The Canadian government has announced that starting this year, passports will be issued within 30 business days. Otherwise, the applicant will receive a full refund.

This was announced by Minister of Civil Services Terry Beach at a press conference in Ottawa on March 7.

“Canadians can expect to receive their passport within 30 business days. If not, the document will be free,” he said. However, the delivery time by mail is not included in this period.

According to the minister, 126 online applications are processed daily, and this figure is expected to increase to 500 by May. In-person applications are already processed within 10 days in 99% of cases.

The 30-day guarantee policy will apply to all methods of application: online, in person, or by mail.

As part of the service improvements, the government will open new passport processing centres, including in Surrey and Charlottetown.

The workload on passport services has increased sharply since the pandemic, with 5.4 million passports expected to be issued in 2025. The number of staff has been doubled to speed up the process.