Canada Plans to Release National Vaccine Passport

Recently, a briefing was held along with the representatives from Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship and Canada (IRCC), Transport Canada (TC), Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and Indigenous Services Canada (ISC). As announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to support international travels during the pandemic, Canadians will soon be able to download their own vaccine passport.

Given that most of the vaccinated people in Canada already have a vaccine passport that was issued by their province or territory, the Canadian government prefers to have a new standardized and digital document that has a watermark on it. The main purpose of the issuance of this new passport is for the border officer to effectively verify proof of vaccination. Through this standardized document, border officers will be able to easily and swiftly recognize the Canadian vaccine passport rather than using the different types of passports issued by different provinces and territories.

With the use of the ArriveCAN, travelers who are returning to Canada may also upload this document as proof of their vaccination. Not long ago, Canadian borders have opened their door to all fully vaccinated tourists and part of the requirement is to upload their proof of vaccination and COVID-19 test results to the ArriveCAN application. Along with the opening,  many provinces in Canada require proof of vaccination before entering a non-essential business establishment such as restaurants.

It was mentioned that Canadian immigration aims to introduce this new standardized document by fall. In connection to this, further information and details with regards to this new document will soon be available on the website of the Canadian government.