So my passport still had 4 months to expire so I decided to renew it to avoid delays whenever I decide to travel. I live in Halifax Nova Scotia and since I was in Montreal for some weeks, I decided to take advantage of the proximity to Ottawa to get the passport done once and for all.
I googled how to renew your passport and gathered all the necessary documents including a copy of my NIN and the plastic National ID card (I already got this from Nigeria). I made my payment online and printed out the payment receipt.
I took the via rail train from Montreal at 6:20 and arrived in Ottawa at 8:20. I took another train to Parliament station and walked to the embassy. I arrived at 9am to find alot of people to my amazement. There was a sheet of paper where we wrote our names to determine order of going into the building. I was #24 on the list.
We were ushered into the building and given numbers. A lady collected our documents and asked us to wait. I didn't need the NIN and ID card. Everything was efficient upto this point.
We waited for about 2 hours before someone came and told us the printer was not working hence we would not get our passports same day. It would be mailed to us hence we should go and get prepaid envelopes from Canada Post. We were finally asked to go for capture in batches. Mine was the second batch. The process was pretty much ok. I left there at about 12:00 noon.
Overall the process was pretty ok but you cannot make plans as you don't know what you will meet there. The staff were friendly and made a lot of jokes to make us feel at home.
I had read that some people did not spend up to 10 mins in previous appointments.
I am now taking the bus back to Montreal since I took the risk to buy a return train ticket ( I could've bought one way though) and missed my train.
Key take away: Do not wait until it's close to your trip to renew your passport. It's too risky and you don't know the situation you will meet at the high commission.