My international passport has 4 months to expiry. I have tons of my travel history inside of this passport and I am going for renewals/reissue. Can I use this passport to submit a visa application to CIC (since the application for the visas are online) and add a note to show that I am going for passport renewals etc. since I am really going for renewals?
Do I also have to make a note or show any form of documentation that the passport is undergoing renewals?
It would usually be much simpler to proceed with renewal first, unless you have an urgent need to travel. Note that Canadian visa processing alone could take more than four months. Additionally, the visa and the period of stay granted to temporary residents in principle will not exceed the validity of the passport.
You are allowed to submit a different passport when your visa is approved and usually the validity should follow the new passport. But again, this introduces a complication for the processing and mistakes may happen.
If you already submitted a Canadian visa application, you can use the IRCC webform (https://secure.cic.gc.ca/enquiries-renseignements/canada-case-cas-eng.aspx) to update your file, quoting your UCI number and new passport information.
You may include a note regarding the ongoing renewal in the letter of explanation, but without the new passport information, there is not much the visa officer could do with the information.
If it is possible for you to renew the passport first and then apply for the visa, I would suggest doing exactly this. When I was renewing my Canadian immigration docs several years ago (including visa), I was told that the validity period of the documents they issue will not exceed that of the passport.
