You’re partway through the eTA form when you notice the passport number you typed doesn’t match what’s printed in your passport. Or you’ve spelled your name differently than it appears on your travel document. The fix right now is simple: correct it before you submit. Once you’ve paid and the application is processed, the eTA is electronically linked to whatever passport number you entered — right or wrong — and an incorrect one may prevent you from boarding your flight to Canada entirely. Names are the most common thing to get wrong; this guide to name mismatches shows what to copy from the passport.
Before payment, you can correct any field on the form by editing it directly. The form is one continuous online session; there’s no locked submission until you’ve paid the fee. That’s your window, and it’s the only clean one you get.
Identifying Common Errors on Your eTA Application Form
Most mistakes fall into a few predictable categories. Passport numbers are the highest-stakes field: a transposed digit or a missing character means the eTA gets linked to a number that doesn’t exist in your physical document. Airline staff scan your passport at check-in to confirm a valid eTA is attached to it — if the numbers don’t match, you won’t board.
Name errors are common too, particularly for travellers whose passports use transliterations or whose legal name differs from what they go by day-to-day. The form needs to reflect exactly what’s in your passport, character for character. Date of birth and nationality are also worth double-checking; these fields interact with your eligibility and your passport details.
Worth noting before you begin: the form is available only in English and French, though field descriptions can be displayed in other languages to help you understand what each one is asking. That’s useful if you’re unsure whether a field wants your given name first or your family name first — take the time to read the description before you type.
One structural fact shapes everything here: the online eTA application form cannot be saved. You can’t start it, close the browser, and come back to finish. If you leave mid-session, you start over. If you hold dual citizenship and are unsure which passport to use, read about applying for a Canada eTA with dual citizenship before you begin. So before you start your eTA application, have your passport open in front of you, your email address ready, and your payment card within reach.
Navigating the Online eTA Portal to Correct Information
Each question appears in sequence within a single session. While you’re still in that session and haven’t yet reached the payment step, you can go back through the form and edit any field. The mechanism is straightforward: use the back or edit options within the form to return to the section you need to fix, change the entry, and continue forward again.
There’s no penalty for doing this. You haven’t submitted anything yet, and no fee has changed hands. The critical boundary is payment — the fee is non-refundable, and once the application is submitted with payment, the process is complete on your end.
The form cannot be saved mid-session. Have your passport physically in hand before you begin, not just nearby.
If you’re moving through the form and realise you need to check a detail — say, the exact expiry date on your passport, or the precise spelling of a place name — it’s better to stop and verify than to guess and continue. Guessing costs you a reapplication.
For guidance on tracking your application once you’ve submitted, see our article on how to check your eTA application status — but right now, your job is getting the form right before you reach the payment screen.
Reviewing Each Section: A Pre-Submission Checklist
Run through these before you click to pay:
- Passport number — compare character by character against your physical passport, not from memory
- Passport expiry date — check the exact date printed, not an approximation
- Full legal name — must match your passport exactly, including middle names if your passport includes them
- Date of birth — verify day, month, and year against your passport biographical page
- Nationality/citizenship — confirm this matches the passport you’re using for travel
- Email address — this is where your approval or follow-up will arrive; a typo here means you won’t receive it
- Travel document type — ensure you’ve selected the correct category for your passport
The passport number and the email address are the two fields where errors cause the most downstream damage. A wrong passport number links your eTA to a non-existent document. A wrong email means you may never receive your approval notification — and you’d need to check the status of your application separately. If you don’t have an email address of your own at all, see applying for a Canada eTA without an email address for how to handle that field.
What Happens if You Find an Error After Payment But Before Final Submission?
This situation is less common because payment and submission happen together — the fee is paid immediately after completing the online form, and that act completes the submission. There isn’t a separate “final submit” button after payment. So if you’ve paid, the application is in.
That means the window to correct errors is entirely before you reach the payment screen. Once payment is processed, the eTA application has been submitted. The fee is non-refundable regardless of the outcome.
If you discover an error after payment, your options narrow significantly. For a wrong passport number specifically, you’ll need to reapply with the correct number — and pay the fee again. Whether you can do that in time before your flight depends on your travel timeline. Last-minute reapplication may not always be possible.
Deciding When to Start a New eTA Application vs. Correcting the Current One
Before payment, the answer is almost always: correct the current one. You’re in an active session, nothing has been submitted, and editing a field takes seconds. Starting over means re-entering everything from scratch, which introduces new opportunities for error.
The one case where starting fresh makes sense before payment is if you’ve made multiple errors across several sections and you’re no longer confident in the overall accuracy of what you’ve entered. A clean restart with your passport open and every detail verified is better than patching a form you’ve lost track of.
| Error type | When discovered | Recommended action |
|---|---|---|
| Typo in name or date of birth | Before payment | Edit the field and continue |
| Wrong passport number | Before payment | Edit the field, verify digit by digit |
| Wrong email address | Before payment | Edit the field |
| Multiple errors, session confusing | Before payment | Consider restarting with all documents ready |
| Incorrect passport number | After payment/submission | Submit a new eTA application with correct passport details |
| Wrong passport number | After approval | Reapply with the correct passport number |
The post-approval scenario deserves emphasis: if your eTA is approved but the passport number in the approval email doesn’t match your physical passport, you must apply again. Travelling with a mismatched eTA and passport is not a technicality you can explain at check-in — the airline’s system will flag it.
FAQ
Can I save my eTA application and come back to correct it later?
No. The online eTA application form cannot be saved. Once you start a session, you need to complete and pay in one sitting. If you close the browser or lose your connection, you’ll have to start from the beginning. Gather your passport, email address, and payment card before you open the form.
What if I realize I made a mistake immediately after clicking ‘submit’ but before receiving confirmation?
Payment and submission happen at the same step, so once you’ve paid, the application is submitted. There’s no recall window. If the error is a wrong passport number, you’ll need to submit a new application with the correct details. You can check your eTA status to confirm what was received, then decide whether a new application is needed.
Are there specific fields that are more critical to get right on the eTA application?
Of all the fields, the passport number carries the greatest consequence. The eTA is electronically linked to the passport number you enter; a wrong number means the eTA won’t match your actual passport, and you may not be able to board your flight. Your email address is the second most important — it’s how you’ll receive your approval or any follow-up.
Will correcting an error delay my eTA processing time?
Correcting an error before submission has no effect on processing time — you haven’t submitted anything yet. Most eTA applications are approved within minutes once submitted; some take up to several days. The delay risk comes from discovering an error after submission and needing to reapply, which starts the processing clock over.
What should I do if the system won’t let me edit a specific field?
The eTA application form can be unavailable during system updates. If you’re unable to interact with a field or the form is unresponsive, try refreshing your session or returning later. If the field appears locked within a normal session, starting a new application is the practical solution — since the form can’t be saved, nothing is lost by beginning again.
The rule that governs all of this is simple: your only clean opportunity to fix anything is before you pay. After payment, the application is submitted and the fee is gone regardless of outcome. Open your passport before you open the form, go through the checklist field by field, and don’t move to the payment screen until every detail matches exactly what’s printed in your travel document.