Harry Hays Building

Note: This review is based on my June 6, 2022 + June 24, 2022 experiences and may be helpful/relevant for people who are seeking passports who are travelling within 3-45 business days.Major highlight of the review - For people who are travelling within 3-45 business days and require a passport: Go to the Sundance Passport Office! You can still order rush passports there, and are much more likely to see an agent. On June 22, 2022, of the 200+ people who were not travelling within 2 business days, a maximum of only 55 people got through to an agent, of whom would have all arrived before 7am. If you of course have an appointment or are travelling within 2 business days, this is the place for you!My Experience:June 6, 2022, passport attempt #1: Arrived at Passport office 8:30am, waited in line until 9:30am until I eventually was seated in the upper staging area. Waited in upper staging area until 12:30pm until I checked with the guard regarding my likelihood to see an agent. Upon asking, he indicated that only maybe 15 of the 100 people in my group (requiring passport within 3-45 business days) would see an agent. The staff are very careful not to make gaurantees to anyone about anything but it was very clear it was hopeless at that point so I decided to leave. However, it was worth pointing out that the security and management continued to let the line build outside even though the likelihood of them seeing an agent is 0% unless you have an appointment or travel within 2 days. It was disheartening to see staff here give 0 regard for peoples time and the impact of making them pointlessy stand in line for several hours.June 24, 2022, passport attempt #2: Arrived at Harry Hayes 4:00am, and was the ~10th person in line. Doors to the building opened at 6:00am and we were shuffled into the upper staging area into 3 groups; The 1st group were people who had appointment, the 2nd were people travelling within 2 business days and the 3rd were people who were travelling within 3-45 business days. The process in which people are processed is in that order. By ~7:00am there were 20 people in group 1, 100 people in group 2, and 100+ people in group 3. I was group 3 and upon grouping, I roughly became the equivilent of the ~125th person in line. As more people in Group 1 and 2 trickle in throughout the day, your place in line continually gets bumped. I continued to stick it out and eventually got moved to the lower staging area at 2:00pm after an 8 hour wait in upper staging area. Waited another 2 hours in the lower staging area and finally got my passport application in and was able to leave by 4pm. Woohoo! So all in all, a 12 hour ordeal.Positives about the experience:-The passport application got in and there is a high likelyhood it will arrive in time for travel!-The upper staging area is a small auditoriam with 160+ seats and is relatively well organized. If you need to get up to use the bathroom, get food, take phone calls, etc, you have that flexibility.Negatives about the experience:-If I would have known that I could have gone to Sundance, I would have. I heard from a few people that the wait at Sundance would be much less (eg. 1.5 hours vs. 12 hours) because there is not the same conflict with higher priority requests.-There is a weird power dynamic between with the security/staff, which resulted in common sense and decency being virtually non-existent. One example I observed is that a mother brought her ~12 year old son with her to apply for a passport. However, since she was only doing 1 application, only one of them could be in the room due to capacity issues" even though the room was only 50% full at the time. The son ended up waiting in the Harry Hayes lobby unattended during that period. The mother was visibly distraught and questioned the security and managers several times on the rationale for not allowing him to enter the waiting room

Excellent experience!Security was polite and courteous.Staff had a positive and friendly attitude both times I was here, as well I found them to be very helpful.Service was efficient, the wait was minimal even though they were busy.I would definitely recommend booking an appointment.My only disappointment was each time here I paid for an hour and fifteen minutes parking.In total I overpaid by an hour and forty minutes.Though I would caution, Better safe than sorry.A good day to you!

BOOK AN APPOINTMENT FOR YOUR PASSPORT OR ELSE. Omg the set up for waiting for a passport is straight up sickening. Simply put. Book an appointment more than 6 weeks out and you'll be good.

Went to renew my passport at lunchtime on a weekday and only waited about an hour. Very smooth process and only took me a week to get my new passport in the mail, pleasantly surprised.

Staff are all friendly and helpful. Waiting for 2 hrs but you can just have a seat and bring a book …

Very friendly staff and the service was quicker than we were told we would wait. Applied for an express passport and Recieved in 2 days.

I followed the advice of the early bird reviewers on here and had a successful trip. I just wanted to have a smooth trip and be out early.Just like I read on here the waiting room opens at 6. The office doesn't open until 830. I went on Friday, got there at 630 and was the first person. By 730 there were about 20 people and by 830 there were 80 people. Right at 830 the first 20 people were called to the passport office. 3 people had jumped the line because they were there yesterday and given a pass for today. People who need a fast passport in 2 days or 10 days or whatever did not get to jump the line. They were just told to tell the person in the office once it was there turn. I was fully prepared with my application filled out and all my required documents and pictures. Was out of the building by 8:40. Rest of the day free and clear!

Passport:Jan 31 - arrived at 7:30am and there were about 30 people in front of me.We waited in a waiting room until 8:30am (when the passport office opens) and I was all done by 9:30am.They were organized and things were moving fast.

Super long waits, no order at all, this place will waist your time, waited in line starting @ 7amThe place opens at 8:30. Don’t worry you be put in the back of the line if you need a passport, if your applying for SIN number, or have a flight in 24hours, you will get front of the line. I waited all day for them to tell me to go home, for hard working peoples this is a joke, you can thank Justin Trudeau. We need better process. But you can’t expect that from our government….

No convenience, no matter the route or stuffs. It's an unbelievable morning trip, avoiding it if your time is money.