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Electronic travel authorization (eTA) — document checklist
Prepared by CHK Immigration Services Inc. · government fee $7
Electronic travel authorization (eTA) — document checklist
Every document an officer will look for, grouped in the order they are read. The ones marked refusal risk are where these applications actually fail — a complete file is not the same as a persuasive one.
6 documents 3 where refusals happen Government fee $7
Identity
Who is this person, and is the story consistent?Where files fail here: Names, dates or passport details that disagree across documents.
The passport you will actually travel on
The eTA is electronically linked to one passport. Apply on a second nationality’s passport, or renew afterwards, and you will be refused boarding: there is no transfer or amendment, only a fresh $7 application.
A working email address
Approval and any document request arrive by email. If documents are needed you are told within 72 hours — a typo here means you never find out.
Eligibility
Do they meet this program's bar, on paper?Where files fail here: A requirement evidenced by assertion instead of a document.
Check you actually need an eTA and not a visa
Visa-exempt nationals flying to Canada need one. Seventeen otherwise visa-required nationalities can also use one — including Mexico, Brazil, Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia and Malaysia since 26 May 2026 — but only if they have held a Canadian visitor visa in the past ten years or hold a valid US non-immigrant visa.
Check how you are arriving
An eTA covers air travel and transit only. On that second list, anyone arriving by car, bus, train or cruise ship needs a visitor visa instead — an eTA will not get them in.
Funds
Is the money real, available, and theirs?Where files fail here: A large deposit landing days before filing, with no explanation.
Apply on canada.ca, nowhere else
Seven dollars, on the official site. Copycat sites charging many times that are the most common complaint about this process. The form cannot be saved part-way, so have everything to hand.
Intent
Does the purpose hold together, and will they comply?Where files fail here: A plan that doesn't match the applicant's history or finances.
Know what it is not
An eTA is permission to board, not permission to enter and not status. A border services officer decides admission on arrival, and the authorisation runs five years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first.
General information, not legal advice. This checklist is prepared by CHK Immigration Services Inc. and was checked against the Government of Canada’s published requirements on the date shown. Requirements change and vary by case, and IRCC generates a personalised document list for many applications — where that list or canada.ca differs from this document, they govern.
Lead times are planning estimates, not guarantees. Police certificates and credential assessments in particular vary widely by country and provider. IRCC makes all final decisions.
CHK Immigration Services Inc. is an immigration consultancy with offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Our consultants are regulated by the College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC). Nothing in this document creates a client–consultant relationship.
Current version: https://chkimmigration.ca/checklists/eta
Checked against the official IRCC page for this application in September 2026. Where that page disagrees with anything here, it wins. General information, not legal advice. Lead times are planning estimates, not guarantees — police certificates and credential assessments in particular vary widely by country and provider. IRCC also generates a personalised checklist for many applications, and that list governs. IRCC makes all final decisions.
Having the documents is not the same as having a persuasive file.
Every item above can be present and correct and the application can still be refused — on intent, on a date that does not reconcile, or on a lead time that ran out. A licensed consultant reads it the way an officer will.
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Find out where you actually stand.
Send a few details. A licensed RCIC reads your profile personally, then replies with the routes that genuinely fit, the ones that do not, and the consultation fee and next available times.
- Read personally by a CICC-licensed consultant — never a bot, never a salesperson
- A written shortlist of the programs you realistically qualify for
- Consultations are fee-based; you get the fee and available times by reply
CHK Immigration Services — Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant (CICC). Offices in Brampton and London, Ontario. Submitting this form does not create a client–consultant relationship; IRCC makes all final decisions.