CanadaTravellers passing through some Canadian airports experienced hours-long delays Sunday going through customs due to a national system outage of the Canada Border Services Agency’s online passport verification, including at inspection kiosks. The matter was resolved early Monday.Toronto, Montreal and Calgary among airports were some travellers endured longer wait timesMouhamad Rachini · CBC News · Posted: Sep 28, 2025 6:54 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour agoHundreds of passengers wait in line on their way to Canadian customs at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Sunday night. Earlier that day, a nationwide technical issue shut down passport verification on ArriveCAN and automated kiosks at Canadian airports in major cities like Toronto, Montreal and Calgary. (Aloysius Wong/CBC)Travellers passing through some Canadian airports experienced hours-long delays going through customs due to a national system outage of the Canada Border Services Agency’s online passport verification, including at inspection kiosks.The CBSA said early Monday the outage “had been resolved,” but that travellers could continue to experience delays in the short term as the agency works to resume normal processing operations.In an emailed statement to CBC News Sunday evening, a CBSA spokesperson said the outage was caused by an “unforeseen technical issue during routine systems maintenance.”Guided by airport staff, Canadians and foreigners alike navigate a labyrinth of lines as they move through customs at Pearson airport just past 10 p.m. on Sunday. (Aloysius Wong/CBC)The problem extended to check-ins to Canada-bound flights, during which airline staff had to call Canadian authorities to verify domestic and foreign passports alike, CBC News has learned.In New York City, for example, airline workers at LaGuardia Airport who staffed outbound flights to Canada had to manually call authorities to verify each traveller’s documents before being cleared for departure.Declarations on the ArriveCAN app were also shut down as a result.Trudeau International Airport in Montreal, Toronto’s Pearson International Airport and the Calgary International Airport had warned passengers on social media they may experience longer than normal wait times at customs.A spokesperson for Vancouver International Airport told CBC News the outage impacted kiosks there too, but aside from “slightly longer than normal” customs clearance times, it said there are no major operational impacts.Travellers were redirected to primary inspection lines for manual processing.Travellers wait in long immigration lines at Pearson airport as a result of Sunday’s Canada-wide passport kiosk outage. (Submitted by Rob Bosomworth)”Safety and security standards are upheld at all times, with border services officers working to verify travellers’ identities, receive their declarations and conduct any additional screening warranted by each traveller’s individual circumstances,” the CBSA said Sunday. ‘Frustration’ for travellersEric Tordjman got stuck in Calgary due to the outage. He said he missed two flights on Sunday while attempting to return home to Toronto.”Everyone’s just telling us just to be patient,” he told CBC News.Tordjman said he initially had a boarding pass, but it was “revoked” after changing to an earlier flight. He wasn’t able to get a boarding pass for his new flight due to the kiosk outage, noting the technical glitch was “causing a lot of frustration.”Travellers wait in the immigration line at Terminal 3 at Pearson airport. (Submitted by Rob Bosomworth)He eventually caught a later flight home Sunday night. Had he missed it, he was told he would need to sleep overnight in the airport or pay out of his own pocket for a hotel.The shutdown inconvenienced both airline staff and travellers anxious about making it in time for their connection flights or eager to arrive at their destinations to rest for commitments Monday morning.By Sunday night, Pearson airport staff had reduced wait times, from landing to clearing Canadian customs, to about an hour and a half — an improvement from earlier reports of delays exceeding three hours posted by travellers on social media.This is the “line” after three hours at YYZ. pic.twitter.com/iug0GE23OW—@_BrotherGreg_The system outage also extended to identity verification for passengers to or travelling through Canada, grounding or delaying flights.Meanwhile, in flight and on the ground, many people stepped up to deliver acts of kindness amid the confusion.CBC News witnessed passengers and workers sharing what they knew about the situation as they learned it, and airline and airport staff generously offering additional food and beverages — keeping information and people flowing until everybody made it to their final destination.This isn’t the first time a Canada-wide kiosk outage has impacted travellers. Outages in April and June also caused delays in some major Canadian airports. ABOUT THE AUTHORMouhamad Rachini is a Canadian Lebanese writer and producer for CBC Radio’s digital team. He’s worked for CBC Radio shows including Day 6 and Cross Country Checkup. He’s particularly passionate about telling stories from Muslim and Middle Eastern communities. He also writes about soccer on his website Between the Sticks. You can reach him at mouhamad.rachini@cbc.ca.With files from Aloysius Wong and Zena Olijnyk
YVR among Canadian airports affected by passport kiosk outages, border agency says
