Questions and answers

Canadians have the opportunity to apply directly for a Senate appointment on a year-round basis through an open application process based on merit-based criteria and requirements under the Constitution. Applications are retained for a two-year period beginning at the time of application.

Applications are reviewed by the Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments (Advisory Board), an independent and non-partisan body established in 2016 to provide advice to the Prime Minister on candidates for Senate appointments. The Advisory Board, when convened by the Prime Minister, reviews applications in provinces and territories where there are planned or current vacancies.

The Government of Canada is working to establish Advisory Boards for all provinces and territories with current or anticipated Senate vacancies. Advisory Board members will be announced on our website in due course. Details regarding Advisory Board meetings are confidential and not disclosed.

If there is no application review start date, it means that the Advisory Board has not been established or is not yet ready to review applications for your province or territory. You can still submit your application. It will be retained for a two-year period starting on the day it was submitted. If a seat is or becomes vacant in your province or territory during the retention period, your application will be presented in due time to the Advisory Board for assessment. Information regarding upcoming Senate vacancies due to retirement can be found on the Senate of Canada’s website.

The Prime Minister considers the names recommended by the Advisory Board and subsequently provides his recommendation for appointment to the Senate to the Governor General. Persons recommended to the Prime Minister as well as persons designated by the Prime Minister for a possible recommendation to the Governor General are subject to due diligence, including security and constitutional requirements checks.

Details regarding Advisory Board meetings, their timelines and their recommendations to the Prime Minister are confidential and not disclosed. Only applicants that are selected for further consideration are contacted by the Advisory Board in due time. We recommend that you keep your profile and application documentation up-to-date over the two-year retention period.

Information regarding Senate vacancies can be found in the Senators section of the Senate of Canada’s website. If there is no vacancy in your province or territory of residency at this time, you may still submit your application for a Senate appointment. Applications are held for a period of two years beginning at the time of your application. If a seat in the Senate is or becomes vacant in your province or territory of residency during the retention period, your application will be provided in due time to the Advisory Board for their consideration.

Organizations and individuals are encouraged to nominate individuals whom they consider to be high quality candidates for appointment to the Senate and whom they feel meet the assessment criteria. To nominate an individual for a Senate appointment, go to the Nomination page.

As indicated in the assessment criteria, the person must be a resident or have real property qualification in the electoral division for which they are appointed. If your candidacy is successful, and you do not reside in a vacant electoral division, you will have the opportunity to purchase real property in the electoral division prior to the appointment. In other words, it is not necessary to be a resident of a particular electoral division, nor is it necessary to meet this criterion at the time of application.

You can update your application after the application review start date, if one has been identified. However, it may not be considered by the Advisory Board until the next application review cycle.

You can also update your profile information or withdraw your application at any time.

IMPORTANT – Please note that updating your profile or your documents does not impact your 2-year expiry date.

There is no need to provide additional documents since the Advisory Board will only consider the ones that are required for your application to be considered complete, specifically a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, three reference letters, and a background check consent form. More details on the required documents are available on the How to apply page.

As long as your application is still valid (2-year retention period), you do not need to provide a cover letter. If you need to update your application form and you didn’t keep a copy, please contact us.

You may apply for a Senate appointment on a year-round basis through the open application process. Applications are held for a period of two years beginning at the time of application. If a seat in the Senate is or becomes vacant in your province or territory of residency during the retention period, your application will be provided in due time to the Advisory Board for their consideration.

IMPORTANT – If there is an application review start date on the Advisory Board website, please apply before this date to ensure your application is considered by the Advisory Board for this review. Applications received after this date may be considered by the Advisory Board for this cycle, or retained for a future cycle, at the Advisory Board’s discretion.

As it takes time and effort to prepare an application, we encourage you to submit your application as soon as it’s ready, even if no application review start date has been set. Your application will be held for a period of two years beginning at the time of submission.

The status of an application will not be provided. Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted regarding the next stages of the process. We recommend that you keep your profile and application documentation up-to-date over the two-year retention period.

Only those selected for further consideration will be contacted regarding the next stages of the process. We recommend that you keep your profile and application documentation up-to-date over the two-year retention period.

Feedback will not be provided on individual applications. Applicants who were not selected for an appointment to the Senate will be considered for future opportunities within the two-year retention period. Applicants may also reapply for future vacancies. In the meantime, we encourage you to review the assessment criteria and ‎ensure that the information provided in your application demonstrates how you meet each of the criteria.

If you submitted your last application before February 1, 2021:
Your application had already expired when we launched our new system so your profile and application were not transferred over. You will need to create a new profile by entering your current email address in the New applicant box and selecting the Create Profile button.

If you submitted your last application between February 1, 2021 and January 31, 2023:
Your profile and application were transferred to our new system and you should be able to log into your profile. If it’s your first time logging in to our new system, you must reset your password. You can do so by selecting the Forgot your password link under Returning user. Enter the email address you were using to log in to our previous system and select Send. You will receive an email with instructions to reset your password.

If you submitted your last application after January 31, 2023 in our new system:
When you enter your email and password, make sure there are no typos and no extra spaces. If it’s still not working, try to reset your password. You can do so by selecting Forgot your password under Returning user. Enter the email address used to log in to our system and select Send. You will receive an email with instructions to reset your password.

IMPORTANT – Please note that updating your profile or your documents does not impact your 2-year expiry date.

Our new system only has profiles with applications submitted since February 1, 2021. If our system doesn’t have a profile with your email address, you won’t be able to reset your password. You will need to create a new profile by entering your current email address in the New applicant box and selecting the Create Profile button.

We suggest checking your junk mail folder to see if the email is there. Also, when you are logged in to our system, you can confirm that your application was submitted by selecting My opportunities on the sidebar menu. If your application was successfully submitted, you will see the opportunity you applied for and the date that it was submitted. If you don’t see the opportunity, it means that your application was not submitted. Please follow the steps on our How to apply page, including designating your documents to the position you are interested in and selecting the Submit my application button. If you simply updated documents in your application package, you won't receive a confirmation email.

Applications are held for a period of two years beginning at the time of your application.

To view the date you submitted your application, you can log in to your profile, go in My opportunities and find your application. If the date under Date applied is less than 2 years ago, your application is still valid and you should see No under the header Expired. If you see Yes under the header Expired or if you don’t see your application, it means that it expired and you need to submit a new application.

IMPORTANT – Please note that updating your profile or your documents does not impact your 2-year expiry date.

If you did not keep a copy of those documents, please contact us. Depending on when you submitted your application, we might be able to retrieve the documents and send them to you.

Once the two-year retention period is over, you need to submit a new application if you still wish to be considered. Please note that you won’t be able to submit a new application in our system until it has expired.