Visitor visa or eTA?
Find out in three taps.
Almost every traveller needs one or the other — rarely both. Which one applies to you depends on your passport, how you're arriving, and what's already in it. Work it out below, then check how long you're allowed to stay once you land. Offices in Brampton and London, Ontario.
Applying for the wrong document costs a fee and weeks of your travel window. Overstaying costs far more.
Document finder
Three questions. One answer.
Canada's rule is that you need one or the other — almost never both. Which one turns on nationality, how you arrive, and what's already in your passport. Start typing your country; confirm the result on the official IRCC tool before you book.
Your situation
Answer as the traveller — everyone on the trip is assessed separately.
Stay tracker
How long can you stay? Count from the day you landed.
A visitor is normally authorized for six months from the date of entry — unless an officer wrote a different date in your passport, in which case that date governs. Enter your entry date to see exactly when your authorized stay ends. If you need to extend or restore that status, the rules, fees and 90-day window live on their own page.
Your entry
Nothing leaves your device — this calculates in the browser.
Reviewed August 2026 — an estimate, not a determination of your status. A border officer, a visitor record, or your passport expiry can all shorten the period, and conditions on your entry govern over any calculator. Confirm on canada.ca or have us review the entry stamp itself.
The assessment
Four things get weighed. Everything else is supporting evidence.
A visitor application answers one question asked four ways: will this person come, do what they said, and leave when they said. Every document either supports that or quietly undermines it.
A trip an officer can picture: dates, a reason, and something connecting the two. “Tourism” across an open-ended window reads as an intention to stay.
Employment, property, dependants, studies or a business — weighed against what you would give up by overstaying, not simply listed on a form.
Enough for the trip, held long enough to look ordinary, and explained where a large deposit lands shortly before filing. Source matters as much as balance.
Prior travel, prior compliance and prior refusals — for any country. An undisclosed refusal is a far larger problem than the refusal itself.
Where files fail
Refusals rarely turn on the truth. They turn on the proof.
Most refused applicants genuinely intended to visit and genuinely intended to leave. The file simply didn't let an officer conclude that. Re-submitting the same package with a fresh fee attached almost never changes the result — the refusal reasons have to be answered first.
An employment letter with no payroll behind it, or property claimed with no title attached. Officers weigh what is proven, not what is asserted.
A balance that jumps days before filing, with no sale deed, loan document or salary history to explain it.
A two-week holiday attached to a six-month request, or an invitation letter naming a host whose own status is never shown.
Any country, any visa type. Non-disclosure is treated as misrepresentation and reaches far beyond one refused trip.
Adjacent options
Sometimes the visitor visa isn't the instrument. These often are.
Stays measured in years rather than months — with medical insurance and a host income threshold to satisfy before it's granted.
Super VisaExtending an authorized stay before it lapses, or restoring status inside the 90-day window if the date has already passed.
Extensions & restorationA past conviction doesn't always end the trip — it changes the application.
TRPWhen the visit becomes a life together, the pathway changes entirely.
SponsorshipGCMS notes first, then a file that answers the actual reason.
RemediesGet the document right — and the dates right.
A short consultation confirms your path, tests your ties and funds the way an officer will read them, and puts your extension on the calendar before it becomes a restoration. Brampton, London, or remotely anywhere in Canada.
General information only, not legal advice, and no consultant–client relationship is created by reading this page. Fees, eligibility and authorized periods change — confirm current requirements on canada.ca before you act. Reviewed August 2026.
Visitor visa review
Why do visitor visas get refused — and will yours?
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.