Harry Hays Building

The passport service location is very poorly managed. Security personnel are creating their own rules, allowing new arrivals to be accommodated first instead of prioritizing those who have been waiting for hours.

Employees aren’t inclined to help you beyond the minimal requirements of their role. At times it’s like they get satisfaction from asking you to go back to the end of the line or come back the next day. It’s a good thing passports expire after 10yrs it will take that long to forget about the total nightmare which was my experience here.

Simplified passport renewal:
Currently @ ~10 business days (will update if I receive any later)
Arrived 8: 10 on a Tuesday, 50 people in line, was pulled out to express line (non urgent, simple renewal, travel day in 2 mo, all documents done accurately)
Registered mail or pickup option still available, just not expedited (5 day) renewal for express.
Done by 8: 50

No parking on site or streets to speak of, lots of 1 way streets surrounding the area, lots of violent vagrants, addicts, mentally unwell, and criminals roaming area.

Yes there can be wait times, yes it seems frustrating, yes you have to pay for parking but it's a fantastic office compared to some! Security for those who can't mind their manners, washrooms, water fountain all right there, patience goes a long way for getting whatever documents you are needing

No convenience, no matter the route or stuffs. It's an unbelievable morning trip, avoiding it if your time is money.

Staff are all friendly and helpful. Waiting for 2 hrs but you can just have a seat and bring a book …

BOOK AN APPOINTMENT FOR YOUR PASSPORT OR ELSE. Omg the set up for waiting for a passport is straight up sickening. Simply put. Book an appointment more than 6 weeks out and you'll be good.

It’s sheetyyyyy place and you have to wait 6 hours for passport if you’re there by 6 am other way don’t go there

Passport:

Jan 31 - arrived at 7: 30am and there were about 30 people in front of me.
We waited in a waiting room until 8: 30am (when the passport office opens) and I was all done by 9: 30am.
They were organized and things were moving fast.

No efficiency
Closed at 4pm but says no more passports today when I arrived at 3 pm
Waste my time back and forth so many times

Passport agencies hire the dumbest and most unqualified people. My parents handed in their passport to be built over 6 months ago. Every-time they had been baited stating that your passport will be ready on this day and on the day it does not come in. They had postponed their trip 4 times due to the same incident. Parents went in today and the incompetency is unreal. Due to a printing error on their own side they couldn’t get the passport ready. Without notice of this issue they were fooled once again

I'm not entirely sure how to review this place because it contains so many different services, so, I'll just review the building itself: D

It's a pretty nice building but is kind of old. There are a lot of long hallways and stuffy rooms, but, I can't really fault the building itself for that. There's a wall made out of old bread which has been there forever so it's boring now but it's still kinda cool. Anyway a nice building 5 stars.

I booked the appointment on line was told to b there at 130 and 10 min early so I did that.literally followed the instructions and was in and out with what I required in less then 25 min I was impressed especially for applying for my daughter's sin # great staff as well thx

This review is for KATRINA cashier 14, she is a hard worker. I was there for more than 2 hours waiting and
I see how hard she works.
Excellent customer service!

Unique and beautiful gardens crown the gorgeous park like setting. A nice place for a picnic, close to the riverfront and across the street from the best Viet subs in the city!

I must have been really lucky I was in and out because of the security guard at service Canada is so helpful thank-you!

Yesterday my wife and new Canadian was threatened by your staff member Lanna at the Harry Hays Building. Stating she will remember her face.as well as laughing at her. She just wants her passport to go see her mom. She can drive it's good enough for proof of travel. Welcome to Canada! If this happens again we will be filling charges.

Got my work permit approved on February but still haven’t got any physical copy of it. E-mailed them several times but no response other than an automatic reply. Can't reach them through phone either. Because of that one document, my life is stuck in the mud. Can't apply for health card, driving licence, visa, work permit extension and many more. That's why I decided to go to the immigration office directly. But once I went there and contacted them, they said their agents are still working from home and so I have to wait for their email response. While the restrictions are gone, why are they still working from home? And how would I be able to contact them if this is the current scenario?

