My experience with Canada Post - A warning

[Alyssamac90 40]

My experience with CanadaPost has been very poor. I am writing this to let others know what they might expect. I know it isn't everyone's experience but it has been mine, and I don't even live far from Montreal, so the passport didn't have far to go!

I had my interview last Friday, January 11th, in Montreal. I asked at the interview if they would allow me to pick up my passport at the consulate, as I live 2 hours away in Ottawa, but they said they only allow people to do that in emergencies. I had a trip overseas planned, that I had booked flights for last summer (thinking the whole Visa process would be over by then... I guess that was my mistake). My flight was due to leave this past Thursday. On Wednesday I got my tracking number but it hadn't shipped yet. It was picked up Wednesday afternoon at the consulate. I called CanadaPost to see if I could pick it up at a centre in Montreal, but they told me because it's a passport the consulate told them they are not allowed to intercept or do anything. My expected date of arrival for the passport was Thursday the 17th, the next day (to my house in Ottawa). I wrongly assumed that meant it would be delivered by then, so my husband and I were able to change our flights to 24 hours later, thanks to very nice customer service agents at Delta. Unfortunately, the package didn't move at all on Thursday... it stayed in Montreal. On the tracker it said it was in Transit, but the last info we had was it was still in Montreal. Sadly, we had to cancel the flights we changed, since they were supposed to leave Friday a.m. 
Finally on Friday, on our tracker it said it had research a sorting facility in Ottawa. At 11:30 it changed to "Out for Delivery." We waited all day at home, and not a single Canada Post truck came to my suburban neighbourhood. We called Canada Post repeatedly, talking to managers, and everything. Xpresspost is supposed to be next day delivery within the region, and Ottawa and Montreal are in the same region!  CanadaPost told us we had to wait till 8pm and if it wasn't at our house by then, we could call Saturday morning after 10 am and speak to a member of the escalation team and they would launch an investigation. I guess they've been investigating now for 3 hours and we've heard nothing from them. I don't really expect to, at this point. We are hoping it'll be delivered Monday. It has been a frustrating and confusing process, and I write all this as a warning. It's a broken system. I know many have had better experiences, but in my opinion, do not book any flights until you have your passport in hand. We wouldn't have booked any, except ours were already booked since the summer.  Also, we were told by some people on VisaJourney that if we had the passport delivered to our home, CanadaPost would be able to intercept it if it was late, but that wasn't the case if we requested pick up at a post office. In our experience, they told us repeatedly that since it was a passport and "sensitive documents", they couldn't intercept it at all. We are definitely at their mercy.  They have apologized every time, but it doesn't really feel sincere since they haven't actually done anything to solve the situation. I just hope they haven't lost my passport with my visa in it. I will update when I receive it.

I sincerely hope for the best for all of you waiting for interview dates, passports, etc.  This process has been one of the longest and most frustrating I've experienced, and all the waiting has definitely been a test to my patience. VisaJourney has been so helpful throughout though, and I've gotten a lot of helpful info through there so thank you to all of you.

[Liam2021 551]

Do not book a plane until visa on hand.

[WaterLeaf 199]

26 minutes ago, H&T said:

Do not book a plane until visa on hand.

This advice is everywhere, but always good to remind!

[NikLR 13,220]

One thing you could have done differently was take your passport with you and then return it to Montreal for the visa after you were done with your travels.  Unless the plane ticket was for immigration purposes. 

[MK2803 13]

Sorry for this bad experience. I wish you get your passport as soon as possible. Could you please share your interview experience especially the questions asked? Thanks in advance.

Edited January 21, 2019 by MK2803