In May 2023, Ottawa stated that beginning that autumn, Canadians with easy passport renewals will be able to apply online, pay costs, and upload the relevant paperwork and passport images to a secure government website.
However, the season passed without an announcement or any changes to the passport renewal website, which currently only permits renewal applicants to submit applications in person or by mail.
An Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) spokesman refused to provide a date for when the service will be available.
“Online passport renewals are not available at this time; however, the Government of Canada is committed to offering secure online passport service options for Canadians in the near future,” according to an email sent to journalists on Wednesday.
When Global News requested an update from IRCC in November, a representative responded in an email that the government was “working on” implementing an online passport renewal service “that is secure and protects data privacy.”
“We will communicate proactively when we have more information to share,” a spokeswoman stated at the time.
The department has not given a reason for the delay.
Testing of the Online Passport Renewal System
During the May 2023 announcement, which also included the unveiling of a new Canadian passport design, Karina Gould, then the social development minister and now the government House leader, stated that there had been “internal” pilot tests on the online renewal system, which appeared to be successful.
“We would never launch this project publicly until there is an assurance that those kinks have been worked through,” the actress stated.
Other countries, like the United Kingdom and Ireland, already provide online passport renewals.
Canada, the United States, and other countries felt pressure to improve their passport systems after the COVID-19 pandemic caused large backlogs and wait times for applications.
Long lines and congested waiting rooms plagued passport offices and Service Canada Centres across the country, but the government was eventually able to minimise the backlog and declared it “virtually eliminated” in January of last year. Service Canada currently claims that it is reaching its service criteria of delivering new passports within 10 to 20 days.
Gould explained that lessons learnt from pandemic-era delays, as well as those caused by a public service strike this spring, led to the development of a digital renewal alternative.
“For people who are just doing a simple renewal of a valid passport, it will be a lot quicker and easier to process as well, because we already have that data in the system,” she stated in a news conference on May 20, 2023.
Meanwhile, the US State Department has announced that its online renewal system is now fully operational, following successful testing in pilot programs this summer.
It will be available to individuals whose passports have expired in the last five years or will expire within the next year, but not for new passport applications, children’s passports, or renewals outside of the United States.
The department predicted that approximately five million Americans would be able to use this service each year.
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