All I can say is I got Amazing Service!
If things in life go smoothly, then you never have to visit this office. You come here in a pinch. Mine was when the night before, I tried to check in for a 3pm flight the next day and found that my daughter's passport was expired. Needless to say, first reaction is. Well she's not flying! After accepting that as the likeliest outcome, I proceeded to go through the motions and showed up at the passport office at 8am. Even after having to wait in line twice (my fault), I still got the passport by 12: 30pm. Most people I tell the story to still have trouble believing. There is a process to go through, however, they get things done and seem to be willing to make things work for YOU.
Thank you again!

An unnecessarily stressful experience

I went in 1-2 months ago to get my passport completed for an urgent pick up. While I understand that the passport office is seeing unprecedented demand, how that was demand was dealt with was unprofessional.

- there was no estimate given on how long you would wait. I understand they cannot give exact times, but it must be possible to know approximately how long the wait is on average. Many people were there a 2nd or 3rd time, still with no passport. Even giving a number such as how many people normally get seen, or how many people on average are usually seen each hour would go a long way. Many of us were missing multiple work days and are already stressed given how soon our flights were.if the passport office sees 100 people a day on average, and someone is 150th in line, it should be fair to let people know so they can decide if they want to try another day instead of waiting 8-12+hours for potentially no passport.

- you could leave the room, but if the line moved without you you lost your spot. I know they want to keep the line moving but there must be a way someone can go to the bathroom for 3 minutes and not risk their spot in line.

I did receive my passport after 2 different days of waiting, but there should be better communication on those managing the lines.

Note: This review is based on my June 6,2022 + June 24,2022 experiences and may be helpful/relevant for people who are seeking passports who are travelling within 3-45 business days.

Major highlight of the review - For people who are travelling within 3-45 business days and require a passport: Go to the Sundance Passport Office! You can still order rush passports there, and are much more likely to see an agent. On June 22,2022, of the 200+ people who were not travelling within 2 business days, a maximum of only 55 people got through to an agent, of whom would have all arrived before 7am. If you of course have an appointment or are travelling within 2 business days, this is the place for you!

My Experience:
June 6,2022, passport attempt #1: Arrived at Passport office 8: 30am, waited in line until 9: 30am until I eventually was seated in the upper staging area. Waited in upper staging area until 12: 30pm until I checked with the guard regarding my likelihood to see an agent. Upon asking, he indicated that only maybe 15 of the 100 people in my group (requiring passport within 3-45 business days) would see an agent. The staff are very careful not to make gaurantees to anyone about anything but it was very clear it was hopeless at that point so I decided to leave. However, it was worth pointing out that the security and management continued to let the line build outside even though the likelihood of them seeing an agent is 0% unless you have an appointment or travel within 2 days. It was disheartening to see staff here give 0 regard for peoples time and the impact of making them pointlessy stand in line for several hours.

June 24,2022, passport attempt #2: Arrived at Harry Hayes 4: 00am, and was the ~10th person in line. Doors to the building opened at 6: 00am and we were shuffled into the upper staging area into 3 groups; The 1st group were people who had appointment, the 2nd were people travelling within 2 business days and the 3rd were people who were travelling within 3-45 business days. The process in which people are processed is in that order. By ~7: 00am there were 20 people in group 1,100 people in group 2, and 100+ people in group 3. I was group 3 and upon grouping, I roughly became the equivilent of the ~125th person in line. As more people in Group 1 and 2 trickle in throughout the day, your place in line continually gets bumped. I continued to stick it out and eventually got moved to the lower staging area at 2: 00pm after an 8 hour wait in upper staging area. Waited another 2 hours in the lower staging area and finally got my passport application in and was able to leave by 4pm. Woohoo! So all in all, a 12 hour ordeal.

Positives about the experience:
-The passport application got in and there is a high likelyhood it will arrive in time for travel!
-The upper staging area is a small auditoriam with 160+ seats and is relatively well organized. If you need to get up to use the bathroom, get food, take phone calls, etc, you have that flexibility.

