Biographical page in passport not laminated !!

[Ashley Sz 2]

Hey Canadians !!

I ran into a unique problem today at my interview, and im not sure if im an odd ball, but just in case i thought id share my experience!

My interview was this morning in Montreal, and it went very smoothly until he looked at my passport, and said that he couldn't put the visa in it until my biographical page was laminated and i would need to mail a new passport back to them and then they will put it in.. I panicked and asked what else i could do to avoid the delay of mailing it in and going into extra AP, and he said that passport canada was around the corner and i can ask for an emergency one but it wouldn't save me any time to drop it off, so just mail it in.. I asked if they could laminate the one i have and he said that he highly doubed they could they would more than likely issue me a new one.

I ended up freaking out, and found the Passport Canada which is less than a 5 min walk from the consulate and explained to them what happened, and amazingly they laminated it for me !!! It took maybe 5 min for him to do it which was awesome!

My biggest issue came from getting back into the consulate to hand it in instead of mailing it, as the security guard wouldn't let me in and was actually very rude about it and even made a comment about me forgetting things, which was 100% not the case and i had to basically beg. I ended up getting back upstairs and handing it in, and asked if that means it will be approved and he smiled at me and said it will be and i will get an email when its ready to be picked up, and also told me it wasn't my fault as i wouldn't have known that would be an issue. I handed it to a different guy, who appeared to be a manager or supervisor.

Moral of the story.. check your passports !!! If its not laminated, save yourself the headache and go and get it laminated before !!!

I should also note, that I've had this passport for almost 4 years, and it has never been an issue, and i even had a J1 and Q1 visa with this passport and no one has every given me any problems expect one time when i was driving across the border and they guard said he'd never seen one like that and pulled me in to make a call.. they called someone, i'm assuming passport Canada and they told them that it was perfectly fine and i don't need to get a new one, and no one has said anything since, I've crossed about 10 times since then (since i live on the NY border and go shopping often in Water town! ) The interviewer told me that the boarder can be more leinant but that was their rule, which I understand, but was still very frustrated to be given false information in the past !

[vanlaria 5]

Wow! I've never heard of such a thing. Lucky you were able to get in to passport Canada so quickly!

[Ashley Sz 2]

i haven't either !!! Honestly it was a blur getting there and back haha .. the interviewer told me that i couldn't get it laminated on the spot as far as he knew, but im happy i went and asked anyway !

[NikLR 13,227]

why on earth would a page in your passport be laminated?

[NikLR 13,227]

maybe the coating had worn off... i guess that's what they mean...

[HollywoodNorth 22]

Current Canadian passports have a holographic laminate on the Biographical page. If you view it at different angles you can see multiple [hundreds] maple leaves in various sizes, CANADA in text and a map inset of some of the leafs.

It's a security feature. I'm guessing it's a pre-2013 passport or someone at passports Canada fell asleep while printing it.

A quick way to tell is if it has the biometric logo on the cover towards the bottom, it's a rectangle with a line and circle through the middle of it.

[Lemonslice 4,850]

Some passports are defective - friend got hers "half laminated" was bounded at the edge, but not in the middle.

Current Canadian passports have a holographic laminate on the Biographical page. If you view it at different angles you can see multiple [hundreds] maple leaves in various sizes, CANADA in text and a map inset of some of the leafs.

It's a security feature. I'm guessing it's a pre-2013 passport or someone at passports Canada fell asleep while printing it.

A quick way to tell is if it has the biometric logo on the cover towards the bottom, it's a rectangle with a line and circle through the middle of it.

Pre-2013 passports were also laminated, different plastic design and texture. Fun to compare all my passports since I was a kid.

[Ashley Sz 2]

correct .. it was supposed to have a coating on it, it is a new passport with the square on the front cover, and ive never had any issues with it.. i did have it expidited when i got it so maybe a step was forgotten, either way it wasnt there and when the boarder guard called and asked last year when they pulled me over, the answer they were given was somehting along the lines of sometimes that happens its okay .. but its not okay for the consuate !

[NikLR 13,227]

I never thought of it as being "laminated". I've worked at copy centers and actually "laminated" items with a laminating machine. I suppose it's just a high tech version of that.

[Ashley Sz 2]

I never thought of it as being "laminated". I've worked at copy centers and actually "laminated" items with a laminating machine. I suppose it's just a high tech version of that.

yeah, laminating is the term that he used and the passport office, either way it was much easier to get the coating put on than both I and apparently the CO thought since he told me that it wasn't possible, and i had to apply for a new one!

[NikLR 13,227]

I'm glad you could get it done asap!