Meanwhile, passport applicants can go to Service Canada centres to process their applications or send them by courier.
About 85,000 passports are printed and waiting to be mailed as the Canada Post strike drags on.
Service Canada stopped mailing passports Nov. 8, one week before the strike began Nov. 15, it said in a statement. The agency held passports before the strike to avoid them being stuck in the mail, the statement continued.
Passports are set to be mailed once regular postal service resumes.
If a passport seeker mailed their application immediately before the strike, there’s a risk it is stuck in the mail, Service Canada said. The agency won’t be able to process those applications until mail service resumes.
Service Canada offers a pickup service at 60 locations across the country, including the Montreal passport office at 200 René-Lévesque Blvd. W., east of St-Urbain St.
Those who requested their passport mailed back to them but are now in urgent need of it can call Service Canada to arrange a pickup. Proof of travel or need is required to access a transfer.
Service Canada doesn’t define a wait time for these passport applications, the statement said, because it prioritizes requests in order of urgency.
In the week of Nov. 11 to 17, which includes the first three days of the strike, Service Canada says it received 1,300 requests for passports to be sent for pickup, an 18-per-cent increase from a normal week. The Gazette had asked for the total number of requests since the strike began, which Service Canada did not provide.
Passport applicants can still go to Service Canada centres to process their applications or send them by courier.
The Gazette had asked Service Canada how many passports destined for Montreal were held up, as well as the number for Quebec as a whole, but the agency said it did not have either statistic available.