For some, the mere waiting to get a passport has increased from hours to days. Sonia Basili applied for her son’s passport in person in April. Sitting outside the Montreal office on Tuesday, she says she and her family had no choice but to line up, starting at 6pm the previous day. Her flight to France departs on Wednesday night. “My mom sat here, then my husband slept here. We went in this morning, it was very disorganized. We did not make the cut, so we went back and slept here tonight and we will go tomorrow morning,” Basili told CTV. National News. She remains positive, but says she is lucky to have family members who can sit when needed, knowing that others do not have that privilege. Basili says she even had to take time off work to wait in line. “When we go in, what happens next?” he said. “We’ll make it or we’ll be stuck outside, sleeping outside again for the next day.” Growing interest in travel after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen passport applications skyrocket, creating huge backlogs that force some Canadians to cancel or reschedule their travel plans, possibly leaving them with thousands of dollars. Some are advertising services to stand in line for passport applicants, for a price, while a woman from Vancouver bought a return flight to Edmonton just to get her document on time for a trip to Las Vegas. She recorded her experience on TikTok. A statement from Canada Service in May said it had hired 600 new staff to process passport applications and opened additional specialist passport counters at more than 300 centers. “We have recruited an additional 600 people since January, in the process of recruiting another 600,” said Family, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould. “Hundreds were redeployed internally to Service Canada, bringing in people from the CRA (Canadian Revenue Service), immigration. Talking to Global Affairs and other departments to see how we can further expand our workforce to ensure that “Canadians get their passports on time.” A ticket system is expected to be put in place so that passport applicants do not have to camp outside. With files from CTV News