Thank you very much, Mr. Long.
Maybe I can start by addressing some of the things Ms. Kusie said, because she took up the whole time.
Some of those stories are heartbreaking, and we understand that this is challenging for Canadians. In that instance, if someone has urgent travel in that regard, I would recommend that they contact their member of Parliament. There is an MP line that can contact Service Canada directly. We want to avoid any of those situations. If you have that kind of urgent travel and you haven't received your passport, and it's seven days out and you replied ahead of time, please do contact your MP so that we can address those issues. For those who have contacted us that way, we have been able to get their passports in time, because we don't want that situation to occur.
With regard to your questions, Mr. Long, for anyone who has urgent travel, travel within 45 days or less, we recommend that the best way to get your passport in a timely manner is to go to a specialized passport office.
One of the changes that has happened is that, prepandemic, we would see about 80% of passport applications coming in through passport offices and about 20% by mail, but in the pandemic, that ratio has flipped. We are now back at full capacity at passport offices and have the ability to process in person at a much quicker rate. For in-person services, you see 97% of people receiving their passports within 10 business days. If you have urgent travel, please go to a passport office.
If your travel is beyond 45 business days, we would ask that you go to one of the 300 Service Canada centres around the country. They can take in your passport. They can't process it on site. The times are similar to what they would be if sent by mail. The reason we encourage people to go in person is that they'll actually see a Service Canada citizen officer who can check and review their application to make sure everything is there. Part of the challenge is that 25% of applications that come in through the mail channel have errors—accidental, but they require additional processing and verification time. This is just one way to make that process simpler.
Again, these offices are fully open and able to process people in a much quicker way.
I have just one other note, and then we'll let you get to your next question. I'll be very quick.
It does take longer to process children's passports than it would a simple renewal for adults, and that's because, as everyone can understand, we want to ensure that both parents are okay with the child getting a passport and with the travel plans. Unfortunately, we do have instances where one parent might take a child, or want to take a child, out of the country without approval, so it is really important that this security check happens.