Negatives about the experience:
-If I would have known that I could have gone to Sundance, I would have. I heard from a few people that the wait at Sundance would be much less (eg. 1.5 hours vs. 12 hours) because there is not the same conflict with higher priority requests.
-There is a weird power dynamic between with the security/staff, which resulted in common sense and decency being virtually non-existent. One example I observed is that a mother brought her ~12 year old son with her to apply for a passport. However, since she was only doing 1 application, only one of them could be in the room due to "capacity issues" even though the room was only 50% full at the time. The son ended up waiting in the Harry Hayes lobby unattended during that period. The mother was visibly distraught and questioned the security and managers several times on the rationale for not allowing him to enter the waiting room, none of whom were able to provide any reasonable answer.

I hope you are able to take my review into consideration and take it with seriousness. This is to help other families from their day and their vacation from being ruined.

I had an appointment for 940 to get my daughters passport done. I arrived 10 minutes before my appointment. There was someone coming down the huge line asking everyone questions. (Ie are you traveling within 25 days).

At this point they should have clarified that I needed a ticket or a reservation or an itinerary of travel and that they WILL NOT accept anything else. No they instead told me I could make a written statement!

I told them I m planning to go across the boarder by car to Montanna, Most likely a day trip, as my mom lives close to the boarder. If I decide to stay for longer hikinig/sight seeing I might get a hotel that day of. My plans were for the second week of June!

I waited 4 hours cause I was not seen until 1: 00PM just for the person to turn me away and tell me to CANCLE my plans and to mail in my passport instead. I already spent 4 hours, I ask kindly to use a wifi or one of their computer cause my phone was not working at the time so I could book a reservation so I could continue to get my babies passport.

The person told me to go home and do it and come back, as if I had nothing else to do that day.

I paid 20$ for parking because my 940 appointment time was not honored, no one clarified the strict restrictions (that they are ONLY accepting tickets, reservations or itinerary and that's it nothing else!), I spent 4 hours to just sit there and in the end have someone turn me away with no alternative options, and them to tell me to mail in my passport.

Unfortunately I cancelled my travel plans and mail in the passport yesterday, with defeat. I was so disappointed. So, to save on disappointment for anyone else, please Find another place to go, unless someone at this place decides to take time to review this review and start implementing things differently. Starting with Appointment times.

Super long waits, no order at all, this place will waist your time, waited in line starting @ 7am
The place opens at 8: 30. Don’t worry you be put in the back of the line if you need a passport, if your applying for SIN number, or have a flight in 24hours, you will get front of the line. I waited all day for them to tell me to go home, for hard working peoples this is a joke, you can thank Justin Trudeau. We need better process. But you can’t expect that from our government….

They do 2 queues, one for people who have appointment, and the other for walk-ins. The walk-in queue is extremely slow, you better be there 1st thing in the morning if you don't have appointment. Also if your travel is in 48 hours, you can take the queue with people of appointment, but bring proof of travel with you.

I wish have read comment like this before I come

I’m stuck in line rn and this place doesn’t have a working public internet connection, cellular is inconsistent too and because I am a mobile phone addicted ghoul I’m bored out of my tree, so to kill the time I have elected to write a critical review of this establishment.

WARNING FOR LAST MINUTE APPLICATIONS

For those that are unaware there has been a massive influx of passport applicants and renewals with travel reopening for the summer. The lines are massive and it is frustrating but I'm hoping to help people with my experience. There are two lines when you go, the APPOINTMENT ONLY line right of the escalators and the DROP IN line right of the escalators. The appointment line has priority and is for people with an appointment OR YOU NEED TO HAVE MADE A PREVIOUS PASSPORT APPLICATION AKA PASSPORT TRANSFER. If you haven't made this previous application you need to wait in the drop in line that mentioned previously. If you want to guarantee you get through that day I suggest you show up early. I showed up for the appointment only line at 5: 30 and I was tenth in line. Please have some courtesy for the service people, they are doing the best they can with the current demand, it's not their fault that you waited until the last minute to apply for a passport. We applied three months ago and didn't get through in time.

I wish there zero star option as well. After two days trial, we have waited 10 days to get an appointment, and again we are still in the line,
Even for asking a yes/no question you should wait in a loooong line!

