T&T CG in Toronto moving up delivery time for T&T passports

Dr Tota Maharaj (Right) presents 95 year old Vita Lee with her new Machine Readable Passport. Ms Lee has been living in Canada for over 50 years and still carries her T&T Passport proudly. Looking on is Rhonda Hackett-Thompson, the Consulate’s Vice Consul, Immigration

The Trinidad and Tobago Consulate General in Toronto is now delivering Machine Readable Passports (MRP) to nationals within three to four weeks from the initial date of application. This is down from three months a year ago.

Consul General Dr Vidya Gyan Tota-Maharaj made the point this week at a presentation ceremony of new passports to Nationals held at the Consulate General.

The Consul General said since the beginning of 2012, the Immigration Department in Trinidad has processed over 600 new passports for applicants from the Consulate. She said staff at the Toronto consulate are now working on further reducing the time it takes to deliver the documents.

Currently it takes about two to three weeks to get an appointment with the newly acquired computerized system; the immigration staff handles about 30 applications daily. The Consul General’s goal is to have appointments scheduled with one week and delivery of the passport to the applicant within two to three weeks.

Tota-Maharaj also announced the start of an outreach programme through which the Consulate will connect with T&T nationals across Canada to assist them with their applications for the new Machine Readable Passports.

Phase one of this programme begins on Thursday March 22 in Edmonton, Alberta and will continue on March 23. 

The immigration team will move to Calgary on March 26 and 27. The programme will continue in Vancouver, British Columbia on May 28 and 29. Other stops include Winnipeg, Montreal, Ottawa and New Brunswick later in the year.