You might think an approved eTA stays with you when you get a new passport. It doesn’t. The eTA is tied to your old passport number, and that link breaks the moment you get a new document. Children are no exception: a child with a new passport needs an eTA linked to it.
So no — you cannot use your existing eTA with a new passport. The airline will scan your new passport at check-in, find no valid eTA attached to it, and you won’t board. The fix is a new eTA application using your new passport number, and the sooner you do it, the less stress you carry into departure day. If you also hold a second nationality, see the guidance on applying for a Canada eTA with dual citizenship before you start. This is different from an eTA simply reaching the end of its own five-year window — see how long a Canada eTA is actually valid if you’re unsure which situation applies to you.
Why Your Old eTA No Longer Works
Every eTA approval is attached to the exact passport number you entered when you applied. That number is baked into the approval — it’s not a profile that follows you from document to document. When you renew or replace your passport, you get a new passport number, and your new passport has no eTA linked to it at all.
If you’re applying for the replacement eTA today, submit a new eTA application on get-eta.com with your new passport in hand.
Your old approval email still exists. The approval is still technically valid. But it’s valid for a document you’re no longer travelling on, which makes it useless for your upcoming trip. Think of it like a boarding pass printed for a different seat — the approval happened, but it doesn’t match what’s in your hand.
This matters even if your name, nationality, and every other detail are identical across both passports. The number is what the system reads.
What Happens When You Try to Use It
At check-in, airline staff scan your passport. Their system checks whether that specific passport number has a valid eTA attached. If you hand over your new passport, the scan comes back empty — no eTA found — and you won’t be allowed to board.
There’s no workaround at the gate. Showing the airline your old approval email doesn’t help. Explaining that you had a valid eTA until recently doesn’t help. The system sees your passport number, and your passport number has no eTA. That’s the end of the conversation.
Obtaining an eTA at the last minute may not be possible depending on your specific situation, so this isn’t something to attempt to resolve on the day of travel. The time to act is now, as soon as you have your new passport in hand.
How to Apply for a New eTA With Your New Passport
The process is the same as your first application. You’ll go through the official eTA application, enter your details, and this time use your new passport number. Before you start, have everything ready:
- Your new passport, open to the data page
- The email address you want to receive the approval on
- A payment method
That last point about preparation matters more than it sounds. The eTA application form cannot be saved mid-way through. If you start and then need to go find your passport or look up a detail, you lose your progress and have to begin again. Have everything in front of you before you click the first field.
Most applications are approved within minutes. Some take up to 72 hours. Either way, the approval comes by email, so use an address you can actually access and check promptly.
Once approved, verify that the passport number in the approval email matches your new passport exactly — character by character. That check takes thirty seconds and it’s the one thing that stands between you and a problem at check-in.
Three Mistakes People Make When Reapplying
Transcribing the passport number wrong. This is the most consequential error, and it’s easy to make when you’re doing this quickly. Passport numbers mix letters and numbers in formats that vary by country, and a single digit or letter off means your eTA is approved for a passport that doesn’t exist. The airline scan will fail just as surely as if you had no eTA at all. Read the number from your physical passport, not from memory, not from a photo of your old passport. Type it in, then look at the physical document again to confirm.
Waiting until the day before the flight. Most approvals arrive in minutes, so people assume there’s no urgency. But some applications take several days, and the eTA system can experience delays or be temporarily unavailable. If you apply 48 hours before departure and your application sits for 72 hours, you have a problem with no solution. Apply as soon as you have your new passport — days or weeks before travel, not the evening before.
Not saving the reference number or approval email. Once your new eTA is approved, save that email somewhere you can reach it, and note the application reference number. If you need to check your eTA application status or something unexpected comes up before you fly, the reference number is how you track it down. Losing the email doesn’t invalidate the eTA — it’s still in the system — but it makes any follow-up much harder than it needs to be. If you’ve lost the reference details for the old application entirely and can’t locate them anywhere, see what to do when a Canada eTA application can’t be retrieved.
A fourth thing worth mentioning: some travellers hold dual citizenship, and the passport you use for your eTA application must be the same passport you travel on. If you’re in that situation, the choice of which passport to use for the eTA matters — the dual citizenship eTA guidance covers how that works.
Timeline: When to Apply Before Your Trip
There’s no official minimum lead time, but here’s what the processing realities mean in practice.
Most decisions land within minutes, so technically you could apply the day before and be fine. The problem is that you’re betting on “most” when the downside of being in the minority is missing your flight. Some applications take several days. The system occasionally goes down for scheduled maintenance. A processing delay that would be a minor inconvenience two weeks out becomes a crisis 18 hours before departure.
The practical rule: apply the day you receive your new passport, or as close to it as you can manage. If your trip is still weeks away, that gives you a confirmed eTA with plenty of time to sort out anything unexpected. If your trip is soon — within the next week — apply today, not tomorrow. For the general rule on lead time even outside a passport-renewal scenario, see when to apply for a Canada eTA.
Once your new eTA is approved, you don’t need to do anything else. The eTA attaches to your passport number in the system; you don’t carry a document or print anything out. The airline reads it automatically when they scan your passport at check-in. And if your plans change and you end up not travelling on this eTA at all, that’s not a problem either — see eTA approved but not travelling? You don’t need to cancel for why.
The eTA is tied to a passport number, not to you as a person — a new passport always requires a new eTA.
The airline scans your passport at check-in; an approval email for a different passport number will not get you on the plane.
The application form cannot be saved, so have your new passport open in front of you before you start.