You’re at the airline check-in desk with your bags weighed and your boarding pass on your phone — and the agent is telling you the system can’t confirm your eTA. That moment is avoidable, and it’s avoidable with a single decision made weeks earlier. Before you start, check which cards the form accepts and what to do if a payment fails. Apply for your eTA before you book your flight. That’s the official guidance, and it’s the right call for almost every traveller. Most approvals arrive within minutes, so there’s no practical reason to wait until you have a ticket in hand. The eTA is valid for up to five years (or until your passport expires, whichever comes first), so applying early costs you nothing in terms of validity — and it removes a real source of risk before you commit money to flights and accommodation. ...

Most dual citizens assume they can pick whichever passport suits them best. For most, that’s true, but for anyone holding a Canadian passport, the situation is more complicated. The rule is absolute: if you’re a Canadian citizen, you cannot apply for an eTA and must travel to Canada on your Canadian passport. For everyone else holding two passports, the question becomes which one to use, and that single choice, made carefully before you open the form, determines everything that follows. If a passport renewal happens mid-cycle, remember that a new passport number breaks the link to your existing eTA, so you’ll need to apply again on the new document. Travelling with a baby? A child who is a foreign national needs an eTA of their own. ...

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. ...

In a Nutshell Short version: to check your eTA status you need your eTA application number (from your confirmation email), plus your passport number, the country that issued it, and the passport’s issue and expiry dates. For an eTA you already hold, use your eTA number (or UCI, if you have one) instead of the application number. With those details in hand, you can check your eTA status through a paid private service, separate from the Government of Canada. ...

A refusal splits into two categories — one you can fix in hours, one you often can’t fix before your trip. Your first job is to know which one you’re in. The email you received doesn’t always spell out the reason in plain language. That’s frustrating, but the distinction that matters isn’t the wording of the refusal — it’s whether the problem is a data error on your application or a finding that you’re inadmissible to Canada. Those two situations call for completely different responses, and treating an inadmissibility refusal like a data error (just reapplying) will almost certainly fail. ...