You think your eTA is lost. It isn’t. Here’s what is—and how to find it.
The eTA record itself lives in a government database, tied electronically to your passport. There is no file on your phone or in your inbox that needs to exist for the eTA to be valid. What actually goes missing is one of three things: the confirmation email, the application number that came with it, or the memory of which passport you used when you applied. In some cases, a fourth problem turns up—the approval exists, but the passport number on it doesn’t match the one you’re travelling with. Each of those has a different fix, and none of them require panic. If you’re new to the eTA system, the what is a Canada eTA article explains the basics.
The single source of truth for whether you have a valid eTA is the government’s Check your eTA status tool. If your eTA is there and approved, the airline will confirm it at check-in by scanning your passport—you don’t need to show the email, quote the application number, or carry any printout. The approval email is useful for your own records; it isn’t a boarding pass.
What ’lost’ actually means—and why the eTA itself isn’t
The eTA is electronically linked to your passport the moment it’s approved. That link is stored on the government side, not yours. Deleting an email, losing a phone, switching email providers, forgetting a password—none of those actions touch the eTA record. The only way an eTA stops being valid is if it expires (either five years pass or the linked passport expires, whichever comes first), if you get a new passport, or if a specific suspension applies to your situation.
This matters because the instinct when you can’t find the email is to reapply. In most cases, reapplying is unnecessary and means paying again for something you already have. Before you do anything, run the status check.
The four things that go missing and how to find each one
| What’s missing | What to do |
|---|---|
| Confirmation email | Search your inbox for “eTA” and “Canada”. Check your spam and junk folders—automated government emails frequently land there. Also check any secondary email addresses you might have used. |
| Application number | Use the eTA status tool directly—you don’t need the application number to check your status; your passport number works instead. |
| Which passport I used | Look at the approval email if you can find it; it will name the passport. If you’ve had more than one passport, check the status tool with each one. The eTA is linked to the specific passport you used at application. |
| Approval has the wrong passport number | This is the one case where the eTA genuinely cannot help you at the border. Entering the wrong passport number on the application can cause problems when flying to Canada. You’ll need to apply again with the correct passport. |
The approval email, when you do find it, contains your eTA number and confirms which passport the authorisation is tied to. If you want a fuller breakdown of what that email contains and what each field means, the Canada eTA approval email explained article on this site walks through it.
How to confirm you have a valid eTA (the status tool)
The eTA status check tool is found under “Electronic travel authorization (eTA)” on the IRCC application status page. You’ll need your passport number and the email address you used when you applied. If you’ve changed email addresses since then, try the passport number with each address you might have used—the system matches on both.
When the tool returns an “approved” result, that’s your answer. The eTA is valid. Airline staff will scan your passport at check-in and confirm it on their end without you doing anything else. You don’t need to show a printed copy, quote a number, or carry any documentation relating to the eTA itself—you must simply present the same passport that was used for the application.
A result of “pending” means the application is still being processed. Most decisions arrive within minutes of applying, but some may take longer. If you’re in this situation close to a departure date, that’s a real problem—leave paperwork as late as the days before a flight and you remove your margin. If the status has been pending for longer than you’d expect, the eTA application still pending article covers what to do next.
When you genuinely need to apply again
Most of the time, you don’t. But there are specific situations where a new application is the only path forward.
You’ve renewed your passport. The eTA is tied to the passport used at the time of application. A new passport means a new eTA—the old one doesn’t transfer, even if the previous passport hasn’t expired yet. If you applied with a passport that has since been replaced, the status tool will show the old approval, but it won’t work with your current travel document.
The passport number on the approval is wrong. If you—or whoever helped you apply—entered the wrong passport number, the eTA is linked to a number that doesn’t exist or belongs to an old document. That mismatch will surface when the airline scans your passport at check-in. There’s no way to correct a submitted application after the fact; the only fix is a fresh application with the accurate passport details. Make sure every detail on the new application matches the passport exactly—name spelling, date of birth, passport number, expiry date. A single character off can create the same problem again. More on what happens in that scenario is at Canada eTA wrong passport number.
The eTA is expired. Valid for up to five years or until the linked passport expires—whichever is sooner. If you applied several years ago, check the expiry. The status tool will reflect whether it’s still active.
The status tool returns no record. If you’ve tried every email address and every passport you’ve held and the tool finds nothing, then either the application was never successfully submitted or it was made under details you can’t reconstruct. In that case, applying again is the right move. Don’t leave this until the days before your flight—while most approvals arrive quickly, some take longer, and booking non-refundable travel before you have a confirmed approval puts you in a difficult position.
If you’re booking a flight and still can’t confirm
The practical question here is whether it’s safe to book travel before you’ve confirmed your eTA status. The short answer: confirm first.
If the status tool shows an approved eTA linked to the passport you’ll be travelling with, you’re set. The airline will scan the passport and the eTA will be confirmed at check-in automatically. You don’t need to do anything else before booking.
Should the status be unclear—pending, not found, or linked to a passport you’re no longer using—resolve that before committing to non-refundable tickets. An approved eTA is what makes you eligible to board a flight to Canada; without it, the airline cannot let you on the plane regardless of what other documents you hold. A receipt, a payment record, or a screenshot of an old application form carries no weight at check-in.
One situation worth knowing about: if your eTA has been suspended due to a temporary government measure, it will be automatically reactivated when those measures end, without any action required from you. The status tool will reflect the current state. If you see a suspended status and aren’t sure why, checking the IRCC special measures pages will tell you whether a temporary suspension applies to your circumstances.
Dual nationals have an additional wrinkle. If you hold citizenship in a country that requires an eTA and you also hold Canadian citizenship, you don’t need an eTA—but you do need a valid Canadian passport to board a flight to Canada. The eTA eligibility and dual nationality article covers which passport to use and why it matters for check-in.