Passports to be renewed in 30 business days or it’s free, Service Canada says

The new Canadian passport is unveiled at an event at the Ottawa International Airport in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 10, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Service Canada is offering a new guarantee for travellers looking to get their papers in order: Your passport will be renewed in six weeks, or it’s free.

Announced Friday by Citizens' Services Minister Terry Beech, the guarantee comes as the department seeks to cut down on wait times for services including passports, federal benefits and the social insurance number (SIN) program.

“We are modernizing service delivery and improving the passport program to reduce wait times and costs while ensuring Canadians can access the support they need without unnecessary barriers,” said Parliamentary Secretary Stéphane Lauzon in a Friday release.

The streamlining comes in the wake of the post-pandemic recovery, when a surge in passport renewals led to wait times dragging on for weeks, causing widespread frustration and fear among would-be travellers with plane tickets in hand.

“Despite months of planning, passport offices couldn’t handle the surge in demand,” reads a newly released report from Service Canada, citing a near-quadrupling of incoming phone calls from Canadians between 2021 and 2022.

In the 2021-22 year, Service Canada issued 1.3 million passports, less than half of the three million counted in 2018-19.

Since then, the department says it has ramped up resources to streamline the process, including automated information systems to answer questions from applicants, online passport renewals for eligible Canadians and expanded capacity at in-person locations.

The current standard wait time for passport applications is 20 business days, or four weeks, with some locations offering an expedited turnaround of two weeks.

Service Canada’s new guarantee gives itself an extra two weeks of leeway on top of the standard wait time, which remains at 20 business days, but the department notes that regardless of how their renewal is filed, applicants “will receive a full refund of their passport fees” if their documents fail to be processed in time.

Streamlining SINs could shorten lineups

Beyond passports, Beech says his department is working to accelerate services across the federal bureaucracy, from benefits claims like those through employment insurance (EI), old age security and the Canada Pension Plan, to issuing social insurance numbers.

“With new digital options including online passport renewals, SIN online and digital credentials, Canadians can expect to spend less time in line or waiting on hold,” Beech said in the release.

A majority of EI claims are now either fully or partially automated, the Service Canada report published Friday reads, and newer programs such as the Canada Dental Care Plan have launched with automated application systems.

The Service Canada report highlights new options that don’t require an in-person visit, cutting down on the time and inconvenience for services that can be handled online, and also shortening in-person lineups.

Key among those efforts is the process behind issuing new SINs, which since 2020 has been available to newcomers and young Canadians online, and in the near future, the department expects to expand its SIN@Landing program, which allows arriving newcomers to apply and receive their number before leaving the airport.

The report says bundling SIN applications with other immigration paperwork, planned as part of the forthcoming SIN@Entry program, “could reduce in-person visits to Service Canada Centres by as much as 50 per cent.”