Need some bright ideas on how to travel to Canada without a passport
 

I am in Florida and have a friend in Nova Scotia whose mother is in the hospital. I will be driving up there to help her out. I have a friend down here who is willing to make the LONG drive with me but he has no passport.
Right now there is a 2 week wait to even get an expedited passport. We want to leave within the next week.
Does anybody have any suggestions on how to make this work? I would love to have some company on this trip.
Thanks in advance.

Have them expedite the application process. You said that takes 2 weeks. Then ask them to issue an 'emergency' passport while your friend waits for his new expedited passport.

If you go directly to a Passport Office and wait in Line with the correct paperwork, it is possible to get one very fast...

Thanks for these replies.
We are near Tampa. Wouldn't it have to be a Federal Building?

I was wondering if anybody knows the answers to this. Is it possible to have the passport sent someplace other than one's home address? We could at least get a head start on the process and have it sent to a relative in upstate NY.

You need to go to a PASSPORT AGENCY, not a Passport Office. And you have to make an appointment to do that.

According to http://www.travel.state.gov/passport...edule_852.html your friend will need to present hard-copy "proof of travel" (not sure what that would be in your case - so call and ask!).

Closest location to Tampa is Miami. They will issue the passport card on-site, which is what your friend might need to settle for. Again, call and ask about time to get a passport and if it could be mailed to NY.

The Boston Agency also issues passport cards on site, as does the New York Agency (but not sure you want to deal with NYC traffic issues!). Those are the only ones along your route to Nova Scotia that do so.

See http://travel.state.gov/passport/npi...ncies_913.html for locations, contact info, business hours.

Make sure your friend has ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING that is required, and EXACTLY as required. For example, there are very specific requirements concerning birth certificates, and if your friend does not have one that meets those requirements, there probably is not enough time to get one if you want to leave in a matter of days. Just as an example, my brother-in-law discovered when he applied for his (non-emergency) passport that the birth certificate he had was a "short form" and unacceptable - he needed to get a "long form", which took several days to have mailed to him.

You can scour the passport website to get info on what he will need, download the required forms, etc.

Cranachin,
Your info was spot on. It never occurred to me to get one en route. We will stop in at Boston. I called them for info and will make an appt as soon as I can zero in on a date and time.
Thanks

doesn't the passport have to be mailed to the home address? unless of course, you get it "while you wait."

Have you thought about flying? It might even be cheaper than gasoline, motels, and dinners along the way. Use kayak.com to search for flights.

Spaarne -- the PASSPORT is the issue, not the cost of travel. And this is an older thread - the OP has probably already made the trip and returned home.

The friend's mother either was discharged from the Hospital - or died - last summer . . . .

I didn't look at the date. How does this stuff float to the surface a year later? Yeah, I knew the passport was the issue, for her friend. She wouldn't have needed the travel buddy if she just flew.