A Canadian passport () is a passport issued to citizens of Canada. It enables the bearer to enter or re-enter Canada freely; travel to and from other countries in accordance with visa requirements; facilitates the process of securing assistance from Canadian consular officials abroad, if necessary; and requests protection for the bearer while abroad.
All Canadian passports are issued through the Passport Program of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)."Passport Program Annual Report for 2016 – 2017". Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Retrieved 11 March 2018. (See p. 8 for percentage figure and p. 15 for number of travel documents in circulation.) Prior to 1 July 2013, Canadian passports were issued through Passport Canada, an independent operating agency of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.. Passports are normally valid for five or ten years for persons 16 years of age and older, and five years for children under 16. In 2025, 67% of Canadians had passports, with over 27 million passports in circulation. Although held by individual citizens, all Canadian passports legally remain the property of the Crown and must be returned to the Passport Program upon request.
Canada is a member of the Five Nations Passport Group, an international forum for cooperation between the passport issuing authorities of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States in order to "share best practices and discuss innovations related to the development of passport policies, products and practices".
Historically, the Canadian passport has been a target of counterfeiters and other misuse. Canada began issuing biometric passports to Canadian citizens on 1 July 2013. The newest passport became available on 18 June 2023. It received backlash over the removal of historic national symbols and imagery.
, the Canadian passport ranks seventh in the world in terms of the number of destinations that their holders can access without a prior visa according to the Henley Passport Index.
History
The first Canadian passports were issued in 1862 following the outbreak of the American Civil War, when the United States demanded more secure identification from Canadians wishing to cross the border. They took the form of a "Letter of Request" from the Governor General of Canada. These documents remained in use until 1915, when Canadian passports were first issued in the British format, a ten-section single-sheet folder.
The modern form of the Canadian passport came about in 1921. At that time, Canadians were British subjects, and Canada shared a common nationality with the United Kingdom; thus, Canadian passports were issued to those British subjects resident in or connected to Canada. This arrangement ended in 1947, when the Canadian Citizenship Act was granted Royal Assent and the designation of Canadian citizenship was created. Beginning in July the following year, Canadian passports were issued to Canadian citizens only. However, the first page of Canadian Passports still declared that "A Canadian Citizen is a British Subject", as such was a main clause of the Citizenship Act 1946. This would remain until the act was overhauled and replaced by the Citizenship Act 1976, after which the phrase on the first page of Canadian Passports was changed to read: "The bearer of this passport is a Canadian citizen.""First page of old Canadian Passport " (image). Shelby County Register of Deeds.
Between 1947 and 1970, Canadian citizens could only apply for passports by mail to Ottawa. Requirements were simple, and applicants claiming birth in Canada did not have to provide proof of birth. The relaxed security led to numerous cases of misuse of the passport, which made the need to tighten the application requirements evident. In 1970, the first three Passport Canada offices were opened in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.
The size dimensions of a closed Canadian passport were originally much larger. This changed in the early 1980s in the lead up to the introduction of Machine-Readable Passports (MRP) when the smaller sized booklet was first introduced.
In 1985, the first version of MRPs was issued, in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards. An amended version came into circulation in 1991, with additional security features and more stringent processing requirements. By 1993, a newer version of MRP was introduced, which contained unique features to prevent replication or alteration.
Since 11 December 2001, children have not been included in parents' passports, and passports have been issued for one person only.
In 2002, Passport Canada began to issue an updated version within Canada, which includes the digitally printed photo of the bearer embedded into the identification page of the booklet, holographic images, bar-coded serial number, and a second hidden photo of the bearer that could only be viewed under ultraviolet light. Canadian diplomatic missions abroad adopted this version in 2006. In March 2010, the passport was upgraded to include a new design of the identification page and more anti-counterfeit elements, such as the new colours of Optically Variable Ink and addition of laser perforated number. The cover, watermark, personalization technique and holographic laminate are same with the 2002 version. The 2010 version was also the last revision of MRP prior to the release of e-passports.
In the 2008 federal budget, Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, announced that biometric passports (or "e-passports") would be introduced by 2011. A pilot project began in 2009, with ePassports being issued to special and diplomatic passport applicants. The ePassport roll-out was pushed back to 1 July 2013. On the same day, the issuing authority of Canadian passports was shifted from Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada to Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC), now known as IRCC.
A newly designed passport featuring a polycarbonate data page, new security features, and artwork was rolled out in summer 2023.
