Passport Renewal Turnaround Time

[samsteele]

My passport expires July 2024. I want to travel to the US in early January 2024. I'm off for my WDW trip in the next week so earliest I can expresspost and mail it will be late September or first week of October. As I'm 3 hours drive from either Toronto or Ottawa, I'd rather mail it to the renewal centre in Hull than spend a full day driving to renew. Does anyone have an up to date by mail renewal experience? How many weeks does it take to renew your passport when mailing? Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[hdrolfe]

Their website says 20 business days if you mail it in, plus mail time. I don't believe they are having issues with backlogs any more.

 

[scrappinginontario]

For some reason I thought you needed to renew within the final 6 months of your passport. I could be wrong though.

Piggybacking - There was an announcement earlier this year that CanadA was going to start offering online renewals. Has that happened yet?

 

[bcwife76]

For some reason I thought you needed to renew within the final 6 months of your passport. I could be wrong though.

Piggybacking - There was an announcement earlier this year that CanadA was going to start offering online renewals. Has that happened yet?

No I believe you can start your renewal with more than 6 months left on the old one but if it has over 9 months or something you need to provide a reason?? Something like that.

There has been no update to online renewals starting this Fall since they first announced it back in the spring...no surprise

 

[hcortesis]

A few months ago mine took a couple of weeks max. I went to a "Service Ontario" office in my town. They will insure that everything is filled in properly which avoids it coming back to you with missing or wrong info.

 

[Marc D]

For some reason I thought you needed to renew within the final 6 months of your passport. I could be wrong though.

Piggybacking - There was an announcement earlier this year that CanadA was going to start offering online renewals. Has that happened yet?

The six-months validity ‘thing’ with passports is that certain countries require your passport to have that time left on it for you to enter. But those countries are rare and do not enforce it for guests travelling on a cruise ship. The utility of the rule is that they want to make sure your passport is valid when you are required to leave the country. In the US, a passport with less than 6 months left on it will prohibit you from using the automatic scanners at some entry points, like the port of Vancouver or the Canadian airports with ple-clearance, but the border agent will be able to let you in.

 

[mort1331]

My passport expires July 2024. I want to travel to the US in early January 2024. I'm off for my WDW trip in the next week so earliest I can expresspost and mail it will be late September or first week of October. As I'm 3 hours drive from either Toronto or Ottawa, I'd rather mail it to the renewal centre in Hull than spend a full day driving to renew. Does anyone have an up to date by mail renewal experience? How many weeks does it take to renew your passport when mailing? Thanks in advance for any replies.

Why not renew after your Jan trip?. No issues with the US and passport under 6 months

 

[Starwind]

My passport expires July 2024. I want to travel to the US in early January 2024. I'm off for my WDW trip in the next week so earliest I can expresspost and mail it will be late September or first week of October. As I'm 3 hours drive from either Toronto or Ottawa, I'd rather mail it to the renewal centre in Hull than spend a full day driving to renew. Does anyone have an up to date by mail renewal experience? How many weeks does it take to renew your passport when mailing? Thanks in advance for any replies.

You can also go to a Service Canada Centre instead of mailing it, per the Passport Canada website:

Standard​

10 to 20 business days, plus mail time​

• You can go to a
  • Service Canada Centre (20 business days) or
  • passport office (10 business days)
• By appointment or walk-in
• You can also apply by mail (20 business days)

 

[Lesverts]

Yep was going to chime in and say just go to a Service Canada location. They cannot all be as useless as Brantford's. They will ensure things are filled out properly and you have decent turnaround time. Couple of weeks at most.

I live within 40 minutes of 2 Passport Offices, so I have always just gone in person. But I understand that is not possible for everyone. My turnaround time was exactly 10 days. Issued on the 10th day and mailed, received 2 days later.

 

[Capt_BJ]

mailed priority 24 Aug (Texas facility)

normal processing

received 18 Sep - under 4 weeks .....

 

[amaley01]

That happened to me this year, we flew from Ottawa to Orlando in January 2023 and my passport expired in July 2023. I didn't have any issues with our airline or customs. I renewed my passport and it was back within a month (registered mail). I wouldn't worry about it but just in case you should check your travel requirements. I think some cruises (or if you do excursions off the boat to international destination) they require that your passport does not expire within 6 mths.
Hope you have a great trip.

 

[dancin Disney style]

For travel to the US your Canadian passport is valid right until the day of expiry.

 

[samsteele]

Thanks for all of your replies and advice. I decided to mail out my renewal via expresspost this morning. While we have a Service Canada office, there is no available parking on the street and no parking lot. When I called to see if an appointment was needed, it went to a recorded message with no opportunity to leave a message, request a call back, advice when to call back at a better time or speak to staff. Not surprised and concluded taking the time to attend in person would likely be a time waste and I should just mail out the renewal asap. Hopefully Service Canada offices in other communities are more approachable. Hoping to have the new passport within 5 to 7 weeks. Will see.

 

[bcwife76]

Thanks for all of your replies and advice. I decided to mail out my renewal via expresspost this morning. While we have a Service Canada office, there is no available parking on the street and no parking lot. When I called to see if an appointment was needed, it went to a recorded message with no opportunity to leave a message, request a call back, advice when to call back at a better time or speak to staff. Not surprised and concluded taking the time to attend in person would likely be a time waste and I should just mail out the renewal asap. Hopefully Service Canada offices in other communities are more approachable. Hoping to have the new passport within 5 to 7 weeks. Will see.

Keep us posted. If the online application isn't up and running by end of October (and at this point it's highly unlikely it will be) I'm most likely going to mail in the applications for my spouse and myself as well. There's a new Service Canada office that opened about 15 minutes from us and they have wait times posted on their website so that's an option as well as I think there is plenty of parking (I'm sorry to hear there is none available at your local office, that's not helpful at all!)

 

[samsteele]

I received my new passport today. Less than 3 1/2 weeks turnaround when mailed by expresspost. Happy to have my passport back and safely stored away. I must have hit a quiet time. Only annoying issue was my old passport was returned a week ago also by expresspost. I got the canada post parcel notification then drove to my post office as kept locked until recipient shows i.d. Bit of a hassle but I did ask for my old passport to be returned. You'd think it would be more efficient to mail the old cancelled passport at the same time as the new one but guessing must be different departments and they do their own thing. Just relieved I wasn't waiting for months. For anyone waiting on their renewal, there is hope.

 

[bcwife76]

Crossing my fingers that we have the same speedy service as @samsteele experienced a few weeks ago, let's see how this goes lol Husband and I mailed ours via Canada post Xpresspost today. Hoping to beat the Christmas rush but we, ourselves, are in no great hurry to get them back so if I see the new ones before the end of the year I'll be happy But I am assuming it will be sooner than Dec 31

 

[Donald - my hero]

Here's our info to add to the data pool
Sept 20th:
Dropped the applications off in person at a Canada Service agency in our city and watched her scan them in, took my payment and gave me a receipt.
Oct 19th:
Mine arrived VIA Canada Post - hubby signed for it
Oct 24th:
Hubby's arrived VIA Canada Post - I signed for it. The postal worker grinned and apologized that I now had to take him with me when I travelled

 

[bcwife76]

Holy fast turn around Batman!
Husband and I mailed our renewals (in the same Xpresspost envelope) November 7th. Received in ON on November 9th. Our credit cards were charged November 20th and I received them both via Xpresspost today, November 24th! Under 10 business days!!