Just came back from applying for a passport at Service Canada (regular service, with no proof of travel). I had been lucky enough to grab this appointment while refreshing the appointment booking page over the weekend. There was a line out the door, and a longer one outside the Passport Canada next door. But with my appointment booking, I was able to skip the lines and the process was pretty painless, taking under 30 minutes total including waiting in the waiting room. The agent asked if I had any travel plans soon, because with this regular processing, I could expect to receive the passport in early February via registered mail. I might need to travel late this year but am not completely sure yet and have not booked tickets. He said that if I were definitely going to travel in the next couple months, it would probably be faster if I waited until I booked tickets and then went to the Passport Canada next door, but I chose to stick with the regular processing as my travel plans are not definite yet. He said with this regular service, I could switch to expedited processing later on, but it could take month to send my file over to Passport Canada in addition to however much time their processing would take.
