I want to take a moment to expose the complete inadequacy of the response from the Canadian Government’s online customer service for passport inquiries.

I sent the following very short and specific note to them through the Passport Canada website:

I am a Canadian citizen with dual citizenship. My parents are British. I am flying from Ontario to New York on May 10th – am I able to use my British passport? I am in the process of getting a new Canadian passport but not sure if I’ll have it in time.

The convoluted, general response came back. I still could not glean an answer of whether or not a Canadian will be allowed to travel to the US using her British passport, or whether I’ll be hassled. I have been before… and I’m worried it’ll be worse now that travelling to the US has become… we’ll just say, even more difficult.

This was the email I got in return (stuff in bold are my remarks):

Thank you for your message of April 16, 2007.This was the first line of the message, where I’d expect to see some kind of greeting. This whole line already alerts me that this is very obviously a form letter spewing back information to me that I don’t even need.

Though passports are the document of choice for travel, Canadian citizens do not currently require a passport to travel by land or sea to the United States. However, Canadians who are traveling outside Canada are encouraged to obtain a passport, as it is the most widely accepted proof of Canadian identity and nationality. Gee, that was helpful considering my question was about flying.

The United States Government have announced the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) requiring all visitors to and from the Americas, including Canadian citizens, to present a valid passport to enter the United States by air since January 23, 2007. Slightly more helpful. Are dual citizenship passports accepted? Will they harass me at the border because I don’t have a Canadian passport? More information would be much appreciated.

Therefore, a passport will be required for all air travel to or from Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. I think you just said that in the paragraph above.

The passport must be valid the day of your departure from the United States. Apparently people need to be told this.

The second phase of the WHTI will be implemented as follows:

January 1, 2008 – The passport requirement will be extended to all land and sea border crossings as well as air travel. Actually useful information! Nice warning half a year in advance.

For further information on United States policy, you may consult the US State Department website at www.state.gov. Completely useless information for Canadian citizens going to the US temporarily.

You may also obtain more information on the following Canadian Border Services Agency website:
www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency/whti-ivho/menu-e.html. Didn’t even bother visiting that site.

We trust this information is of assistance to you. Yeah, thanks. It wasn’t.

j What is this? Is this their attempt to look like a real human is actually answering my question (it so obviously isn’t)? Lower-case j. It’s not even a name. I’m completely baffled as to what this is doing at the end of the email, as if it’s a signature. Weird.

And this is why I am usually loathe to send inquiries to companies or organizations through their websites.

I found out that I can travel to the US using my British passport, as a Canadian citizen. I do have to bring proof of Canadian citizenship – in my case, my Canadian citizenship card (which I had to get when I was 15, because my hand-written, photocopied birth certificate issued in Quebec wasn’t cutting it as proof that I was a real human being anymore).

How did I get that information? I spent 30 minutes waiting on the phone to talk to someone for 2 minutes. The above email took 3 days to come to me, and was far less helpful. The Canadian Government is losing an opportunity to inspire its website users when they respond like this through email. At least hire real people to write real answers, or else don’t even bother to offer submitting a form through their website as a method of communication. All of this information is already on the Passport Canada website, which I had to go through in order to send this question in the first place. I’ve already read this. It’s completely useless and a waste of everybody’s time.

It’s funny how as I get older, I’m starting to like the phone more and more…

July 12, 2007 Edit: FYI, when I got to customs at the airport, the officer gave me a hard time. After muddling through his rather rude manner of telling me how to proceed through customs with a non-Canadian passport, I had to go get a Green card and fill it out as an immigrant. So… make sure you do that before you get in line if you’re traveling to the US with a non-Canadian passport. It’ll save you time, and a fair amount of grief, once you reach the customs stand.