Changes
Official languages
In September 2003, Le Devoir printed a letter calling on Passport Canada to give individual Canadians the choice of which official language appeared first in their passports, English or French.Lettres: Sourire dans sa langue... sur son passeport, Le Devoir, 5 September 2003 The Passport Office claimed that this was not allowed under international norms, but it was shown that Belgian passport applications asked Belgian citizens which of their country's three official languages (Dutch, French, or German) should appear first in their passports.Demande de PasseportAanvraag tot afgifte van een Paspoort
ePassport
In 2008, Passport Canada announced that it would be issuing electronic passports to Canadian travellers starting in 2012. The ePassport will have an electronic chip encoded with the bearer's name, gender, date and place of birth, and a digital portrait of their face.
On 7 April 2010, Passport Canada announced that in 2012, Canada would begin issuing electronic passports, or ePassports, to all its citizens. Passport Canada states that "the use of ePassports will allow Canada to follow international standards in the field of passport security to protect the nation's borders and maintain the ease of international travel that Canadians currently enjoy. At the same time, Passport Canada will start offering the option of a 10-year validity period as well as the current 5-year validity period."
In September 2011, Passport Canada announced that the ePassport would be ready by the end of 2012; however, this was pushed back to 2013 when the organization found significant delay because of an increase in passport applications for revised entry policies to the United States in the late 2000s and a lengthy consultation process was needed to survey public reactions to the new passport changes.
All Canadian passports issued on or after 1 July 2013 have been ePassports.
All ePassports are now issued with 38 pages. From 2013 to 2023 they had 36 pages, and there had previously been a choice of 24 or 48 pages with the machine-readable passports.
Proposed online application process
In 2015, IRCC (then known as CIC) planned to modify the passport renewal system by integrating the passport issuance platform with its Global Case Management System (GCMS), a consolidated IT system for citizenship and immigration applications. Under the proposed system modelled after New Zealand, passport holders would no longer need to return their old passports to CIC for cancellation, but can instead apply for a new passport online while keeping the old documents before they receive the new ones. Instead of returning the old passports, applicants would be asked to cut the corners of these documents "through an honour system". The new process was expected to be available in November 2015; however, the plan was cancelled in October when the use of GCMS for passport applications was temporarily suspended due to numerous security glitches in the system. IRCC permanently suspended the use of GCMS for passport applications in February 2016 following an internal audit. GCMS will not be used for passport applications until all risks, which include "Passport Program business requirements", are identified and secured.
2023 series
On 10 May 2023, the government of Canada announced a new design for the Canadian passport. Printing of the new passport started in summer 2023 and it became available on 18 June 2023.
There was backlash against the removal of historic national and Indigenous symbols in the new passport design. Images commemorating Canadian sacrifices in war, such as the Vimy Ridge Memorial and National War Memorial, as well as iconic Canadians like Terry Fox, women's suffrage activist Nellie McClung, and Billy Bishop were removed from the passport. The Vimy Foundation, the Royal Canadian Legion, and mayor of Terry Fox's hometown, Brad West, released statements voicing their disappointment about the respective removals of images with which they are associated.
Other symbols that were removed include , the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup, the Bluenose, Pier 21, the North-West Mounted Police and RCMP, the Last Spike, Centre Block of Parliament, Niagara Falls, Old Quebec, and Cape Spear. Indigenous symbols removed include the Inuit inukshuk, the First Nations' eagle feather, and the Métis infinity symbol. Other people removed include the Fathers of Confederation, Samuel de Champlain 'Father of New France', and Joseph-Elzéar Bernier. Quotes from Sir John A. Macdonald, Sir George-Étienne Cartier, John Diefenbaker, and Sir Wilfrid Laurier were also removed.
The Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser, said feedback received in passport design consultations included a desire to "celebrate our diversity and inclusion", and to "celebrate our natural environment".
There has been criticism that the new passports are prone to bending, risking their acceptability or validity to border personnel. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) responded that the new passports are more sensitive to heat and humidity due to their manufacturing, but this doesn't affect their functionality.
Application and issuance
Section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that "every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada." All Canadian citizens are legally entitled to a Canadian passport, which is prima facie proof of Canadian citizenship. Conclusive proof of Canadian citizenship, as dictated by the IRCC, only includes the following documents:
Canadian citizenship certificate; Canadian citizenship card; Birth certificate from a Canadian province or territory; Naturalization certificate as a British subject in Canada (issued before 1 January 1947); Registration of birth abroad certificate (issued between 1 January 1947 and 14 February 1977); and,