Passport services are still dealing with a large number of applications, the minister in charge said, and the waiting time is “far from acceptable”.
Karina Gould says waiting a long time is her top priority, but can’t say when things can return to normal.
The federal government says 72% of Canadians who apply for a passport in any way will receive it within 40 business days, while 96% of people who apply in person will receive their passport within 10 working days.
The government’s website now includes estimated waiting times for passport office visits, updated three times a day to help people plan.
On Monday afternoon, you can expect to wait four hours and 45 minutes on the spot in Ottawa, three hours in Toronto and six hours and 45 minutes in Vancouver.
Gould says her department is considering further changes, including moving the application process online.
She also says her department works with Canadian immigration, refugees and citizenship to determine if there is a way to issue passports to people when they become citizens, instead of requiring a separate application. Both examples will take time to implement.
In Canada, there are usually between two million and five million passport applications a year. Only about 1.5 million passports were issued during the two-year pandemic.
As a result, passport staff were given other jobs during this time, and Service Canada is now trying to move that job elsewhere.
And while Gould says 2022 is about to be at the high end of the typical range, close to five million, “we’ve usually managed to manage that volume all year, but we see the jump happening at the same time, which of course , leads to long lineups. “
Passport processing time in Australia is six weeks, according to Gould, while it takes 10 weeks to obtain a passport in the United Kingdom and 11 weeks to obtain one in the United States.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on June 13, 2022.
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