Canadian Passport Number: Format and Location in 2026

Where the passport number is printed

The passport number is on the data page of the passport, which is the plastic page at the front carrying the photograph and the printed details. On current Canadian passports the number appears in the top right corner. On some older designs it appears in the bottom left corner of the data page instead.

The same number is written into the machine-readable zone at the bottom of the data page, in the two lines of characters that scanners read. If you cannot find the printed number, the machine readable zone is a reliable second place to look, because the number appears there in a fixed position.

The number is also encoded in the chip. Scanning the chip retrieves the same number, along with the other data-page details, which is why border systems can read a Canadian passport without anyone typing anything.

The format of a Canadian passport number

Since May 10, 2023, Canadian passport numbers are nine characters long. The structure is a leading letter, followed by six digits, followed by two letters, giving a pattern that looks like A123456BC.

The nine-character format replaced the older eight-character format, and the change matters because forms and systems that expect one length can reject the other. A visa application that refuses your passport number may be expecting the old format, which is worth knowing before you assume you have misread it.

Older eight-character passports

Passports issued before May 10, 2023 carry eight-character numbers rather than nine. Those passports remain valid until their printed expiry date, so both formats are in circulation at the same time and both are legitimate.

A Canadian passport issued for ten years shortly before the change could remain in use into the 2030s, which means the older format will be encountered for years yet. Encountering an eight-character number is not a sign of a forged or invalid document.

Where you are filling in a form that accepts either, enter exactly what is printed. Do not pad an eight-character number to nine, and do not truncate a nine-character number to eight, because either alteration will make the document unverifiable.

Reading it correctly

Two characters cause most transcription errors, and both have a simple guard.

• Letters that look like digits. Be careful to distinguish O from zero and I or l from one, since a single wrong character makes the number invalid.
• Letters that look like each other. S and 5, B and 8, and Z and 2 are the usual pairings that go wrong.
• Spaces and punctuation. The number is a continuous string. Do not insert spaces or hyphens when entering it.

The machine-readable zone solves the problem entirely for anyone who has the passport in hand, because the two lines at the bottom of the data page use a font designed to eliminate exactly this ambiguity. Reading the number from that zone, rather than from the printed corner, is the safer habit when you are copying it into a form.

Passport number versus other numbers

Canadian documents carry several different numbers, and mixing them up is a frequent cause of rejected applications.

The reason the confusion matters is that a visa or travel authorisation form asking for a passport number will not accept a client ID, and an immigration application asking for a UCI will not accept a passport number. The numbers look similar enough to be swapped by mistake, but they are not interchangeable.

Finding your number without the passport

If the passport is not to hand, there are a few places the number may be recorded. A photocopy or photograph of the data page is the most reliable, which is why keeping one separately is worth doing before you travel.

• A photocopy or photo of the data page, stored separately from the passport.
• A previous visa or travel authorisation application, which will have recorded the number.
• An airline profile, a frequent-flyer account, or a previous booking record.
• An employer's travel records or a prior visa stamp reference.

If the number genuinely cannot be found, IRCC can locate a passport record from your name and date of birth, but the process is slower and involves verifying your identity through other means. Where the passport is lost, that lookup is part of the replacement process rather than a separate step.

Where you will be asked for it

The passport number appears on more forms than most people expect, and knowing the list makes it easier to keep a copy somewhere safe.

• Visa applications and travel authorisation schemes, including eTAs and ESTA-type systems.
• Airline bookings and advance passenger information submissions.
• Hotel registrations and car hire agreements abroad.
• Banking, notarisation and identity verification processes.
• Immigration and residency applications in other countries.

Because the same number is used across all of them, an error in one place tends to propagate. Entering it once from the machine-readable zone and copying that entry everywhere else is the lowest-risk approach.

Sharing the number safely

A passport number is identity data, and on its own, combined with a name and date of birth it is enough to support identity fraud in some contexts. Treat it as sensitive rather than as harmless administrative trivia.

