Wildfires in Canada: Temporary immigration, passport and citizenship measures

The special measures to support those affected by the wildfires in Canada ended on November 30, 2023.

If your status as a visitor, student or worker has expired you have the standard 90 calendar days to apply to restore it after it expired.

Applications submitted on or before November 30, 2023

We’ll continue to process applications free of charge for:

replacing a citizenship certificate
replacing a passport
replacing a valid non-Canadian travel document (certificate of identity or refugee travel document)
replacing a permanent resident (PR) card
replacing an immigration document
extending or restoring your current temporary resident status

Send us a web form (opens in a new tab) to let us know you applied and ask to be considered for urgent processing.

Under Type of application/enquiry, choose Request urgent processing of renewal or replacement card and have already applied.
Type “URGENT-WFF2023” in the text box.
Complete all other required fields.

You may be eligible for a refund if you were directly affected by the wildfires and paid fees to:

If you live in a region directly affected by the wildfires, you may be eligible for a refund depending on

To be eligible for a refund, you must have applied within the dates listed for your province of residence

You can ask for a refund if you applied to replace a

We’ll update this page in 2024 with more information on when and how to request a refund.

You’re not eligible for a refund if you applied before June 9, 2023 to

If you paid any of these fees, find out how to ask for a refund (opens in a new tab) .

If you submit an application on or after December 1, 2023, you can no longer benefit from the special measures.