Staff try their best, but it's very hectic to say the least. Parking is expensive but convenient

Absolutely horrible customer service they’ve been printing my passport for 6 hours and it’s impossible to get a hold of any one
Super rude staff as well it’s looking like I’ll have to cancel our trip because of the lack of people doing their job here

Hi everyone just a heads up! Theres NO WALK INS! So please do not waste your time coming down to Harry Hays! I did and was told by security to go to website to make an appointment! Also when they call it comes up as a unknown number so you will have to adjust your phone settings! Hope this helps Please don't get angry at security they are only doing a pre worded script! Update I made said appointment came today 23/08 09.15 for passport application arrived at 09.00am met at 09.15 out by 09.25! Amazing service polite and efficient! My advice make an appointment!

How frustrating to treat people to wait 4hrs on que waiting.terrible service canada.seems no desk to attend on walk-ins. Kinda discrimination being un-invited, un-equal! Service gone to drain.

Very friendly and helpful staff
If u dont have an appointment u can easily walk in, but u have to wait for like minimum 30 minutes
Which is good

If I could put 0 stars I would! SAY ON THE WEBSITE THAT YOU NEED AN APPOINTMENT FOR PASSPORTS! Make people drive all the way here and then let you know about covid protocol.

I went in this morning, hoping to get my passport today. I got told there were no walk-in passport services; but online it says there is. Only after waiting 30 minutes already. Rude security officer told me this and walked me out.

The services office has a huge line if you don't have an appointment, but gets free post 2pm. Better book an appointment.

People in the Harry Hays Bldg were very nice, we submitted our passport application. All good, and fast. Took about 10min for everything, we did have an appointment.

We were directed by staff at the Harry Hays building to book online or call or book an appointment for urgent travel. We called and stayed online for thirty minutes only for the service personnel to tell us ‘you have to buy a ticket and call us for an appointment’ and he hang up. I thought that was really rude. That’s not the Canada I know where most people are polite on and off the job and especially when he is being paid with the very taxes I pay as well. Anyway my Friday was going well until he answered my call at 2pm.sigh.

I had the pleasure of being helped by Jansan of the Passport services. He was the most human, compassionate person I’ve ever interacted with inside of a government building.
I went in expecting not to be able to get help but Jansan understood that unfortunate circumstances happen and was able to help me in my continuation of replacing my identity. I wish him all the best and I hope his workplace sees the value in such a good, kind, hard worker who isn’t calloused after 12 years on the job. Thank you. This is the first time I’ve entered the Harry Hays building and haven’t left crying.

Was my first time going to deal with some immigration issues. Sadly due to covid I couldn't speak to anyone but any staff I spoke to were super friendly and helpful

Helped very quickly which was very nice. The lady at the front desk was SOO helpful and kind. The guy who she sent me to, to process my papers seemed like he didn't want to be at work. I was only there for half an hour which was nice I was expecting to be there way longer.

Great staff! I went before the doors opened at 8: 30am because I thought it would be super busy. When they opened the doors, all the staff members were standing there waiting to assist us. Even with 20+ people in line, they were very quick to get through everyone and I was only there for 15 mins max with no wait once it had opened. Very impressed!

Terrific layout easy to navigate; the staff are very knowledgeable. Well trained and offer excellent advice. I would recommend doing business with the Canadian government at any time. =] I have never met a government employee who didn't get adequately answer my questions or direct me to someone who knew more. I would work for them =] if I had a little more education behind my name.

Harry Hays Building is almost a one stop centre for your government needs; it houses some revenue offices including Service Canada and Immigrant Services of the Canadian government. It also serves as the start point of the plus 15s. Come around!

The security guard at the entrance was super friendly and helpful, but the woman at the front desk was not only condescending but when I was looking through my papers and asking questions she kept looking over at another teller and smiling trying not to laugh.
People come there for a reason to get your assistance.and that Reason is not to be belittled. Not only that but a lot of people new to our country come there for help and services, is that any way to set an example? What a jerk! They should put the security guard in her position because of his positive attitude and helpfulness.

Depending on your case worker may depend when your file gets processed. You may need to keep an extra eye on them. Some staff have minimal effort to their job but 100 % want their pay cheques! Unfortunately I don't have a positive comment towards the government case worker we were assigned too! Very disappointed!