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Since the 30th of September 2016, it has been mandatory to have Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA) when flying to Canada – but what is eTA and how do you get it? Essentially, the Canadian eTA is equivalent to the American ESTA, which you might be more familiar with, and which we have written about previously here.

Rather than having to apply for a full Visa, British citizens can travel as tourists to Canada for up to 6 months, simply by completing the eTA form online and being granted authorisation. One interesting thing to note is than an eTA is not required if you arrive by land or sea – only when arriving by air.

Once issued, a Canadian eTA is valid for 5 years (for multiple trips) or until your passport expires, and costs just $7 Canadian Dollars (currently ~ £4.25).

The application process is relatively simple, as you can see below:

To apply, you will need a valid Passport, email address and credit card. Every traveller must have their own separate eTA.

The friendly folks in Canada have produced a useful document with information about the questions asked during the application and advice on how to complete the form properly, which you can have a read of here.

It is advisable to get your Electronic Travel Authorization sorted at least a few days before your trip (I would personally do it as soon as I booked). In most cases approval only takes a few minutes,  but when travelling, anything that can go wrong sometimes will go wrong (if your travels are anything like mine anyway!), so save yourself the stress.

If you want to know more about the eTA, check out the the official Canadian Government website here, or the UK Government advice here. You can also watch a rather soothing video on Youtube too!

Bottom line

Getting a Canadian eTA is a cheap and pretty straightforward process – just don’t forget to do it before you go!

InsideFlyer does not guarantee the services of third parties and does not guarantee approval of a visa authorization.