Surrey woman will wait in line for your passport renewal, for a fee

If you're one of the hundreds of people waiting in seemingly endless passport renewal lines... a Surrey high schooler is willing to hold your spot -- for a price. Kier Junos reports on one student's entrepreneurial bent.

By Denise Wong, Claire Fenton, and Victoria Mann

Posted April 29, 2022 1:48 pm.

Last Updated May 3, 2022 3:36 pm.

As many Canadians set their sights on overdue summer getaways, the prospect of standing in line at the Service Canada office is more daunting than ever. A woman in Surrey is offering a solution — if you have the cash.

“I’m offering to stand in line for a pay of $50 per hour … Just so they don’t have to wait,” Kayla Frost explained to CityNews of her business idea.

Frost posted an ad for her services to Facebook Marketplace Friday morning, advertising herself as a “Line Holder.” She says the idea came to her after passing a Service Canada location with family and seeing the long lineups for passports.

“I’m like, ‘I bet you guys, I could make money doing this.’ So I posted the ad. And within five minutes, I had a few messages. I had over 500 views … It went really fast.”

A Facebook Marketplace ad for a “Line Holder” on April 29, 2022. (Screengrab/Facebook)

Facebook had removed the posting by noon, before anyone took her up on her services. But that’s not stopping Frost from pursuing her money-making idea.

“I’m going to print out some posters and go hang them up around the mall and around passport services offices, and hand them out to people,” she said, adding this approach also gives her a chance to introduce herself face-to-face.

“I feel like it’d be better to go see the people in person, so they know I’m not a scammer … A lot of Facebook ads are scams, so I understand why they took it down.”

When asked how much of her personal time she’s prepared to devote to this “job,” she said she’d draw the line at staying overnight, out of safety concerns.

Long lineups at Service Canada, as well as longer than normal mail-in delays, have left many people who are in need of a new passport in limbo. Service Canada says passport request call levels have risen from around 5,000 a day pre-pandemic to over 200,000.

Service Canada doesn’t have any rules against people standing in line on someone’s behalf at a passport office, noting applications may be submitted by a relative and can meet and provide proof of certain criteria. However, you can’t do that for any urgent or express applications.

In a statement, Service Canada acknowledged the long lineups and wait times, adding its focus “is on ensuring anyone with travel in 25 days is prioritized for service.”

“As of April 25, 2022, the average processing time for passports is five days if applying in person at a specialized Passport site and 26 days if applying at a Service Canada Centre or by mail. Although processing times are currently longer than prior to the pandemic, 72 per cent of applications are being processed within the service standard.”

Although the key to getting a passport within a week appears to be to apply in person at a dedicated passport office, that seems like a daunting task for some people trying to get their applications in.

A Coquitlam woman recently shared her experience at the Service Canada office at Central City Mall in Surrey.

Sophie Ma told CityNews she arrived at 4 a.m. and saw 40 people, some of whom apparently stayed overnight to get a spot, were already waiting outside. According to Ma, she spent over 12 hours in a lineup that barely moved.

She was seeking an urgent passport renewal for her son, who was supposed to go to Japan for a medical procedure. She was forced to cancel both the flight and procedure.

In the House of Commons earlier this week, Conservative MP Brad Vis demanded to know what is causing the backlog.

“Why is passport Canada offering such poor service? And why don’t they get their ducks in a row and give Canadians the service they expect from a key government office?” he asked on Tuesday.

Service Canada Minister and Liberal MP Karina Gould assured the agency was doing everything it could, highlighting recent staffing additions.

“We have in fact hired an additional 500 passport officers to help process this, we have made Service Canadas available to ensure individuals who need to travel on a non-urgent basis can deposit their applications,” she said.