When a permit type's limit has waitlisting turned on, hitting the cap doesn't block new applications, it starts a waitlist instead. Applicants can still apply and pay any waitlist fee, and get automatically or manually offered a permit as spots open up. This article covers running that waitlist day to day. For how caps and waitlisting get configured on the permit type itself, see Individual Permits 101.

A limit is set on a specific combination of permit type, cycle, and permission, along with a quantity, for example: 25. The first 25 permits that match that combination get granted a spot and go Active. The 26th, and every one after it while the limit stays full, goes onto a waitlist instead. This is true whether someone applies through CMRpay or a staff member issues from the back office.

If the approval queue is enabled, the application still goes into Pending for review. If the application is approved and the limit is still full at that point, the permit moves to Waitlisted instead of Active. Its place in line is based on when it was originally applied for, not when it was approved.

If the permit type charges a fee to join the waitlist, that's charged right at application, as part of that same submission, before any approval decision happens. It's separate from the actual permit price, which isn't charged until they're later offered a spot and accept it.

Active, Suspended, Offered, Issued, Pending, and Unpaid permits all count toward the limit. Only Expired and Cancelled permits don't.

Permits → Waitlists opens to a list of every limit that can carry one. Each row shows the limit's capacity, how many permits are currently active against it, current availability, how many pending offers are out, and how many people are on the waitlist, plus whether Auto-Offer is turned on for that limit. Filters narrow this down to limits with an active waitlist, current availability, or pending offers.

Clicking on a line in the table opens the limit details. The details page shows six metrics:

Below the numbers is a search bar, then two tables, since the actions available differ between them:

While the waitlist order can be changed manually, there's no support for automatically weighting the list by anything other than time of application.

Pro tip: if a number looks off or out of date, just refresh the page!

Offers can go out one at a time from a person's row, or in bulk. When there's availability, a Send All Available Offers button sends offers to that many people at the top of the list. Selecting specific people first switches that button to Send to Selected Only, so a specific person can be offered a spot out of turn if needed. Staff can also accept an offer on a permit holder's behalf directly from that permit's own record, useful for phone or walk-in requests.

Auto-Offer is the automatic version of the same thing, a per-limit setting that sends offers out on its own as space opens, following list order. Turning Auto-Offer on or off, and any change to the underlying limit itself (the cap, or whether waitlisting is enabled at all), isn't something Staff can do themselves today, that's on the Passport side. Sending offers manually, reordering, and removing someone are all normal staff actions regardless of whether Auto-Offer is on.

Availability doesn't skip the line. If the person at the front of the waitlist hasn't been offered yet, new applicants keep landing on the waitlist even when the available count looks like it should let them straight through, because whoever's ahead of them hasn't been cleared. If a client wants the list to keep moving on its own as spots open, Auto-Offer is the lever. Without it, availability can sit unused until someone works through the waitlist.

The permit's status moves to Offered. The holder gets an email and sees the change on their CMRpay dashboard, and has until the configured offer window closes to log in and accept.

Once accepted, the permit moves to Unpaid and the holder can pay immediately.

If the offer window lapses without action, or the holder actively rejects the offer, the permit is cancelled outright, not returned to the waitlist. They'd need to reapply and rejoin from scratch.

A permit holder can leave the waitlist at any time from their CMRpay dashboard, which cancels that permit. At renewal time specifically, if they want to stay on it, they may need to pay a configured waitlist renewal fee to keep their place, separate from whatever they paid to join the waitlist initially.

Commercial permits automatically become Active permits, they don't join the waitlist or go through the offer process at all. This applies whether they're purchased from the back office or by the group admin in CMRpay, and it holds every time quantity goes up, not just on the initial purchase.

Staff should be aware of any limits and waitlists at play when creating a new commercial permit configuration. Since there's no waitlist step acting as a check, issuing commercial permits is an easy way to accidentally oversell a limit. More information about Commercial Permits.

Running a waitlist day to day comes down to a few connected pieces, the limit itself with its Capacity and Active Permits count, whoever currently has a pending offer, and everyone still waiting behind them. Reach out to Passport Support for help!