Canadian passport number format.

How the Canadian passport number is built

IRCC describes the number in its help centre while explaining the "Passport No." box on its online forms: since 10 May 2023, new passports have 9 characters, and the characters come in a fixed order. The first character is a letter. The next six characters are numbers. The last two characters are letters. That gives a shape you can write as L DDDDDD LL, where L is a letter and D is a digit.

Canada.ca’s page on the new passport’s features says the same thing in a caption that highlights the number: the first character is always a letter and the next six characters are always numbers. The date it ties the design to, 10 May 2023, is the day the new passport was announced.

Variable by variable

• Position 1, a letter. Any letter shape is accepted by this tool. We found no published list of which letters are used, so we do not guess at a meaning for the first letter.
• Positions 2 to 7, six digits. Every one of these must be a number. The common typing error here is a letter O for a zero or a letter I for a one, and the tool points that out when it sees it.
• Positions 8 and 9, two letters. A number that ends in a digit, or ends in only one letter, fails the check.

We found no IRCC rule that makes any of these characters a check character of the passport number itself, so the tool does not invent one. What it does add is the ICAO machine-readable-zone check digit that is printed after the number on the bottom lines of the page, described below.

Where to find the number

IRCC says you can find the number on the passport information page, in the top right corner or in the bottom left corner. The same page carries two lines of machine-readable text at the bottom. On the second line, ICAO Doc 9303 Part 4 assigns positions 1 to 9 to the document number and position 10 to its check digit. A nine-character passport number therefore fills the whole document-number field with no filler characters.

Worked example (hypothetical number)

Take the made-up number A123456BC. It has nine characters. The first is a letter (A), the next six are digits (123456), and the last two are letters (BC), so it matches the shape. To get the ICAO check digit, each character gets a value: digits count as themselves and letters count as 10 for A up to 35 for Z. So A is 10, B is 11 and C is 12. The values are multiplied by the repeating weights 7, 3, 1 and added up:

• A 10 × 7 = 70, then 1 × 3 = 3, then 2 × 1 = 2
• 3 × 7 = 21, then 4 × 3 = 12, then 5 × 1 = 5
• 6 × 7 = 42, then B 11 × 3 = 33, then C 12 × 1 = 12

The total is 200. The remainder after dividing by 10 is 0, so the check digit that would follow this number in the machine-readable zone is 0. A real passport’s printed digit comes from its real number; this only shows how the arithmetic works. ICAO’s own specimen shows the same method on the document number L898902C3, whose check digit is 6.

Edge cases and common mistakes

• Eight characters, two letters and six digits. This is the shape third-party data-classification guides often give for older Canadian passports. We found no IRCC page that states it, so the tool says the number is not the 2023+ format and that the older pattern is unconfirmed, without calling it invalid.
• Wrong length. Eight or ten characters usually means a dropped or doubled character, or that you copied a different identifier.
• O and I. If a digit position holds O or I, check the printed page for a zero or a one.
• Copying the machine-readable line. Take only the first nine characters, not the check digit after them.
• Mixing up identifiers. A UCI, an IRCC application number and a passport number are different things. The IRCC form box asks for the passport number only.

Who this is for

People filling in an IRCC or travel form that asks for a passport number, and anyone who wants to know whether a number they were handed by a form, spreadsheet or a relative has the right shape before it is submitted.

What this does not cover

It does not tell you whether a passport exists, is valid, has expired or has been reported lost. It does not check Canadian citizenship, other countries’ passports, visas, eTAs or any application status. The older passport pattern is left open on purpose. Only the issuing government can confirm a document; this page checks characters.

Sources

• IRCC, Where is my status in Canada document number? (passport number location and 9-character format; page dated 28 September 2026; retrieved 20 October 2026)
• Canada.ca, Features of Canada’s new passport (first character a letter, next six numbers; page dated 19 March 2026; retrieved 20 October 2026)
• ICAO Doc 9303 Part 4, Specifications for Machine Readable Passports (TD3) (document number in positions 1 to 9, check digit in position 10; retrieved 20 October 2026)
• ICAO Doc 9303 Part 3, Specifications Common to all MRTDs (check digit calculation with weights 7, 3, 1; retrieved 20 October 2026)