You’ve submitted a Canada eTA with the wrong passport number. Here’s what to do now.
There’s no amendment process: you can’t edit a submitted eTA application…. The only path forward is a fresh application with the correct number. An eTA is electronically linked to the passport you used to apply, which means the one you submitted is tied to a number that doesn’t match your physical document. Even if it was approved, it won’t clear the airline’s system when they scan the passport you’re actually carrying. Submit the new application before you do anything else.
Reapply immediately with the correct passport number
Start the new application now, not the day before your flight. It’s worth understanding why timing matters here: most applications receive a decision within minutes, but some take several days, and the official guidance is clear that getting an eTA at the last minute may not be possible depending on your situation. If you’re within a week of travel, that range — minutes to several days — is the only range you have to work with.
The eTA form can’t be saved mid-way through, so have everything in front of you before you open it: your physical passport, a credit or debit card, and the email address you want the decision sent to. This is the single most practical reason errors happen on reapplication — people start filling in the form from memory rather than reading directly from the document in their hand. Don’t do that.
If you’re unsure what information the application asks for, the first Canada eTA application checklist covers what you’ll need to have ready.
How to verify the number before you submit the replacement
Open your passport to the data page — the page with your photo — and lay it flat beside your screen. Read the passport number character by character as you type it into the form. Passport numbers mix letters and digits, and transpositions (swapping two adjacent characters) are the most common single-character error; reading left to right without pausing won’t catch them. Read it forward, then read it backwards as a second pass.
Most passports print the number in two places: once in the human-readable zone at the top of the data page, and once in the machine-readable zone at the bottom — the two lines of characters that begin with ‘P’ followed by your country code. Compare both. They must match, and what you’ve typed must match both.
If you’re a dual national, make sure you’re applying with the same passport you’ll use at check-in. The eTA must be linked to the passport that gets scanned at the airline counter. There’s specific guidance on which passport dual nationals should use for Canada entry that covers the common scenarios where the wrong passport creates a mismatch, if that applies to you.
Before you hit submit, read the passport number field one final time against the physical document. This is not a redundant step — it’s the only verification that happens before the application is locked.
Verify the number again in the approval email
When the approval email arrives, don’t assume it’s correct and move on. The approval email includes your eTA number and the passport number the eTA is linked to. Read that passport number against your physical passport, the same way you did before submitting: character by character, both directions.
This check matters because the approval email is the last point where you can catch a mismatch before the airline counter. If the number in the email doesn’t match your passport, you’re in the same position you started in — and you’ll need to reapply again. The fee for each application is non-refundable, so catching an error here costs you time but not the cost of a third submission.
Understanding everything the approval email contains — and what each part of it means — is worth a few minutes before travel. The Canada eTA approval email explained page covers what to look for.
What to bring to the airline counter
You don’t need to print anything. There’s no eTA document to carry, no confirmation page to show an agent. The eTA is electronic, and airline staff confirm it by scanning your passport. What you must bring is the specific passport the new eTA is linked to — the one whose number appears in the approval email.
This sounds obvious, but it’s where the error can resurface in a different form. If you have more than one passport (a second nationality, a recently renewed document, an older passport you use for some routes), make sure you’re carrying the right one…. The scan will either return a valid eTA or it won’t. There’s no fallback at the counter if you’re holding the wrong document.
Keep the approval email accessible on your phone as a reference. You won’t be asked to show it, but if there’s any confusion at check-in, having the eTA number and the linked passport number on hand lets you confirm to the agent exactly what was issued and to which document.
If you catch the error at check-in
If the airline agent scans your passport and no valid eTA comes up, you have very little time and no guaranteed solution. Most decisions arrive within minutes, but some take up to 72 hours — and an airport check-in desk is not a place where you can wait 72 hours.
Submit the corrected application immediately, on your phone if necessary. Have your passport in hand and type every character directly from the document. Then tell the agent you’ve just submitted a corrected application. What happens next depends on the airline’s own boarding procedures and how much time remains before the gate closes; that’s outside any rule this site can speak to. Some agents will wait for a fast decision; others won’t hold a flight.
The realistic outcome if you don’t receive approval before the gate closes is that you miss the flight. That’s the direct consequence the official guidance points to when it says that a wrong passport number may mean you’re unable to travel to Canada. Rebooking, travel insurance claims, and what the airline owes you in that scenario are governed by your ticket conditions and your insurer — not by the eTA rules.
The only reliable way to avoid being in that position is to catch the error before you’re at the airport. Check the approval email the moment it arrives, compare the passport number to your document, and if something’s wrong, reapply with enough days left before your flight that even a slower decision — up to 72 hours — doesn’t put your travel at risk.
What happens to the original eTA with the wrong number
The eTA you submitted with the incorrect passport number doesn’t disappear. If it was approved, it remains valid — linked to the passport number you typed, which doesn’t correspond to any document you hold. It has no practical use to you. You can’t transfer it, amend it, or apply it to a different passport. The fee paid for it is non-refundable and cannot be recovered.
This matters in one specific scenario: if you later acquire a passport whose number happens to match what you typed — for example, if you misread one character and the number you entered is close to your actual number — you should not assume the old eTA covers you. The eTA is linked to the exact number entered at the time of application, and that number must match the physical document you present at check-in. If there’s any doubt, check your eTA status against the passport you’re actually travelling with before you reach the airport.
For most travellers, the old eTA has no practical value. The corrected application is the one that matters, and once that approval email arrives with a passport number that matches your document exactly, you’re in the same position as any other approved eTA holder.
Passports renewed after an eTA was issued
A related scenario worth understanding: if your passport was renewed after a valid eTA was issued, the eTA remains linked to the old passport number. A new passport means a new passport number, and the existing eTA does not carry over. This is a different problem from a typo, but the consequence is the same — the airline scans the new passport and finds no valid eTA attached to it.
If you’re in this situation, you need a new eTA application linked to the new passport before you travel. The process is identical to reapplying after a wrong-number error: have the new passport in hand, complete the form without saving mid-way, and verify the number in the approval email against the document you’ll present at check-in. The Canada eTA multiple entries article explains how validity works across trips, which is relevant if you travel to Canada regularly and want to understand when a new application becomes necessary beyond the passport-renewal scenario.