Chandigarh vs Jalandhar vs Delhi VFS: Canada Passport Return Time 2026

If you live in Punjab, Haryana or Delhi, you can probably reach more than one VFS centre. So which one gets your stamped Canadian passport back fastest: Chandigarh, Jalandhar or New Delhi?

The short answer is that the gap between them is small. It also changes from week to week. This post sets out the numbers so you can decide whether a longer trip is worth it.

These figures come from Blue Dart's public tracking of 51,726 Canadian visa passports that VFS India sent back between 6 July and early October 2026. The wait is counted from the day you hand your passport in at VFS (the date at the start of your tracking ID) to the day VFS sends it back by Blue Dart. Data is up to 10 October 2026.

The three big North Indian centres, side by side

Here are passports handed in during the most recent four complete weeks (24 August to 20 September 2026):

On paper, New Delhi is slightly ahead on every line. Jalandhar is slightly behind on the middle figure. But look at the size of the gaps. The halfway point is 13, 14 or 15 days. The slow end is 22 or 23 days. These are differences of a day or so, not a week.

The four weeks before that

For passports handed in from 27 July to 23 August 2026, the picture was much the same:

Again New Delhi is a touch quicker and the other two are level. The big story is not which centre won. It is that all three dropped from about three weeks to about two at the same time.

Why the "9 in 10" figure still looks high

You may notice that 9 in 10 within 23 days does not sound like a two-week wait. That is because the recent period starts on 24 August. Passports handed in that week were still caught in the slower summer pace. Across all centres, half of that week's hand-ins took 22 days. By the weeks of 7 and 14 September, half were back within 14 days and 9 in 10 within 14 or 15.

So the recent figures mix slow late-August hand-ins with faster September ones. The slow end of the table reflects August more than it reflects today.

What is going out right now, by centre

A better guide to today is what VFS has sent back in the last seven days. Across all centres that was 4,704 passports. The typical wait for those passports, by centre:

• Chandigarh: 14 days
• Jalandhar: 14 days
• New Delhi: 13 days
• Every other centre: 14 days

That is close to a tie. Right now, no North Indian centre is clearly faster than the others. You can check this for yourself on the comparison page. It updates as new dispatches appear.

How busy each centre is

Jalandhar handles far more Canadian passports than anywhere else. In the last 30 days VFS sent back 4,746 from Jalandhar, 3,345 from Chandigarh and 2,169 from New Delhi. Busier does not seem to mean slower here. Jalandhar's typical wait this week matches Chandigarh's, with more than twice as many passports as New Delhi.

The other seven centres, briefly

For the same recent hand-in period, half of passports came back within:

• Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune: 14 days
• Ahmedabad, Hyderabad and Mumbai: 17 days

All seven sent back passports with a typical wait of 14 days in the last week. None of them stands out as a reason to travel across the country. Each has its own page if you want detail: Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Pune.

Why the centres move together

The stamping itself is done by the Canadian visa office, not by VFS. When all ten centres speed up in the same weeks, as they did in September, it points to a change at that step. The data does not show why the pace changed, and IRCC publishes nothing about this stage. It also cannot tell you whether one centre will stay ahead next month.

Two more limits are worth knowing:

• This data covers only passports VFS sends back by Blue Dart, roughly a third of the total. Passports collected in person are not counted.
• There is no visa type in the tracking ID. Visitor, study, work and PR passports are all mixed together. If one centre handles more of a slower type, its numbers may look worse for reasons that have nothing to do with the centre.

So is it worth travelling to another centre?

For most people in Punjab or Delhi, no. The numbers suggest a few points to weigh:

1. The gap is a day or so at most. New Delhi has been slightly quicker in both periods, but by small margins. A long trip for a one-day edge is rarely worth the cost and the day off.
2. The lead is not stable. This week Chandigarh and Jalandhar sit at 14 days and New Delhi at 13. A different week could flip that.
3. Getting an appointment soon matters more. An earlier hand-in date at your nearest centre will almost always beat a later date at a "faster" one.
4. The courier part is short wherever you are. In the last 30 days Blue Dart delivered half of passports within 1 day of dispatch and 9 in 10 within 3 days. 54% arrived the same or next day.

What this means if you are handing in now

• Plan on about two weeks to dispatch, plus a few days for delivery. That is what recent September hand-ins and this week's dispatches show at Chandigarh, Jalandhar and New Delhi alike.
• Pick the centre that gets you the earliest slot, not the one that topped last month's table.
• Do not book a fixed flight before your passport is dispatched. The summer showed a three-week wait can hold for months, and nothing promises the current pace will last.
• If most passports from your hand-in day are back and yours is not, you are probably in the slow tenth. The data cannot say why. IRCC's web form is the place to ask, not VFS.

To see where your own passport stands, open your centre's page, Chandigarh, Jalandhar or New Delhi, or the all-centres tracker. Find your hand-in date there to see how many passports from that day are already on their way.