| Canadian passport | |
The front cover of a contemporary Canadian passport
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| Issued by | Canada |
| Type of document | Passport |
| Purpose | Identification |
| Eligibility requirements | Canadian citizenship |
| Expiration | 3 years after issuance for children up to the age of 3; 5 years for all other individuals. After Release of Biometric Passport, 10 years for Adults (over 18) |
A Canadian passport is a passport issued to citizens of Canada for the purpose of international travel; allowing the bearer to travel in foreign countries in accordance with visa requirements; facilitating the process of securing assistance from Canadian consular officials abroad, if necessary; and requesting the protection of the passport holder while abroad.[1][2]
All Canadian passports are issued by Passport Canada, a special branch of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, and are valid for five years, except that those of children under age three are valid for three years. As of July 2009, 56.2% of Canadians held a valid Canadian passport.[3] Although held by individuals, all Canadian passports remain property of Her Majesty in right of Canada (the Government of Canada), as stated on the inside front cover of the booklet.[4]
On April 7, 2010, Passport Canada announced that electronic passports, or e-passports, will be issued to Canadian citizens in 2012. The use of e-passports will allow Canada to follow international standards and maintain the ease of international travel that Canadians currently enjoy. At the same time, Passport Canada will also start offering the option of a longer 10-year validity period.[5]
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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. These documents remained in use until, in 1915, Canadian passports were first issued in the British format, a ten section single sheet folder.[6]
The modern form of the Canadian passport came about in 1921. At that time, Canadians were British subjects, and Canada shared a common nationality code 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. As of July the following year, Canadian passports were issued to Canadian citizens only,[7] and by 1985 the first machine-readable passports were distributed, in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards.
In the 2008 federal budget, Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, announced that electronic passports would be introduced by 2011.[8] Recently, the issue of electronic passport for its citizens will be pushed back to 2012 (see below for more details). A pilot project began in 2009, with e-passports being issued to special and diplomatic passport applicants.[9]
The issuance of passports falls under the Royal Prerogative,[4] rather than an Act of Parliament; they are issued in the name of the reigning monarch, as expressed in the passport note. However, the authority to issue passports is granted to Passport Canada, a Special Operating Agency of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, under the authority of the Canadian Passport Order, an Order in Council that specifies grounds for which Passport Canada can issue or renew a passport.
Applicants must complete the required forms, which include the necessity of two passport photos and affirmation from a surety. Rules regarding renewals of passports and the eligibility of guarantors were last updated October 1, 2007, whereafter applicants may renew the passport using a shorter application form if: they are resident in Canada when they apply; lived in Canada and were at least sixteen years of age at the time of their previous application; and are in possession of a Canadian passport that was issued under their current name after January 31, 2002, is valid for five years, and not damaged or reported lost or stolen. Further, a guarantor may be a Canadian who currently holds a valid, or no more than one year expired, five-year Canadian passport; has known the applicant for more than two years; is eighteen or more years old; and were sixteen years of age or older when they applied for their own passport. For citizens abroad, passport applications are forwarded back to a passport centre by the local embassies, high commissions or consulates.
Passport Canada may revoke a passport or refuse to issue or renew a passport on grounds set out in the Canadian Passport Order, including such grounds as failure to submit a complete application, misrepresentation in obtaining a passport, and criminality. However, whether a Canadian passport may be revoked or refused on the basis of national security concerns has been questioned. In July 2004, Abdurahman Khadr was denied a Canadian passport by Governor General Adrienne Clarkson, on the explicit advice of her Foreign Affairs Minister, Bill Graham, who stated the decision was "in the interest of the national security of Canada and the protection of Canadian troops in Afghanistan." The government invoked royal prerogative in order to deny Khadr's passport, as national security was not at that time listed in the Canadian Passport Order as a ground for refusal, though, shortly thereafter, on September 22, 2004, section 10.1 was added to the Order, which allowed the Minister to revoke or refuse a passport due to national security concerns.[10] Khadr sought judicial review of the minister's decision to refuse his passport,[11] and on June 8 of the following year, the Federal Court ruled that the government did not have the power to refuse to issue Khadr's passport in the absence of specific authority set out in the Canadian Passport Order, but stated in obiter dicta that if the order were to be amended (as it had been after the fact), Khadr would likely not be able to challenge the revocation.[12] In 2006, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, then Peter MacKay, again denied Khadr's application, this time invoking section 10.1 of the amended Canadian Passport Order [13] Section 10.1 was later challenged in Federal Court by Fateh Kamel, whose passport had also been refused for national security reasons. On March 13, 2008, the Federal Court declared section 10.1 of the Passport Order to be unconstitutional and therefore invalid,[14][15] though the court suspended its declaration of invalidity for six months in order to allow the government time to amend the order. The federal government launched an appeal at the Federal Court of Appeal and a ruling handed down on January 29, 2009 overturned the lower court decision in March 2008. The court unanimously agreed the denial of passport service on national grounds is in compliance with the Charter, citing the limitation clause as its main decision point.[16][17] Kamel launched an appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada but the court declined to hear his case and thus ended the legality challenge to the Canadian Passport Order.[18]
Before 1947, there were two types of passports: those issued to people who were born British subjects and those issued to people naturalized as British subjects.
