The Amazing Waste

I gotta tell you that getting documents for your kid is not easy. It's a good thing my brother advised me to keep my P.Eng status. Otherwise, getting a guarantor signing and re-signing documents would be a pain. You need one signed for passports, for birth certificates. This and that. And the really painful thing is when you go to the gov't offices they don't tell you that you can pick up the forms here for this or for that. You find out as you stand in lines. Actually you find out in the queue to get a number to line up for a person to process your stuff. This is the truth. I kid you not.

So LISTEN carefully boys and girls, this is what you gotta do if you want to put your baby's birth certificate application and passport application in a forward gear.

Step 1. Go to a civic center near you and fill out the statement of birth and pay your 27.00. This registers your kid with the city. I went to the one at 399 West Mall over near Burnhamthorpe and hwy 427. They have a farmers market there on weekends starting in June.
Step 2. They'll tell you to wait 10 days for your baby to get registered. You can call a number to verify that your kid is in the system. Otherwise, if you come in to get the travel document, and they haven't processed your baby yet, they'll send you home. Sorry for wasting your time coming to gov't office, but hey that's what we do...waste your time and lots of it.
Step 3. Get the letter then pick up a Birth Certificate form either at that gov't office or you can fill one out online. Where online? Heck man. I dunno. It's long URL with a lot of dots.
here it is: http://www.cbs.gov.on.ca/mcbs/english/births&marriages.htm
click on birth certificates.
Step 4. Go to this location below, if you want to get it done faster and save postage. You know why waste 50 cents when you can use up $30.00 worth of gas driving around and another $10.00 in parking.

900 Bay St. Or you can mail it to them or even fax it.
But you have to pay 25.00 for the birth certificate and you should also get the long form one which is an additional 35.00. And they don't take CASH! VISA/MC only. And normally it's not that busy. You'll probably wait about 1 hr to get everything done. From waiting in line to get your number to paying and leaving with a big headache.


But not on the day I go. There was an OCAP (Ontario Coalition for something and Poverty) demonstration going on and I wasn't allowed to enter the building.


They were demonstrating for housing for all, in several languages, including slurring.


Can you see the other line of cops in the back. Then at the entrance to the building there were a few O.P.P. (ya you know me) guys there.

And this was the backup squad. Once they run you down with the cars, the horses will crap on you.

I realized after that I could've gone the back door way from Grosvenor street right across from the Women's College Emergency Entrance.

That we'd gone in from just a few weeks before when we brought Kieran into the world. It's tough to see the entrance, but it's there. See everything in this world goes round and round.

Now if you aren't travelling in the next 6 months. Then you can stop here. Cause they told me that the Registration for the baby takes 2 months to complete, then the birth certificate takes 6-8 weeks after that has been completed. So that's at least 4 months. And that doesn't include delivery time. They state that in BOLD PRINT or Italics.

If you are intending on travelling you'll have to do the following:
Step 5. Get a passport photo for your baby. Believe me, this is a lot tougher than it sounds. The kid can't smile, and ours doesn't even have teeth.

Step 6. Get the CHILD passport application and get it filled out. Pick one up at any post office. The Guarantor cannot be the applicant. Just remember that. And sign your name everywhere. Or learn to forge each other's signatures. It makes life easier.

Step 7. You'll need proof that you need this temporary passport (which says is valid for 3 years.) You'll need an itinerary with your baby's name on it. Or something. I went to the passport office and told me I needed Kieran's plane ticket. Then I realized he's FREE. DOH!

Step 8. Go to the passport office when it's not that busy. HAHAHA...that's a joke. I made a funny. Line up to get a number to line up for a passport officer or whatever they're called.

And that should be it.

It's like the Amazing Race. After 6 or 7 visits to 4 different gov't offices. Filling out 10 forms and shelling out over 150.00. You'll still have to wait for the documents, which hopefully don't get lost in the mail or lost in the process.