The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Pretty sure there was a pot of gold...

We went in to town on Wednesday and did all of our running around for new passports. I had done a little bit of research as to the price of passport photos, but I could only find one listing where they actually said the price online, and that was $18.25.

We ended up going to the photo studio that was attached to Walmart, simply assuming that they would be the cheapest.

Wrong!

She took the photos and the time came to pay the bill.

$58.50 the girl said.

Huh? How can it be that much? I told her that I wasn't interested at that price.

"Oh, but the Walmart passport photo package comes with a passport wallet."

Well, we don't want the passport wallet. She removed that from the bill and the total with tax came to $48.38.

Still, almost $8.00 more than we should have paid. I can't believe we didn't ask first. The only other place in town was the CAA office. I never did call them to find out how much they cost there.

Oh well. It's done now.

So then we went to the "Service Canada" office in Swift Current, but that particular office doesn't accept passport applications, although  the girl said that most do. She said I would have to drive to Moose Jaw and submit it there.

No thanks.

The next option was Canada Post. Apparently some Canada Post outlets will receive passport applications. But it turns out that the one in Swift Current does not.

So that only leaves one option, and that is to actually mail or courier it to the Passport Canada processing center in Gatineau, Quebec.

Cheapest way to do that was by mail, and the cost was $12.50.

So, $320 for the passports, $48 for the passport photos, and $12.50 to mail them in. A total of $380.50.

Good thing we only have to do that every ten years!

A kind of a funny little storm went through last night. No rain to speak of, but lots of dark clouds and wind. And then a really bright rainbow...

Pretty sure there was a pot of gold out there somewhere!

It was really bright at both ends.

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The 2017 Rand McNalley Road Atlas just keeps on dropping in price. It's never been this cheap, so if you need the updated version, today is a great day to pick one up...




30 comments:

  1. My sister just had her passport picture done at C. A. A. for 14.00 plus tax in London on.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol...that's not what we wanted to hear! I'm going to phone and see how much it is at the CAA office here.

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    2. I just called them. The CAA office here in Swift Current wants $23 plus tax for members, and $26 plus tax for non members. I don't feel so bad now...

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  2. Wow, passport photo prices have sure increased. I have to renew mine in about 6 months and will go for the 10 year as well - worth paying more for no hassle for 10 years.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, it seems like they have gone up. I think I remember us paying about $10 to have them done 5 years ago and that was after searching around. It is definitely nice that we can now have a 10 year passport. It makes the cost of it a little better when you spread it out over that many years.

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  3. We took our last passport photos ourselves - just found a clean white wall, took the photos and then took the file to a local store and had them printed. cost for passport photos and other photos needed for visas was less then $10 us.

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    Replies
    1. Actually it is or was, we have done it in the past.

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    2. No idea how old this rule is, but the current rules say that photos must be taken by a commercial photographer, and the name and complete address of the photo studio and the date the photo was taken must be written on the back.

      http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/passport/apply/photos.asp

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  4. Kevin, I'm surprised neither of you asked beforehand what the price would be!!!

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    Replies
    1. Yes you are right, we should have asked beforehand but we got talking right away to the two girls working there and one we knew from the campground so we sort of got sidetracked there and forgot to ask. Plus, we just assumed that it was Walmart so you would have thought they would have had the best price, not so!

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  5. Too bad passport selfies aren't allowed in Canada. My cell phone took mine for free :)

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    Replies
    1. Yep, it is too bad! We even looked at that option 5 years ago and it wasn't allowed then either. I just checked back on our blog post from then and the same question came up in the comments and our answer was the same then, it has to be done by a professional photographer and then stamped by them on the back of the photos. :-(

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  6. WOW...that is a hunk of change to pay for your passports.
    Love the rainbow photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, but that is for both passports and when you spread it out over 10 years, it doesn't sound quite as bad.

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  7. Replies
    1. Thanks Chris! I think this is the best that it has looked since we have been here. We have been getting a lot of areas cleaned up that haven't been done in years and we have had enough rain to keep everything nice and green.

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  8. Better come back to Ontario ,! Ours did not Cost near that less then half of that

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but then we would have to buy a Costco membership so it all of a sudden becomes more expensive!

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  9. I really feel bad sharing this with you but we got ours done in May for $7.00 each at Costco.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I knew that Costco was the cheapest in Canada (once you've paid for the Costco membership). But we don't have a Costco nearby anyhow.

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  10. We took our last passport photos ourselves (ever so carefully, following all the rules), but this was in the US. And living in an RV now, we don't have a white wall to take them against anyway! ;-) Oh well, at least you got 'em done, right?!

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    Replies
    1. I wish we could but unfortunately Canada is pretty strict on the requirements for our passport photos. We had even looked into it 5 years ago and had the same issue. :-(

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  11. That's a ridiculous amount of money for passports! We had to get new passports in 2015 and had photos taken in Walgreen's, which was great, as we needed extra pics for Nepal (or Bhutan, I forget), and they just threw in the extras w/o charge. I forget the price, but it was very reasonable. Hey, in another ten years, who knows if we'll even be using passports!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It seems an awful lot of money at one time but over the 10 years it works out to be $19.25 each and that is money well spent seeing that we need a passport to be able to travel the world! :-)

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  12. 38.50 pr year for the price of traveling around the world come on that's priceless

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    Replies
    1. And, that is the price for two, so one would be $19.50 each! Not too bad, all things considered when you look at it. :-)

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  13. on the research that I have done it only requires that you HAVE a passport size photo does NOT require you to go to a commercial place and have it done you can do it yourself
    White background only frontal photograph Only no headcover any kind
    You can do that with your digital camera take the photograph take the memory card to any Photo mat like Walmart get it printed out as a passport size Photo and as many as Canada requires Cost you $.50 each
    But then again you $48 just contributed to the local economy and probably some city or Province project

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You need to go to the Canadian Passport website itself. In it it states that in Canada you must have a professional photographer and they have to put there stamp on the back of the photo. Please check out http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/passport/apply/photos.asp Look at the second paragraph that is in yellow under the picture of the photo it states "The requirements for passport photos in Canada are different from those in the United States and other countries. Photos must be taken in person by a commercial photographer and must comply with the Government of Canada's Passport Program photo requirements. If not, your application will be rejected."

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  14. Please accept my apologies and and now I remember the reason why I don't go to Canada sticky sticky sticky
    But then again it'll only be a matter of time before the US starts doing the same thing

    ReplyDelete

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