Traveler smarts. I do not have them (yet).

[betsyli]

So.

As some of you know, I am going on exchange to Paris (!!!) in February in order to study there for a semester. Studying abroad, as one might expect, necessitates a student visa. Which I have applied for, by sending in all my documents to the French Consulate. One of the documents that they require? My passport.

Now, I had been planning for

Comments

[tei_0]

Oh, ouch, that sucks. Don't bang your head too hard :(

[betsyli]

:(((((((

[andolinn]

Where is the French embassy? Can you head over there and tell them you need your passport back? Or phone them and ask how to get it back? If you pay for the overnight fees?

Surely, they don't expect to keep it for weeks at a time... Or call your own passport office and ask for something temporary? What do people do if they lose their passport and need an emergency passport?

[betsyli]

Not really...the way my student visa applic worked, I was supposed to mail them everything (which I did) and then they would mail me back my passport with the visa inside once it was done. And I had been warned that it could take up the 6 weeks (oh French bureaucracy...), so there's really not much to be done. The holiday schedule is not helping either.

I hadn't thought of that, but I'll give Citizenship Canada a call tomorrow (their website said that they'd be open, oi) and see what they say.

[andolinn]

And there is no reason to tell CCa the exact, entire truth. Play a little dumb and helpless and nice.

You sent the French Embassy your passport, but you didn't realize that they were going to keep it for so long - that really does seem like a bloody long time - and now you can't get it back and what should you do? And is there something temporary they could give you to help you out?

They can only say no...

[betsyli]

Okay, so I called them, waited patiently for my turn to speak to an agent and was told that I could apply for another passport. Or a Nexus card.

...yes lady, because going through a super-slow bureaucratic application process is totally what I was aiming for. --_--

[mordyn4]

Harsh.

Seriously though, would they really keep a cute Canadian girl out? COME ON!

[betsyli]

EXACTLY!

I miss the days when I could cross the border with pretty much any government-issued card.

[betsyli]

Aaww, I wish!

And this would be nice too: