The other day a friend was talking about renewing her passport a couple of months ago. She didn't need her birth certificate. Sure enough, I checked the web site and voila the rules did change.
Now that doesn't diminish the tardery I have gone through with L'etat Civil and getting my birth certificate. It does make things easier though. :)
I just renewed my passport (through the Canadian embassy in Seoul) and I had to have someone from home take my birth certificate to the passport office in my hometown and have a copy faxed to the embassy here. And if I hadn't been able to have someone find my bc in Canada, I was told I would have to apply online for a new one and then once it was received it would have to be copied and faxed here. And this was at the end of June, so either the rules changed very recently or renewing overseas is stricter. About two weeks into the process I got a call from the embassy because the officer (or whatever she's called) was having a difficult time getting hold of my references to confirm me with them - of course she was calling Canada during Seoul daytime hours when all my references were asleep. Anyway, I did finally get my passport but it was almost 6 weeks from the time I applied until it came back to the embassy for me to pick up. And what I don't understand is, why is it such a big deal to renew when you've got your old passport in hand already? You have your passport in your possession and it has your picture in it ffs! The government red tape is mind-boggling.
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