10-day passport pick-up expanded to four more Service Canada centres

Canadians in select provinces can now apply for and pick up their passport at four newly-designated Service Canada locations.

Effective immediately, applicants can retrieve their passport at Service Canada offices in Lethbridge, AB, Sudbury, ON, Kingston, ON, and Sherbrooke, QC.

Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Karina Gould shared the update on Wednesday (Sept. 7), saying that Service Canada is “working tirelessly to identify and implement solutions that not only improve the speedy delivery of passports, but also improve the service experience for Canadians.”

“We will continue to make our services more accessible for all Canadians,” Minister Gould stated.

In-person applications, pick-up

In addition to the existing passport offices offering pick-up service, Canadians with proof of travel can now both apply and request in-person pick-up of their passport at a total of eight Service Canada Centres.

Unlike the regular Service Canada Centres, these eight locations offer 10-day service, which means that Canadians can apply for a passport in one of those locations and the passport will be available in 10 business days, either by mail or in person pick-up.

If Canadians need their passport in less than 10 business days, they will need to visit a passport office that offers Express or Urgent pick-up service.

READ MORE: Feds expect passport backlog to “drop significantly” by end of summer

More scheduled outreach sites that will provide certain passport services will be added “in the coming weeks,” the government stated in a press release.

Service Canada’s triage system, introduced this summer in 17 of 35 passport offices, has “made a significant impact in reducing lineups and redirecting Canadians to the appropriate means to access service,” the government says.

The average wait time at call centres has improved, going from a peak of 108 minutes in April to 28 minutes last week, according to federal officials.

Since April 1, 2022, Service Canada says it has issued 912,236 passports.

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