Which document you need depends on your citizenship and how you are travelling. Visa-exempt nationals flying to Canada need an electronic travel authorization. Everyone else needs a visitor visa. Neither guarantees entry: the officer at the border makes the final call.
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An eTA is an electronic authorisation linked to your passport, costs $7, and is required for visa-exempt foreign nationals arriving by air. It is not needed to enter by land or sea. United States citizens do not need one. Lawful permanent residents of the United States are exempt, but must carry proof of that status along with a valid passport.
If your citizenship is not visa-exempt, you apply for a visitor visa, formally a temporary resident visa. That means an application, supporting documents, and for most applicants aged 14 to 79, biometrics at $85 per person, capped at $170 for a family applying together.
Some countries sit in between. Nationals of certain partially visa-exempt countries can apply for an eTA instead of a visa if they meet conditions, such as having held a Canadian visa recently or currently holding a valid US non-immigrant visa. As of 26 May 2026, eligible citizens of Indonesia and Malaysia joined that group for air travel.
One question dominates: is the officer satisfied you will leave at the end of your authorised stay? Everything else — funds, invitation letters, itineraries — is evidence going to that single question.
Officers weigh your ties at home such as employment, property and dependants, the purpose and length of the trip, your ability to pay for it, your travel history, and your family situation in Canada. A strong application answers all five plainly, in documents rather than adjectives.
Having family in Canada is not a negative in itself. It becomes one when the application never explains what the visitor is going back to. Say it directly, and prove it.
There is no appeal from a visitor visa or eTA refusal. Your options are a fresh application that fixes the real problem, or judicial review in the Federal Court. For most people the fresh application is the right call.
Before reapplying, get the officer's notes. An access to information request produces the case notes explaining the refusal, and they are far more specific than the standard-form letter. Reapplying without them is guesswork dressed up as strategy.
Do not resubmit the same package with a nicer cover letter. If the officer doubted your funds, the next application needs different evidence of funds. Repetition reads to a second officer as confirmation that the first was right.
Misrepresentation. Giving false information, or leaving out something material such as a refusal from another country, a previous removal, or a job you did not hold, generally carries five years of inadmissibility. It is far worse than the refusal it was meant to avoid. Tell us the bad facts; almost all of them can be explained.
Agents who file on your behalf without showing you the form. You sign the declaration, and you carry the consequence. Ask to see every answer before it is submitted, in writing.
An approved eTA or visa can also be cancelled after issue if new information comes to light. Keep your circumstances consistent with what you told IRCC, and update them if something changes.
No. An eTA is only required for visa-exempt foreign nationals arriving by air. Entries by land or sea do not require one. You still need a valid passport, and you still have to satisfy the officer at the border that you are admissible and will leave at the end of your stay.
It is linked to your passport and stays valid for several years, or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. It authorises you to board a flight. It does not decide how long you may stay — the border officer sets that, and six months is the usual default for visitors.
No. There is no tribunal appeal from a visitor visa refusal. You can reapply, or seek judicial review in the Federal Court. Reapplying is usually better value, but only if you first obtain the officer's notes and address the reason that actually caused the refusal.
Yes. Having a permanent residence application does not bar a temporary one — the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act expressly recognises dual intent. You still have to satisfy the officer that you will leave at the end of the authorised stay, which takes deliberate evidence rather than optimism.
IRCC charges a per-person application fee, plus $85 for biometrics, capped at $170 for a family applying together. An eTA is $7. Our legal fee is a published flat fee with taxes included, and government fees are billed separately at cost and estimated in writing first.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.