J.Bell
01-18-2017, 04:55 PM
Sorry for the long read but could really use some help ASAP.
So it started a week ago when my GF got offered free tickets/airfare/hotel/ect thru work for the Canucks game in St. Louis on Feb 16. Both of us have expired passports, so we figured no problem, got a month to apply for new one and all that stuff.
So we both fill out all the necessary paperwork, get our pictures and so on. Being that she works right down the street from the surrey passport office she figured she could sneak away at lunch and hand her paperwork and pictures in.
Here's where the problem starts. She somehow missed the part on the instructions where it says to get your guarantee to sign the back of the pic. So when she goes to the office and waits for 45 mins in line then finally gets her turn, the woman working there told here she needed the pic signed by here gaurantee. She tells the woman that she works 5 mins away and could go get the signature quickly and asked if it was possible to bypass the line when she came back. Woman says no problem and gives her a ticket, so when she comes back she can bypass the line.
So she heads back to work and gets her employee who's worked for her for 10 years to sign the pic. He is the guarantee she wrote on her passport, so shouldn't be a problem. She then heads back to the passport office, uses her ticket to bypasses the line and hands in her application. So we thinking ok cool, just gotta wait 10 days and we good to go.
Well not quite. She gets a call from the passport office on Monday asking her to write a statement to verify that all her info was correct. At the exact same time her employee (the gaurantee) gets a call from the passport office to verify that he knows her and they ask him a couple question about her, all of which he answered truthfully and correctly being that they've know each other for 10 years. I guess they called at the same time so there's no making up stories or whatever.
So Monday night she's freaking out about this whole situation, while I'm trying to keep her calm and tell her everything will be fine and not to worry. Fast forward to today and she gets another call from the passport office telling her that they're denying her passport on the grounds that they think she went into the parking lot or something and forged her guarantees signature, which is not the case. She told the person she talked to that she can prove he signed it by bringing in security footage from that day/time to prove he signed it. But they just told her the investigation has been closed already and all she can do now is jut pay again and reapply.
So now if we want to go away next month she has to apply again and pay another $160 and get new pictures ect, which she has already gone and done cuz we want to make sure we get our passports before our trip so we can actually go away.
My question is has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? It all seems a bit ridiculous to me, that they would think she would forge her co-workers signature that she's know for 10 years and that they didn't believe she could have got his signature so fast, but she only works 5 mins away from passport office. So now she's all freaking out about getting denied again and possibly having this against her on her record.
Anyone have any insight as to what we can do? It's not so much about the extra $160, but it's the fact they totally screwed her over and may possibly have this on her record. We were thinking of writing a complaint but don't think that will do much. Either way any input/help is appreciated, cuz we're both just so confused as to how all this happened and how passport Canada can basically just say f*ck you.
Any help or insight I greatly appreciated.
So it started a week ago when my GF got offered free tickets/airfare/hotel/ect thru work for the Canucks game in St. Louis on Feb 16. Both of us have expired passports, so we figured no problem, got a month to apply for new one and all that stuff.
So we both fill out all the necessary paperwork, get our pictures and so on. Being that she works right down the street from the surrey passport office she figured she could sneak away at lunch and hand her paperwork and pictures in.
Here's where the problem starts. She somehow missed the part on the instructions where it says to get your guarantee to sign the back of the pic. So when she goes to the office and waits for 45 mins in line then finally gets her turn, the woman working there told here she needed the pic signed by here gaurantee. She tells the woman that she works 5 mins away and could go get the signature quickly and asked if it was possible to bypass the line when she came back. Woman says no problem and gives her a ticket, so when she comes back she can bypass the line.
So she heads back to work and gets her employee who's worked for her for 10 years to sign the pic. He is the guarantee she wrote on her passport, so shouldn't be a problem. She then heads back to the passport office, uses her ticket to bypasses the line and hands in her application. So we thinking ok cool, just gotta wait 10 days and we good to go.
Well not quite. She gets a call from the passport office on Monday asking her to write a statement to verify that all her info was correct. At the exact same time her employee (the gaurantee) gets a call from the passport office to verify that he knows her and they ask him a couple question about her, all of which he answered truthfully and correctly being that they've know each other for 10 years. I guess they called at the same time so there's no making up stories or whatever.
So Monday night she's freaking out about this whole situation, while I'm trying to keep her calm and tell her everything will be fine and not to worry. Fast forward to today and she gets another call from the passport office telling her that they're denying her passport on the grounds that they think she went into the parking lot or something and forged her guarantees signature, which is not the case. She told the person she talked to that she can prove he signed it by bringing in security footage from that day/time to prove he signed it. But they just told her the investigation has been closed already and all she can do now is jut pay again and reapply.
So now if we want to go away next month she has to apply again and pay another $160 and get new pictures ect, which she has already gone and done cuz we want to make sure we get our passports before our trip so we can actually go away.
My question is has anyone ever dealt with anything like this? It all seems a bit ridiculous to me, that they would think she would forge her co-workers signature that she's know for 10 years and that they didn't believe she could have got his signature so fast, but she only works 5 mins away from passport office. So now she's all freaking out about getting denied again and possibly having this against her on her record.
Anyone have any insight as to what we can do? It's not so much about the extra $160, but it's the fact they totally screwed her over and may possibly have this on her record. We were thinking of writing a complaint but don't think that will do much. Either way any input/help is appreciated, cuz we're both just so confused as to how all this happened and how passport Canada can basically just say f*ck you.
Any help or insight I greatly appreciated.