Ip says she’s been searching online for a month for an appointment at Service Canada centers and passport offices, but couldn’t find one within 50 kilometers of her home in Aurora, Ont. “I don’t trust the system right now, but what can I do?” he said. “It’s a standby.” Ip is one of many Canadians weighing the possibility of committing to travel as Service Canada is reeling from overwhelming demand for passports as pandemic restrictions eased, forcing thousands to wait in line at centers across the country. She says she won’t risk losing her family’s personal documents in the mail to apply for passports — or spend money on plane tickets she might not be able to use. Janice Ip and her sons Aiden, second from left, and Desmond need passports to visit the children’s grandmother in Hong Kong after not seeing her for three years. (Submitted by Janice Ip) And taking a day off from work to queue is not an option. “We actually can’t afford to wait in line just because of the nature of our work. We can’t work from home,” he said. CBC News asked Families Minister Karina Gould, the minister responsible for passport services, how Canadians should approach passport applications in the coming weeks.
Should I mail my passport application?
It’s best not to mail in your passport application for now because of the “enormous delays,” Gould said. “For some people, mail is the only option and we want to make sure the channel is available to them, but the passport system is really designed as a personal service,” he said. Gould added that the in-person visit allows officers to check personal documents required for passport applications, such as birth certificates and citizenship cards, and return them immediately.
Why is my passport program phone line being closed?
Canadians have complained of being unable to reach Service Canada phone companies after waiting hours, only to hear an automated message hang up on them. “Sometimes your cell phone provider, if you’ve been on hold for a period of time, will drop the call … And that’s not really because of the Government of Canada system, because we take all of those calls,” Gould said. A spokesman for Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says 135 officers currently work at the passport call center and an additional 40 officers from 1-800-O-CANADA – the general telephone line for information about federal government services – provide support. Service Canada launched a system in mid-April that plays a message when lines are full instead of a busy signal or dropping calls immediately. Before then, callers would be automatically disconnected when the lines were busy. The state agency received 949,921 calls between July 4 and July 10. Gould says Service Canada expects 500 more passport officers to be on the job — and 383 citizen service officers who can support them in the passporting process — by the end of July.
Will I get my documents in time for a trip this fall?
Unless you have urgent travel plans, your safest bet would be to wait until September to apply for a passport. “The goal is that in four to six weeks, we’ll be out of the backlog,” Gould said. He hopes that, by then, people who have posted their applications will finally receive their passports and that Service Canada can meet regular service standards. “We need to do better and, frankly, modernize the way passport applications are made,” he said. “Some of them [measures to digitize the service] It’s going to take a few weeks and a few months to do because it’s a change in the nature of the process.” Service Canada has issued 556,796 passports since April 1. It predicts it will receive between 3.6 and 4.3 million applications in the 2022-2023 financial year.
My application was not processed in time. How do I get my refund?
You are entitled to free pickup and delivery services for your passport if Service Canada does not process your complete application according to service standards, which are 20 business days for mailed applications and 10 business days for in-person submissions. To get a refund of $50 to $150 for expedited and emergency pick-up fees, you can file a claim against the Crown, Gould said. Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould says the passport application system needs to be modernised. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press) “Sometimes what happens is people have submitted their application and if they’re still within the processing time and they’re requesting expedited processing, then they have to pay the postage,” he said. “If it’s day 22 or 24, then they don’t have to pay it.” Service Canada says it is not responsible for financial losses if passports are not delivered in time for your trip. He urges Canadians not to finalize their travel plans until they have their passports.
Passport Office or Canada Service Centre: where should I go?
Travelers hoping to leave within a week or so should speak to an officer in person at a passport office, which offers on-site printing services, Gould says. All other travelers will have to visit a Canadian service center, which it says is not “passport specific.” If your departure date is within 24 to 48 hours, no appointment is required to see a passport officer, according to ESDC, but you will need to show proof of travel.
What’s stopping Canada from allowing online renewals?
One of the main challenges in streamlining online requirements, Gould says, is that most of the applications Service Canada receives are for people who have never held Canadian passports. Passport renewals make up only 12 to 15 percent of applications, he said, but the federal government is trying to develop an online application system for simple renewals. “We haven’t had it before, so we have to build it and we have to make sure it works,” he said. “But that is actively being worked on right now because we want to make the process as seamless as possible for Canadians.”
