|
Monday:
I am invited to attend a three day sit-in with a booming web development firm in Soho Manhattan, New York. They had requested I fly out on the previous Wednesday to work with them in office Thursday and Friday to gain a feel for each other before deciding on possible long-term employment. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to advance in my field and quite obviously I was ecstatic.
Tuesday:
The realization I am in need of a passport sets in and I am pressed with a specific timeline to gain all my appropriate paperwork and signatures before being able to submit my application to the Canadian government. The original flight dates are pushed back one week and the run around began. My opportunity seemed challenged but I remained optimistic.
Wednesday:
I am blasted with my roommate’s chest virus and stuck in bed all morning. After gaining the strength to leave my bed (yet alone my house) I am in transit around the Lower Mainland seeking signatures from the family doctor, gathering photos and all appropriate tender to submit with my application. I arrived at the Passport office around 2PM to learn there is no hope of gaining a number to see an agent.
Thursday:
9AM I arrived back at the Passport office to find a line winding through Sinclair Center. I waited patiently as the line grew closer to the number room. This line was only the first of three. After gaining the number A293, I begin to wait in line two; this was to get upstairs where you then wait in line three for your number to be called. Luckily I was told I could come back later as my number was far from being called. 1PM I arrived back at the passport office, seeing that A211 was in queue, still far from my number A293. I attempted to sit and wait in this busy office however the A’s only move up one number per 10-15 minutes and are mixed between a B and an E category of numbers. It seemed ridiculous looking around that at any given time only 4 of 12 agent booths were serving. The remainder had ether agents clicking around on the computer or on their mobile phones? I left and wandered around town checking back every hour, A220’s then A240’s and finally around quarter past four the A260’s. Numbers are not called after 4:30PM, this meant no hope of reaching an agent.
Friday:
I woke up at 5:45AM and headed down to the passport office for 6:30AM. The line reached far further then Thursday. I found myself down near the ticket machines at Waterfront Station waiting patently for the office to open at 7:30AM. As it opened there was a brief burst of movement in the lineup and it walked about 50 ft, optimistic at that point I retained my patients. 8:00AM and I had only moved about 5 ft and was caught in the middle of a stairwell sandwiched between dozens of people. Frustrated I left the line and followed up the stairs to the ticket room where I asked the only person of authority whether or not someone who had a number which was not called would gain any priority over people who did not spend their entire yesterday waiting for an agent. “No your ticket is no good today” he tells me, well thanks that was obvious. As I asked him why this inefficient system does not reward the patients of yesterday, he reminded me he was not the complaint department and asked me to go back in line. Fed up I left.
In my business it’s simply not an option to spend thee consecutive days out if my office running around like a chicken with my head cut off. I am loosing hundreds of dollars a day not being available to attend to my clients and their work in queue. At the same time I can’t even purse the possibly of furthering myself in my field because I am forced to submit to a disgusting wait which is the Canadian passport system. What is this? Am I the only one who sees this as grossly problematic? At this time my frustrations could be misdirected and my rant slightly off focus. Still somewhere in this something seems to be a foul. Maybe it’s me. Having lived this hellish system of lines, waits and snarky personnel I truly believe I am not the one broken here.
Now forced to decline my invite to meet with said company I am enraged to the fact it seems as if the Canadian government does not wish its citizens to travel abroad and makes it painfully difficult to do so.
Yes I have been told several times “you can fly out of Seattle” but there are reasons for which I choose not to. I will need a passport today, next month or this year so it’s inevitable I get one. I just cannot believe the hoop jumping involved.
|
Mar 16, 07
