My Canadian passport renewal experience (2025)

On the morning of July 4^th, I decided to take on both crazy flight challenges. And, most importantly, to leave to go do the 6 continents just 12 business days later… and to trust the passport renewals supposedly ready in 10 business days. I thought I could talk about the process up to now, especially since the friendly agent was a Flytrippers fan.

As I explained in the post about the 6-month passport rule, many countries don’t accept passports that expire within 6 months (but not all countries; to give just one example, I just entered the United States with my passport that was expiring in less than 6 months; it was for a festival I had booked in October).

So I had no choice but to renew my passport before leaving for this impromptu trip. I was confident that the government would meet its service standards (I don’t know why). 

But there has already been a problem, so I’m honestly a bit worried now. I hope that their mistake won’t cause me a delay… 

Here’s my Canadian passport renewal experience in July 2025.

Basics of Canadian passport renewal 

Maybe I should make a more complete guide, because I didn’t find the government website so clear (very surprising from such an efficient entity, I know).

But here’s at least an overview of the timeframes for a normal passport renewal (it’s different if you’re outside Canada, if it’s not for an adult, if you lost your passport, if it’s the first application, etc.)!

You have 4 options:

• Online application (limited number accepted)
  • 20 business days + delivery time by mail
• Mail application
  • 20 business days + delivery time by mail
• In-person application
  • 10 business days + delivery time by mail
  • 10 business days (if you pick it up; $20 more)
• In-person application (some locations only)
  • 2 to 9 business days (if you pick it up; $50 more)
  • End of next business day (if you pick it up; $110 more)

In my case, it was July 4^th, and I’m leaving July 22^nd, so that left me 12 business days. The 10-business-day option (with on-site pickup to avoid potential Canada Post strikes) therefore worked very well for me, provided their deadlines are reliable.

Of course, in an ideal world, you renew it in advance. As for me, I travel more than 10 times a year, so I never have that much time between each trip. And I really like being always available for unplanned trips, so I like always having my passport in my possession.

By the way, my passport was really due even after just 4 and a half years! The cover page was slightly more worn than my girlfriend’s, even though her’s is older.

Your photo page needs to be in pristine condition; that’s well known. But apparently, a completely erased cover page isn’t much of an issue.

So my plan had always been to renew my passport during the summer, because I always avoid trips in July and August (these are the only 2 months when it’s nice in our terrible climate, and they’re the worst months for high prices and hordes of tourists in many countries).

When I decided to do the new promotion that gives 1 million points, I also decided to take a bit more time than for the similar promotion in fall, so I moved up my big Asia trip already planned for fall to July to have more time.

Hence, the current somewhat tight deadline.

My renewal experience before going on-site

I filled out the PDF form on my computer. It’s very simple to do, like any other form. 

I decided to get a 10-year passport this time. At the last renewal, I had gotten just a 5-year passport, because I had been forced to renew well before 5 years anyway: I had no more available pages way before the 5-year expiration.

But I travel a bit less now, so I did the math. As long as I make it to 6 years, I get my money’s worth. It’s $160 instead of $120 to go from 5 to 10 years, so just $40 more. That’s a third of the price of another passport. A passport lasts 54 months (I’m excluding the last 6 months, obviously). So a third of that is 18 more months. That makes 72 months (54 + 18), so 6 years. You always just have to do the math, for every decision 😉

So I printed the form and went to a pharmacy near the Service Canada offices to take passport photos.

My experience at the Service Canada office reception

I went to the Service Canada office in my hometown of Trois-Rivières, without an appointment (having one is not mandatory). 

I remembered the incredible lines during my last passport renewal when I still lived in Québec City in 2020.

I was really surprised that there was absolutely no one in front of me in line (in the “no appointment” line) on a Friday morning at 10 AM in Trois-Rivières! Bravo for that indeed, sincerely.

I was really not surprised that the kind agent at reception told me their computer systems were down and he had to work manually.

(In retrospect, I should have asked more questions… but I was so not astonished that I just laughed!)

It’s not just IT; even the door handle was broken (hand-written sign translation: the handle might not work)!

Anyway, he looked at my documents very quickly (while I went to get my passport that I had forgotten in the car; typical of my ADD). It was efficient.

He then invited me to go to the waiting room.

My experience with the Service Canada agent

Almost instantly, I was called to a semi-closed office to complete the process. Very quick, once again!

While the friendly agent was doing what she had to do, we talked about travel a lot; she said she also loved to travel. So I obviously told her to check out our site to save money.

