The Canadian passport comes in multiple colours and here's what each is used for
Did you know Canada has a white passport?
A personal holds a Canadian passport. Right: A red Canadian passport.
Have you ever seen a white Canadian passport? It may be more rare than the standard blue Canadian passport, but it exists.
While you're probably most familiar with the Canadian passport featuring a blue cover and gold coat of arms, Canada actually issues several different coloured passports and travel documents to Canadians, based on different travel purposes, situations and statuses.
Besides the blue passport, there are other more rare kinds of passports that the government issues. How rare are they? Canada issues around 5 million travel documents a year, according to the government, and of these, 98 percent are regular blue passports.
Curious to know more? Here are the different passports issued by the Government of Canada and what each is used for.
Regular Canadian passport
The regular Canadian passport is the one most Canadians possess. The passport features a blue cover and is issued to Canadian citizens for casual travel, like vacations, tourism and business trips.
The regular passport has 36 pages that can be filled with visa stamps and can be valid for five or 10 years.
While the Government of Canada announced an overhaul of the design of the Canadian passport in 2023, the new document will still feature a blue cover.
White Canadian passport
A temporary Canadian passport is an eight-page, machine-readable passport that's issued by certain Canadian government offices abroad.
The passport is meant to be used for short-term situations, and may be issued to Canadian citizens who have an urgent and proven need for a passport, like, for example, if they lose their regular passport while travelling abroad.
It also may be issued to those waiting to receive a regular, special or diplomatic passport.
The passport features a white cover with a coat of arms. Like the regular passport, it contains a bio-data page, digitized photo and security features, but only has four visa pages.
According to the government, Canadians can only get a temporary passport for the length of their travel, up to a maximum of one year, and it can't be extended for any reason.
Red Canadian passport
Ever seen a red Canadian passport? Unless you're a diplomat, there's a good chance you've probably never come across one.
The red, or diplomatic, passport is issued to Canadian diplomats, high-ranking Government of Canada officials and representatives and delegates of the Government of Canada.
The passport is used for travelling on official business, such as going to a post abroad, or international governmental organizations and conferences of a diplomatic nature.
Unlike other Canadian passports, the issuing office decides the validity of a diplomatic passport.
Green Canadian passport
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Canada's green passport is another official passport that, like the diplomatic passport, tells international border officials that the bearer is travelling on official business and representing Canada abroad.
A special passport is issued to Canadian senators, members of Parliament and people employed by the Government of Canada who are in a non-diplomatic capacity and travelling to a post abroad or on an official mission.
The Government of Canada says it decides if a person is issued a special or diplomatic passport, and also decides its validity.
Those who are issued an official passport must also return it to the government when their official trip is completed.
While these special passports are certainly pretty, owning the regular blue Canadian passport is definitely still something to brag about.
Possessing a Canadian passport comes with a ton of benefits, like the ability to travel to many countries visa-free — some even up to a whole year.
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