MPs Team Up To Host Passport Clinic

May 25, 2009

TOBIQUE-MACTAQUAC – Mike Allen, Member of Parliament for Tobique-Mactaquac, will join with Miramichi MP Tilly O’Neill-Gordon to host a passport clinic in the Rural Community of Upper Miramichi.

Mr. Allen has hosted 13 such clinics between Keswick and Grand Falls to help people prepare for the change in U.S. requirements on June 1.

“The clinics we held already were a big success, and hundreds of people took the opportunity to get help with their application forms,” said the Chair of the Atlantic Conservative Caucus.

Mr. Allen and Ms. O’Neill-Gordon, along with staff members and volunteers from the community, will be working at the clinic at the Upper Miramichi Lions Club on Thursday, June 25, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“I’m really pleased to team up with Tilly on the border of our two ridings,” said Mr. Allen. “We look forward to helping many more individuals get their passports.”

When applying for a passport, you must provide an original proof of Canadian citizenship in the form of a birth certificate or a certificate of citizenship; supporting identification with your current name and signature, such as a driver’s license, Medicare card or Social Insurance card; and two identical photographs taken within the last 12 months. These can be taken by the photographer of your choice either before or after the clinics.

Also important to remember is that you will need a guarantor, someone who has known you for at least two years and has their own valid passport. They can even be a relative. This individual will need to fill in a portion of your passport application and sign copies of your supporting identification and one of your photos.

Those attending the clinics should also have the names, addresses and telephone numbers of two non-relatives who have known them for more than two years.

Regular passport prices will be charged and are $22 for children up to the age of three, $37 for those aged three to 16 years less a day, and $87 for those aged 16 and over. Credit cards, as well as certified cheques or money orders made out to Receiver General for Canada, are the accepted means of payment at the clinic.

For further information, call the constituency offices of Mike Allen toll free at 1-800-671-6160 or Tilly O’Neill-Gordon at 1-506-778-8448 or the Rural Community of Upper Miramichi office at 1-506-369-9810.