Share it only where there is a legitimate reason: a booking that requires it, a visa application, an official verification. Be cautious with any unsolicited request for a passport number, particularly one arriving by email or message, because a passport number is a common target of phishing that imitates a bank, an airline or a government service.

Where you need to store a copy, keep the image in a protected location rather than in an email thread or an unsecured note. The value of keeping a copy is that it makes a lost passport easier to replace, and that value is not lost by keeping the copy secured.

Does the number change on renewal?

Yes. A new passport is a new document, and it carries a new number. Renewing, replacing a lost passport or applying after a name change all produce a passport with a number that has never been used before.

This has a practical consequence that trips people up. Saved records that reference the old number need updating: airline profiles, frequent-flyer accounts, visa application accounts, trusted traveller programmes and any pre-submitted advance passenger information. A booking made with a superseded number can cause a mismatch at check-in.

The old number is not reused and the old passport is cancelled. Where a valid visa was held in the old passport, the visa does not transfer automatically, and the issuing country's rules govern what happens next.

The machine-readable zone explained

At the bottom of the data page are two lines of blocky characters. This is the machine-readable zone, and it encodes the same information that is printed on the page: the document type, the issuing country, the passport number, the holder's name, nationality, date of birth, sex, the passport's expiry date and the personal number field.

The passport number appears near the start of the second line. Because the zone uses a font designed specifically to remove ambiguity between similar characters, it is the safest place to read the number from when you are copying it into a form, and it is the place border scanners read from in the first place.

You do not need to decode the zone yourself, and there is no need to learn its internal structure. The practical use is simply to read the number from that area rather than from the printed corner. The two sources always agree, so if they appear to differ, the transcription is wrong rather than the document.

Before you enter the number anywhere

A short check prevents almost every downstream problem, because the errors that matter are transcription errors rather than problems with the document itself.

1. Read the number from the machine-readable zone where you can, not from the printed corner.
2. Confirm the length. Nine characters if the passport was issued on or after May 10, 2023, eight characters if it was issued earlier.
3. Check the character positions against the expected pattern: letter, six digits, two letters for the nine-character format.
4. Enter it as a continuous string with no spaces, hyphens or full stops.
5. Read it back one character at a time before submitting the form.
6. Cross-check against a second source where one exists, such as a photocopy made earlier.

The final step is the one people skip, and it is the one that catches the mistake. A single character confirmed by a second source is far more reliable than the same character typed twice in the same sitting.

Using the number for eTAs, ESTA and visas

Travel authorisations and visa applications all ask for the passport number, and they usually require it to match the passport exactly as printed. The check happens when you travel rather than when you apply, which is why an error at the application stage tends to surface at the airport.

Two further details are worth knowing. First, many systems tie the authorisation to the specific passport, so a new passport number means a new authorisation is required; an authorisation issued against the old number will not work. Second, some authorisation schemes limit how many they will issue against the same identity, so repeating an application after an error can create its own complications.

The practical rule is to apply for travel authorisations only once the passport you will actually travel on is in hand, and to enter the number from the machine-readable zone of that passport. Applying early with an old passport, and then renewing before travel, is one of the more common ways travellers lose a valid authorisation.

Mistakes worth avoiding

These are the failures that turn an identity detail into a rejected application.

1. Entering a client ID or UCI as a passport number. Check which number the form is actually asking for.
2. Padding an eight-character number to nine. Enter exactly what is printed.
3. Confusing O with zero or I with one. Read from the machine-readable zone when possible.
4. Inserting spaces or hyphens. The number is a continuous string.
5. Using an old number after renewal. Update every account that holds it.
6. Answering unsolicited requests for it. Verify the sender before sharing.

The through-line is that the number is a precise identifier rather than a general reference. Exact, verified transcription is the whole game, and the machine-readable zone is the tool that makes it easy.

Frequently Asked Questions