I applied online and had to send my passport at Canada VAC - New York.
I sent my packet as below:
1. Consent Form, Passport Request Form, Original Passport and a prepaid return envelope all inside a large envelope.
Today I received an email from [ ny-info@csc-cvac.com ] asking me to send original passport. When I called Canada VAC office in New York (973 518-1836), I was told that they have received the envelope but there is no passport in it. Wow! And, the envelope was still glued.
When I contacted USPS, they confirmed that packet was delivered intact without any damage. They have initiated detailed mail recovery process that takes 5 days. I will keep you all posted on this as well.
Just to give you some background on why am I confident that the passport was mishandled at VAC:
1. The total weight of my USPS packet was 7.80 oz.
2. On average a passport weighs 1.4 oz to 2 oz. I had one old and new passport attached together. Therefore, total weight of passport in packet was approx 3.6 oz (My old passport was heavily stamped).
3. Apart from passport the packet had 3 A4 size paper consent form and 1 A4 size passport request form.
Altogether 4 papers of A4 size and they should weigh 0.6 oz (4 x 0.15 oz)
4. Packet also had a small return labeled bubble mailer to carry my passport back to me. Google says it weighs 1.2 oz
5. And now the main bigger envelope itself that enclosed all the above items. It was a USPS doc sized bubble mailer. Again google says it weighs 1.8 to 2 oz.
Items | Weight in ounces(oz)
2 passports | 3.6
4 X A4 size papers | 0.6
small return envelope | 1.2
main envelope | 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: | 7.4 oz
Point I am trying to make is that if those two passports were not in there, how come the packet was 7.8 oz heavy?
And, if the packet was not received in opened/ damaged form, where else the passport could have gone???
Does anyone know how to handle this situation? Any contact/ email I should write to? I did write to feedback@csc-cvac.com but have not heard back from them.
I am also thinking that there may be intentional wrongdoing and passports being stolen by a personal/ individual at that office and used for wrong reasons. I am saying this because i see a lot of people reporting the same incident where there passport was lost at Canada VAC.
Any help appreciated and please be careful if you are planning to send your passport to this center.
