u/symbioatmeal

Some great news for your Friday: yesterday, I received an email from IRCC “Case and Risk Management” (Passport Division) asking for my mailing address for my replacement passport. Just 24 hours later, I have a tracking number for an expedited replacement! They expedited it because I have air travel into Canada booked for in mid-July.

(Recall that I received multiple passport revocation notices on Jun 20 indicating the need for this replacement, after my citizenship certificate was revalidated)

Additionally, IRCC addressed the concerns I reported about another person’s “misdelivered“ passport notice I also received on June 20. They indicated that they successfully identified what caused the error and implemented fixes to prevent future issues. They also asked me to confirm that I did not retain this mistaken data; I confirmed that I deleted all traces of it to comply with the law.

I am extremely encouraged by this response, both for the sake of people’s passports, but also my concerns about other potential data leaks. I wish I had received some communication earlier, but I do understand somewhat the chaos of the past couple weeks. I didn’t receive responses as soon as I would’ve liked, but I ultimately, did receive them in time for my needs.

Based on reports of other people’s correspondence and citizenship certificate revalidations, It really does seem like they are trying to get things resolved.

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Some background: I messaged the IRCC email address in the passport revocation letter(s) when I received them on June 20, and again on June 25 to indicate urgency because of upcoming air travel into Canada that requires my passport.

I also made several attempts to call IRCC, then spoke with 1-800-O-Canada, Consular Services, and Passport Canada over the past week. Each person I spoke with was understanding and as helpful as they could be, but nobody could access the information about my passport situation. The last thing I tried was having a Consular Services hotline rep message to my local consulate (Chicago) to request a call back.

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but I received the email response from IRCC barely 5 minutes after ending that call. Maybe it’s just coincidence, and they were just catching up on work after Canada Day, or maybe one of the notes in my caller file percolated to somebody who could help? Hard to say.

Because I made my consulate request an “emergency/urgent“ issue (at their direction, re: “my flight in < 20 days”), I received a call from the Chicago consulate shortly thereafter. I gladly told them the issue was already being resolved, but it’s also encouraging to see how responsive they are to Canadians in need abroad.

Of course, I wish the situation hadn’t happened at all, Especially given my stress about it and how many people are still impacted – but I must give credit where it is due: that, at least in my case, this mess is getting cleaned up!

​I just received a Revalidation Letter - almost exactly a week after I received my notice to surrender! I haven't done anything on my part to get this reactivated, unless you count responding to the original email with some questions in a futile attempt at doing something 😅

I truly hope that there are more of these going out today, and that this is resolved as smoothly for every recipient soon!

I also received 2 different emails with subsequent retractions about my Canadian passport, indicating that my passport (which I was never asked to surrender) was permanently invalidated and that they'll need to issue a new one at no charge. I'm sharing this because it highlights the ongoing chaos, but please don't take this as the final word on what's happening with passports. Once I do get final confirmation, I'll edit with an update and probably also make a post over in r/passportcanada.

I'm incredibly grateful for the support and organizing taking place over the last week. I hope this mess is coming to an end once and for all.

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6/20 Evening Passport Update:
I received another email from IRCC -to my inbox- written for somebody else but misdelivered to me! It’s a 15-day passport revocation notice like some others are now reporting during citizenship case review.

Looking at the letter addressed to the other person, it contains so much personal information, such as their full name, mailing address, UCI, and case file numbers. I never received one of these messages over the past week, which makes me worry that somebody else got the notice intended for me! Not only is this a mess, but it’s a pretty clear privacy violation.

I responded to notify IRCC of this issue, but please double check all identifying information if you receive correspondence from them - to make sure you are the intended recipient! I was so confused by the email message until I saw those details.

I also sent a message asking about the multiple emails and whether the most recent one contains valid instructions. I’ll report back here with more details if I hear anything. One portion that I didn’t notice before is that they will give me instructions on how to securely destroy the revoked passport if I have a new one issued.