Form PPTC 056: Canadian Passport Additional Information Guide

Form PPTC 056 is the Canadian government’s Statutory Declaration in Lieu of Guarantor. You use it when you cannot find someone who meets the standard guarantor requirements for a passport application. You fill it out, swear an oath before an authorized official, and submit it with your passport application package in place of the guarantor section.¹

When You Need It

A standard Canadian passport application requires a guarantor: a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old, who has known you for at least two years and holds a five-year or ten-year Canadian passport that is either still valid or expired for no more than one year on the day you submit your application.² The passport-holding piece is what catches most people out.

If nobody in your life ticks every box, PPTC 056 is the route through. It comes up often for recent immigrants, people who have just moved, and Canadians living abroad in places without a large Canadian community. Instead of a guarantor vouching for you, you swear a legal oath about your own identity and supply extra verification details.

Where to Get the Form

PPTC 056 is a free PDF on the Government of Canada’s passport forms page.³ You can also pick up a copy at any Service Canada Centre that offers passport services, or at a Canadian embassy or consulate if you are outside Canada.

What to Gather Before You Start

Before you sit down with the form, pull together:

Two references who have known you for at least two years, are 18 or older, and agree to be contacted by passport officials. References do not need to be Canadian citizens or hold a Canadian passport; that is what makes their role different from a guarantor’s.
Your address and employment history with full addresses, dates, and employer contact details.
A government-issued photo ID such as a driver’s licence or provincial or territorial ID card. You will show it to the official who administers your oath, and copies may need to be signed.
Any previous legal names, including a maiden name, a name from a prior marriage, or a name changed by court order. Every one must be listed.

Who Can and Cannot Be a Reference

This is where most applicants stall. Your two references cannot be family, and the Government of Canada defines family broadly. The following are excluded:¹

Your spouse or common-law partner (a former spouse or ex-partner can serve as a reference once the relationship has ended)
Parents, step-parents, foster parents, and their spouses or partners
Children (biological, adopted, foster, or step) and their spouses or partners
Siblings, half-siblings, step-siblings, and their spouses or partners
In-laws on either side
Grandparents and grandchildren, including step and foster, and their spouses or partners
Anyone else related to you or your spouse by blood, marriage, adoption, or guardianship who lives at your address

A boyfriend or girlfriend can serve as a reference as long as you are not in a common-law relationship, which the government defines as having lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least one year. Your references also cannot be the same person who administers your oath. Coworkers, neighbours, longtime friends, and community members are the natural pool.

Passport officials may call your references to confirm your identity, and they may ask for additional references at any time. Pick people who will actually pick up the phone during business hours. A reference who is travelling or in a distant time zone can hold up the whole file.

Filling Out the Form

The form collects your full legal name, date of birth, place of birth, other names used, address history, and employment details. Fill it in carefully. Any discrepancy between PPTC 056 and your main passport application or supporting documents will trigger a review or a rejection. For each reference, provide their full name, current residential address, and daytime phone number.

Do not sign the declaration section at home. The oath must be signed in front of the authorized official who administers it, and signing early makes it invalid. Leave that section blank until you are in front of them.

Getting the Declaration Sworn

The statutory declaration is a legal oath, not a signature. You have to swear or affirm to an authorized official that what you have written is true. Inside Canada, that means one of the following:⁴

A Commissioner for Oaths or Commissioner for Taking Affidavits
A Notary Public
A lawyer
A Justice of the Peace

Outside Canada, the oath can be administered by a Canadian or British diplomatic or consular representative, or by a qualified local official such as a civil servant or notary in the country where you are. Canadian consulates abroad can often arrange this directly; email your nearest mission to ask about the process and any notarial fees.

The same official also has to sign the back of one of your passport photos and sign any required copies of your identity documents. It all happens in one appointment. The oath, the photo signature, and the document certification cannot be split across visits.

Submitting Your Application

The sworn PPTC 056 goes in with your complete passport application package: the main application form, two passport photos, proof of Canadian citizenship, supporting identity documents, and PPTC 056 itself. If you are applying in person, take everything to a Service Canada Centre that offers passport services. If you are mailing from within Canada, use the address for your province listed on the Government of Canada’s website; courier and regular-mail addresses differ.⁵

Use a traceable delivery method. Your package contains original citizenship documents and identity papers that are not easy to replace.

Fees and Processing Times

There is no separate fee for using PPTC 056. You pay the standard passport application fee. As of March 31, 2026, applicants living in Canada pay $163.50 for a ten-year adult passport and $122.50 for a five-year adult passport. Canadians living outside Canada pay $266.25 and $194.25 respectively.⁶ Budget separately for the fee charged by whoever administers your oath; that varies by provider and jurisdiction.

Posted processing times do not distinguish between applications with a guarantor and those using a statutory declaration, but applications without a guarantor usually involve extra verification that can stretch the timeline. The service standards are:⁷

In person at a passport office or 10-day Service Canada Centre: 10 business days
In person at a regular Service Canada Centre, by mail, or online: 20 business days
Urgent pick-up: by the end of the next business day
Express pick-up: 2 to 9 business days

Those windows do not include mailing time. If officials cannot reach your references quickly, or if anything on the form does not match your supporting documents, expect the process to run longer. Incomplete applications are returned with your documents. You lose the time you waited, not the fee.

What Happens if You Lie on the Form

A statutory declaration is a sworn legal document. Under section 57 of the Criminal Code, making a false statement to obtain a passport, whether written or oral, is an indictable offence punishable by up to two years in prison, or a summary conviction offence with lesser penalties.⁸

Separately, the Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship can refuse a passport to anyone who provides false or misleading information, and can revoke a passport already issued on that basis.⁹ That includes misrepresenting your inability to find a guarantor. If you could have found one and chose the declaration route because it was easier, that is itself a false statement on the form.

1
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. References and Guarantors for Canadian Passport and Other Travel Document Applications
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Apply for a New Adult Passport in Canada
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Find a Passport or Travel Document Form
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Indigenous Services Canada. Statutory Declaration in Lieu of Guarantor
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Get the Form and Renew a Passport by Mail in Canada
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Passport and Travel Document Fee Changes
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Canadian Passports and Other Travel Documents – Processing Times
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Department of Justice Canada. Criminal Code – Forgery of or Uttering Forged Passport
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Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. Refusal, Revocation, Cancellation and Suspension of Canadian Passports