New Look Canadian Passport and New Online Renewal Process
Posted on 14/05/2023
Have you ever mailed in your Canadian passport application from overseas or even from inside Canada? There’s always that nagging uncertainty that your application – including your previous passport and any other supporting documents you might need – might possibly get lost or arrive weeks and weeks later than expected.
Later this fall (2023) these worries will become a thing of the past as Canada transitions to an online application process for renewing your passport. What this means is that you will soon be able to:
- Renew your passport,
- Pay your fees, and
- Upload your photograph online.
Along with the online process, your renewed Canadian passport will have a new look and format, incorporating state-of-the-art security features.
Please note that this does NOT mean that all Canadian passport holders have to immediately renew their passports and obtain the new-look passport using the new online format. Your current Canadian passport remains valid until its expiry date at which point – or a few months before as is always suggested – you then use the online format to renew it.
Here’s what the new version of your Canadian passport will feature:
- It will be a similar dark blue but the writing on the cover (Canada Passport Passeport) will have a very different look and it will feature metallic foils in the shape of maple leaves on the covers.
- Inside the covers the visa pages will have images of Canada’s peoples, landscapes, and fauna that show added details under ultraviolet light.
- Your personal information page will be made of water-resistant polycarbonate and be laser engraved.
- On the inside of the front cover, you will have colour-shifting ink shaped as a deer and snowflake.
- On the opposite page there will be a visible passport chip and antennae for added security.
- There’s also a kinegram that changes colours as well as a photograph of you and your birth date that appear and disappear depending on the angle you look at them from.
These are welcome changes for what is the 4th ranked passport in the world, according to the Passport Index. Again, please remember that your current passport remains valid until its expiry date so there’s no rush to renew if you have several years left before it expires.
Don’t forget to use the online passport status checker to see how your application is doing. Go here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to answer a few questions and then check on the status of your application.
And remember to check back with us as additional details on the online passport renewal process are released by IRCC.
Posted in News Tips and tagged Canadian Passport