Today, there are six types of Canadian passports:[19]
| Depictions of the different types of Canadian passports | |||||||||
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Regular passports are deep navy blue, with the Royal Arms of Canada emblazoned in the centre of the front cover. The words "PASSPORT•PASSEPORT" are inscribed below the coat of arms, and "CANADA" above. The bilingual cover is indicative of the textual portions of Canadian passports being printed in both English and French, Canada's two official languages. The standard passport is ID-3 size, 125 × 88 mm (4.921 × 3.465 in), and contains 24 pages, but can be issued in a 48-page format upon request for an additional fee.
New security features, similar to those on banknotes, have been added with increasing frequency since 2001. Microprinting, holographic images, UV-visible imaging, watermarks and other details have been implemented, particularly on the photo page. As well, the photo is now digitally printed directly on the paper (in both standard and UV-reactive ink); previously, the actual photo had been laminated inside the document.
The new e-passport version will also display the international ePassport symbol on the front cover.[24]
The information page ends with the Machine Readable Zone.
The passports contain a note from the issuing authority addressed to the authorities of all other states, identifying the bearer as a citizen of that state and requesting that they be allowed to pass and be treated according to international norms. The textual portions of Canadian passports is printed in both English and French, the official languages of Canada. The note inside of Canadian passports states:
On the inside of the back cover on passports issued after 2007, a logo is printed for the federal department of "Foreign Affairs Canada." However, there has never been a Department of Foreign Affairs in Canada; the Department of External Affairs was continued under the legal name Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) in 1995. Legislation was introduced in the 38th Parliament to legally separate DFAIT into two separate departments, but the legislation was defeated, though the Federal Identity Program allowed the departments to identify themselves by separate names. When the legislation was defeated, the Treasury Board revoked the authority, but, when prompted for comment, Passport Canada stated: "According to the Federal Identity Program of the Treasury Board Secretariat, the applied title for the Department is as follows: Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade/Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Commerce international - Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada/Affaires étrangères et Commerce international Canada. However, Passport Canada has been permitted to keep using the previous name of the Department until the printed passport covers stock is exhausted."
Passport applicants may request, in writing, that Passport Canada not list the country of birth on their data page.
In response to the government of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) modification to the requirements for the issuance of Chinese visas to Canadian citizens born in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan the PRC will not issue visas to Canadian passport holders whose place of birth is inscribed as being Hong Kong HKG, Macau MAC or (city name) TWN. Accordingly, passports issued to Canadians born in Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan now only list the place of birth, without an accompanying three-letter country code, unless upon request.[25]
Canadian citizens born in Jerusalem have their birthplace identified only by the city's name, with no national designation, due to the unresolved legal status of Jerusalem.[26]
| Document | Adult (16 and over) | Children (3 to 15) | Children (under 3) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24-page passport | $87 | $37 | $22 |
| 48-page passport | $92 | $39 | $24 |
Passport Canada has published a fee proposal [27] that would accompany the introduction of the 10-year validity biometric passport, now planned for 2013. The proposed fees are:
| Document | Adult (16 and over) | Children (0 to 15) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 year 36-page passport | $160 | -- |
| 5 year 36-page passport | $120 | $57 |
The 48-page and the infant passports will be discontinued.
In September, 2003, Le Devoir printed a piece calling on Passport Canada to give individual Canadians the choice of which official language appeared first in their passports, English or French. The Passport Office initially 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.[28]
In 2008, Passport Canada announced that it would be issuing more secure, electronic passports to Canadian travellers starting in 2012. The e-passport will have an electronic chip encoded with the bearer's name, gender, and date and place of birth and a digital portrait of their face.
On April 7, 2010, Passport Canada announced that in 2012, Canada will 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."[29]
Subsequently in September 2011, Passport Canada announced that the electronic passport will be ready by the end of 2012. The organization stated the significant delay was due to increased in passport application for revised entry policies to the United States in late 2000s and a supposedly lengthy consultation process. This has further cast doubts on introducing the biometric passport on time. [30]
Previously, Canadians were able to enter the United States by presenting a birth certificate (or other proof of Canadian citizenship) along with a form of photo identification (such as a driver's licence or provincial health card). In many cases United States border agents would accept a verbal declaration of citizenship.
Under the United States Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, as of January 23, 2007, all Canadians entering the United States via air are required to present a valid passport or NEXUS card.[31] As of June 1, 2009, all Canadian citizens (16 years or older) require a passport, NEXUS card or enhanced driver's license to enter the US via land or water.[32] In addition, each holder of Canadian passport is entitled to 180 days or 6 months visa free stay in the United States. [33][34]