But she already knew Flytrippers! And for long enough to have taken advantage of several of the deals we spotted to Asia for $499 roundtrip (ah, the good old days)! It’s even thanks to that deal that she was able to make her first trip to Asia (like me in 2017… and several others among you, I’m sure).

Kevin, Flytrippers’ other co-founder, had ironically also been recognized by the agent at his passport renewal in Québec City last time.

So she double-checked all the information on my application, filled it into her computer, and arranged my photos (it was all so fast that the ink from the stamp on the back hadn’t even quite had time to dry yet).

I paid the fee ($160 for the 10-year passport and $20 for on-site pickup) with one of the cards I’m currently unlocking a big welcome bonus on (so simple; that’s always what you have to do). In my case, it was the great launch offer of the BMO VIPorter World Elite Mastercard.

Finally, she reconfirmed that I would be able to come pick up the new passport in 10 business days. However, she explicitly told me to stay tuned to answer the phone if anyone called me for anything, to avoid delays…

I was going to leave without my passport, but she gave it to me with the holes so I can keep my stamps!

My quite unique experience a few days later

On the 2^nd business day, I received an email from the Service Canada agent. Yes, an email!!!

Imagine my surprise to receive a government communication via a non-archaic method. 

I must therefore say, it’s excellent customer service. Seriously, I was very very pleasantly surprised. I was almost as surprised as the other agent I talked to after, but let me explain first.

The email was to have me return to the office because their system didn’t properly save one of the pages of my application, which is obviously a very unpleasant bug. Luckily, I live 10 minutes away! I’ll come back to that, the email part is really fascinating!

Honestly, the fact that they actually sent me an email instead of calling more than compensates for their botched upload, and even incredibly left me an overall positive impression (if I lived 1 hour from their office, maybe I would feel differently).

(As long as I still get it in time…)

It’s already well-documented here that I hate talking on the phone. Everything is so much simpler online.

But to illustrate that well (it’s related to the experience, I assure you): my voicemail message explicitly says that I never answer the phone and, especially, that I won’t take my messages and that you have to send me an email.

It works very well for everything! (If it’s not important enough for them to send me an email, too bad!)

But I figured that with the government, I shouldn’t take chances (only because I absolutely want my passport on time). Especially since the agent mentioned it. I had therefore put a reminder on my calendar to listen to my voicemails at the end of each day, exceptionally.

You gotta do what you gotta do. Like when I was awaiting a callback from our shitty healthcare system for my dengue fever episode after a trip; sometimes I have to, because governments have monopolies and therefore don’t care about customers.

So that means my voicemail instructions were followed! The agent did indeed send an email! Because it was also sent to the email address I mentioned in my recorded message, which is not the same one I had input on my passport application form. Kudos to their flexibility in reaching a customer in a way that’s not within their usual methods.

I’m very satisfied (up to now, pending actually getting my passport). That is quite rare with anything government-run, so I want to mention it.

My experience returning to the Service Canada office

So I went back to fix everything at the office immediately, about 20 minutes after receiving the email.

The door was still broken, in case you were wondering.

When I arrived, there were a few people in line this time.

I bypassed all these people and went to the priority line on the left for those who already had an appointment, because there was no chance I was going to wait when I shouldn’t even have to come back (it’s their system that malfunctioned).

Fortunately, the agent at reception let me pass even though I didn’t have an actual appointment.

And then, when I told her I had received an email, she honestly couldn’t believe it. She told me it wasn’t something they did.

(I honestly don’t know why the government refuses to use emails as if we were in 2005, but my guess would be that it’s related to the fact that so many people are unfortunately very bad at detecting email scams, and that the government therefore wants to never send any, in typical government dumbing down… that’s pure speculation, but anyway!)

I went to the waiting room, and again it was very quick. Not instantaneous like the first time, but I didn’t even have to wait 2 minutes. So, at least I give them credit where it’s due again, here.

The agent went to see her colleague who had sent me the email, to confirm what needed to be redone.

I tried to ask her why it hadn’t worked, and she didn’t really know. I was a bit more in a rush, so I didn’t press her on it. She re-scanned the first page of my form, and it was fixed. 

It didn’t take any time at all, at least.

I asked her about the timeline, and she explicitly said that since I came within an hour, there shouldn’t be any delay…

But now, I’m on the 8^th business day, and the status of my renewal is still at the same stage as at the beginning. So, even if I’m the least stressed-out person I know, I’m a bit worried. I don’t have a huge buffer.

To be continued…

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