As we've mentioned, because of volume, we are prioritizing clients with travel plans. The in-person services that are provided have up until now been limited. Right now, they're limited to anyone with travel plans identified within 45 business days. That allows us to move those folks as quickly as possible through the process.
The in-person process.... If you recall, the passport process is a paper-based process. It was never intended to be moved to the extent that it is through the mail service. Prior to the pandemic, 80% of our clients came to those in-person sites. We received their applications and processed them on site. We were able to do it successfully in the high nineties, so 97% to 98% of the time. That's not the case right now.
What we've required is in-person prioritizing of those with travel plans. To the extent that we can, in those mail centres, we identify the files where folks have identified travel, and we move those to the front of the queue for processing. We absolutely recognize the challenge that this presents to those Canadians who did the right thing and mailed in those applications in February and March. We're working aggressively across the department to identify the clients who require transfers to our in-person service, so that we can get those passports to them in time for their planned travel.