Canada eTA Requirements: What You Need for Your Application

Before starting your eTA application, it’s worth doing a quick check: do you meet all the requirements? Here’s the complete list.

1. Be a citizen of a visa-exempt country

The eTA is only available to citizens of certain countries, including France, Belgium, Switzerland, and most other EU and EEA member states, as well as many other countries in Europe, Asia, and Oceania. U.S. citizens generally do not need an eTA to enter Canada.

2. A valid passport

You must have a valid, machine-readable passport from your home country. It must remain valid for the entire planned duration of your trip, since the eTA is linked to the passport number.

3. A valid email address

The authorization is sent exclusively by email — no physical document is issued. Make sure to enter your email address without errors, otherwise the confirmation won’t reach you.

4. A valid means of settlement

To complete your application, a standard credit or debit card is required (for example Visa, Mastercard, American Express).

5. Traveling by air

The eTA only applies to entry into Canada by air (including connections through Canada). Different rules apply for entry by land or sea.

What you DON’T need

No biometric procedure like for a visitor visa
No embassy appointment or in-person attendance
No printed document — the eTA is entirely electronic

Check your eligibility and apply now

Before applying, check applying for the whole family (read more here) and what to do if your eTA is refused (details here). Also worth knowing: whether a transit or layover also requires an eTA. Do you meet all the requirements? Apply for your eTA here with personalized support.

Reading your passport correctly

Almost everything the form asks for is printed on one page of your passport, and almost every error comes from reading it casually. Work from the two machine-readable lines at the foot of the photo page rather than from the decorative fields above them.

The document number is the one printed on the photo page, not the number perforated through the booklet and not any number on the cover.
Names appear surname first in the machine-readable zone, separated by two chevrons. Enter them in the fields the form asks for, with the same spelling, including every forename.
The country of issue is a three-letter code. If you hold two nationalities, this must match the passport you will present at check-in.
The expiry date determines how long your authorization can last, since it cannot outlive the document.

The questions that need thought before you start

Three parts of the form are not simple transcription, and are worth preparing:

Your occupation. Answer for what you actually do, in plain terms. Students, retirees, homemakers and the unemployed all have accurate answers available; inventing a job title to look more settled is the wrong instinct.
Previous refusals or removals. Any country, any date. A refusal you disclose is a fact to be assessed; one that is found later is a credibility problem.
Criminal history. The question covers arrests and convictions anywhere in the world, including matters that were spent, expunged or dealt with without a court appearance in your own country.

What you do not need

No photograph, no biometrics, no bank statements, no letter of invitation and no proof of accommodation are required for the authorization itself. The border officer may ask about your plans on arrival, but the application does not.

One last check before you submit

Compare your entered passport number against the document one character at a time, out loud if necessary, and confirm your email address by reading it backwards. Those two fields cause more failed journeys than every other part of the form combined.

Eligibility checklist: answer these four first

Before gathering documents, confirm that the eTA is the right route for you at all. Four questions settle it:

Is your passport from a visa-exempt country? If not, you are in the visitor visa stream, unless you meet the specific conditions that let some visa-required travellers use an eTA.
Are you flying? The requirement attaches to arrival by air, including connections through a Canadian airport. Arriving only by road or by sea does not trigger it.
Is the trip temporary? Tourism, visiting family, business meetings and transit are covered. Working or studying are not.
Are you a Canadian citizen or permanent resident? If so, you do not apply at all; you travel on your Canadian passport or your permanent resident document.

If the answers point to the eTA, everything else on this page applies. If they do not, our comparison of the eTA and the visitor visa sets out the alternative.

Passport conditions in detail

The passport is the centre of the application, and three of its characteristics matter:

It must be valid. An authorization can never outlast the document it is attached to, so a passport close to expiry produces a correspondingly short eTA.
It must be the one you will travel on. Renewing it after applying ends the authorization, and applying on one nationality while travelling on another produces a mismatch at check-in.
It must be a passport, not another identity document. National identity cards are not accepted for the eTA, even from countries where they are valid for travel elsewhere.

If your passport is due for renewal within the next year or two, it is usually worth renewing first and applying afterwards, so that the authorization runs for its full term.

Requirements for children

Every traveller needs their own authorization, infants included, and the application must be made on the child’s own passport. The form is completed by a parent or legal guardian on the child’s behalf, and the occupation question is answered as “child” or “student” as appropriate. A child included only in a parent’s passport, without a document of their own, will need to resolve that before travelling. Our guide to applying as a family goes through the process for several travellers at once.

Applying on behalf of someone else

You may fill in an application for another adult, for example an elderly parent, provided the form declares that you are doing so. The answers must still be the traveller’s own and must be accurate. The email address entered is where the decision will go, so use one that the traveller, or you on their behalf, will actually check.

What the border officer may ask on arrival

The eTA authorizes you to board. Admission is decided at the border, where the officer may want to know:

the purpose of your visit and how long you intend to stay;
where you will be staying, and with whom if you are visiting family or friends;
how you will support yourself during your stay;
that you intend to leave at the end of it, which a return or onward ticket helps demonstrate.

None of this is collected by the application, but having the answers ready makes the arrival straightforward.

Common questions

Do I need a photograph or biometrics?

No. The eTA requires neither. Biometrics belong to the visitor visa procedure.

Do I need to know my travel date?

Not necessarily. The form asks whether you know when you will travel. If you do, enter it; if your departure is very close, indicating the date helps flag the urgency.

Can I use a work email address?

You can, but a personal address you will keep using is safer. The authorization may be valid for years, and you may need the confirmation long after you have changed employer.

What if my passport details change before I travel?

A new passport means a new application. See how validity works and start your application when your document is final.