Canada passport for traveling to USA only

Reacting to potential threats to its security

the US government announced on June 6, 1940, that Canadians would require passports and visas to enter the US as of the first of the following month. Ottawa reacted quickly by expanding the passport staff to 113, setting up additional offices, and creating a special eight-page passport specifically for those traveling to Canada’s southern neighbor.

The development of the Canadian passport

is part of a much longer history that also intertwines with that of the British Empire. Although documents providing the bearer with permission to travel either inside or outside of a political entity have long existed, the first systematic use of passports began in France in the era of the Revolution. Initially, the passport was an effort to control the movement of people within France and, as such, aided the police force in its efforts to keep track of those deemed a threat to the state.

Next, the new revolutionary assembly brought in a requirement that merchants and foreigners seeking to leave the country had to obtain passports from their local districts in the case of the former and the ambassadors of their countries of origin in the case of the latter. However, for some in the revolutionary assembly, the passport remained a controversial and repressive measure. 

For example, well into the late 1940s, married women in Canada were not allowed their passports, but, like children, they had to be included in their husband’s documents. In an authentic sense, the passport has never been a neutral document. The final essential inspiration for the modern passport era was World War I. Before the war, severe international discussions about moving toward eliminating passports had occurred.

The conflict’s outbreak quashed these efforts as several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, dramatically tightened documentary requirements. In the latter case, the requirement that British citizens carry identity cards was enacted.

Brief Canadian Passport History Canada passport traveling the USA

The story of the Canadian passport is entwined with Canada’s history, both as a colony of Great Britain and as a neighbor of the United States.

Before 1862

Canadians, as British subjects, could travel freely to and from the United States without passports. To travel to Europe, however, a Canadian had to obtain a British passport from the Foreign Office in London. Those who were not British subjects by birth could still go to the United States with a certificate of naturalization, which was issued by local Canadian mayors mainly for voting in municipal elections.

During the American Civil War

however, authorities in the United States wanted more reliable certification from people living in Canada. In 1862, the Governor-General, Viscount Monck, introduced a centralized system for issuing passports. For the next 50 years, a Canadian passport was a “letter of request” signed by the Governor-General.

It isn’t easy to trace the history of Canadian passports in the first few years after Confederation because so few were issued. The financial statements of the Secretary of State in 1878 record an annual passport revenue of $50. Since passports then cost $1 each, we know 50 must have been issued. Over the next few years, annual revenues varied between $35 and $50. Canada passport traveling the USA

In those early years

passports were issued single-sheet certificates and stamped with the official seal. In 1915, Canada switched to the British form, a ten-section single sheet folder printed in English only.

A series of international passport conferences (1920, 1926, and 1947) led to several changes to the Canadian passport. The 1920 conference recommended that all countries adopt a booklet-type passport, which Canada began issuing in 1921. Another recommendation of 1920 that all passports were to be written in at least two languages, one of which was French, led to the first bilingual Canadian passport in 1926.

The 1920 conference also recommended that passports be valid for at least two years and preferably for five. It is interesting to note that, since 1919, Canadian peacetime passports were already valid for five years, with the possibility of a five-year extension.

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