Passport offices are still dealing with an increase in applications, says the responsible minister, and waiting times are “far from acceptable.”
Karina Gould says these long waiting times are her top priority, but she can’t say when things can return to normal.
The federal government says 72 per cent of Canadians applying for a passport will somehow get it in 40 business days, while 96 per cent of people applying in person will get their passport in person. in 10 working days.
Read more: Delays in Canadian passport frustrate travelers. What is the solution?
The government website now includes estimated waiting times for passport office visits, updated three times a day, to help people plan.
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On Monday afternoon, you could wait four hours and 45 minutes at the Ottawa location, three hours in Toronto, and six hours and 45 minutes in Vancouver.
Gould says his department is considering more changes, including moving the application process online.
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He also says his department works with Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship of Canada to determine if there is a way to issue passports to people as they obtain their citizenship instead of requiring a separate application. Both examples will take time to implement.
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There are typically between two and five million passport applications a year in Canada. During the pandemic, only about 1.5 million passports were issued in two years.
As a result, passport staff received another job during this time and Service Canada is now trying to relocate that job to another location.
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And while Gould says 2022 is on track to be at the top of the typical range, close to five million, “we’ve usually been able to manage this volume all year, but we’re seeing that l ‘increase occurs at the same time. time, which of course is leading to long alignments “.
Australia’s passport processing time 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.
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