there were issuing hundreds of passports daily. Now along comes some guy who bought one of these "officially issued" passports and he goes through immigration in say the EU. Well he doesn't appear to be a Guyana type so they query around a bit and he gets arrested. Months after the scandal we still see Guyana Passports being sold on the internet which makes one wonder.

We even see Diplomatic passports being sold on the internet for $50,000 and up. This is ridiculous. What the buyers are not aware of is in almost all countries travel using a Diplomatic passport requires a visa so the country you intend to visit will require you to physically submit the diplomatic passport to their embassy for a visa which will involve scrutiny. So when they contact the diplomatic passport issuing government to verify the purpose of your visit, duration, whether or not you will be attached to the embassy, etc. what do you think is going to happen? Do you think the issuing government is going to provide official documentation for all of your journeys? Do you think they will even know who you are? They will most likely remain non responsive and your passport will probably never be returned as a best case scenario but this would most likely be followed by a knock at the door shake you up or arrest you visit by some authorities depending on where you live, admittedly some countries will not care what you did but others that are terrorist sensitive will get really interested in you and your whole life and you should expect to be added into the watch/stop list making airport travel a nightmare for the next ten or twenty years. The government that issued this diplomatic passport may also contact you after they get contacted for a $10,000 bribe or they will make trouble for you and on it goes. Remember why do you see Nigerian Scam Emails - because they work. There are a lot of stupid people out there so don't be one of them.
How can you tell if a second passport or residency/citizenship program is real?