Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould has announced that the backlog of passport applications in Canada has been “virtually eliminated” and processing times have returned to pre-pandemic levels. The announcement was made during a press conference at a Liberal cabinet retreat in Hamilton, Ont. on Tuesday.
As COVID-19 restrictions eased, passport offices were slammed by applications and renewals that had been put on the back burner during the pandemic.
Service Canada has issued over two million passports since April 2022, and the government expects that number to reach between three and three and a half million by the end of the fiscal year. The main contributor to the backlog was the high number of new passport applications for first-time passport holders, which are more complex to issue.
When delivering, the government aims to delivery in-person passport applications within 10 days, and 20 days for applications received by mail or dropped off at a Service Canada Centre.
The government plans to focus on maintaining service standards for passport applications in the future.
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
