The short answer: “Transaction Approved” means your card was charged. It is not your eTA and it is not a decision. Your application has been submitted and paid for; nobody has looked at it yet. The answer comes later, by email only — so check your spam folder.

Save that screen before you close the tab. IRCC does not let you print it later and will not send you a copy. Print it, save it as a PDF, or screenshot it now.

If you are waiting on the outcome, see the three eTA emails and which one you have or what to check when there is no approval email yet. If you have not applied yet, the whole form is walked through in our field-by-field guide to the Canada eTA application.

The rest of this page explains what is actually on that screen and what happens after it.

The screen itself

You finished the eTA form, clicked Transmit and pay, and a page came back with a green check mark and the words Transaction Approved. It shows an Order ID, your email address, the amount, the last four digits of your card, a transaction type, an authorization code and a reference number.

What the screen actually confirms

Two things, both about money and transmission:

  1. Your card was charged $7 CAD, the non-refundable government fee.
  2. Your completed application was transmitted to IRCC.

That is the whole meaning of it. No officer has looked at your application at this point. No decision exists. The words “Transaction Approved” come from the payment processor and refer to the card transaction — the same wording you would see buying anything online.

The screen before it told you the same thing in advance, if you read it: the fee summary page carries the line “This is not a receipt” above the total, and warns that “After you pay, your application will be automatically submitted, even if you have been signed out.”

Save it before you close the tab

This is the part that costs people something real. IRCC states it on its own instructions page, before you ever open the form:

Make sure you print your receipt right away. You won’t be able to print it later or receive a copy of it.

There is no account you can log back into for a copy. There is no resend link. If you close the tab, the Order ID, the authorization code and the reference number are gone.

Do one of these before you navigate away:

  • Print to PDF (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P, then save as PDF) — the best option, because the text stays selectable.
  • Screenshot the full page.
  • Print it on paper if you have a printer nearby.

Then keep it with your travel documents. If a payment ever has to be traced — a double charge, a card dispute, a query about whether an application was actually submitted — the Order ID and reference number are the only handles anyone has.

What arrives next, and when

Everything after this point comes by email, and only by email. IRCC’s own reminder: “You will hear from us by email only. Check your junk mail folder.”

Expect up to three separate messages, in this order:

  1. Confirmation of receipt — usually within minutes. It confirms IRCC has the application. Still not a decision.
  2. A request for documents or information, only in some cases. This one is a real request from an officer and needs an answer; the application waits until you reply.
  3. The decision. Most eTA applications are approved within minutes of submission. Some are held for review and take days.

If the decision email is what you are waiting for, our guide to the three eTA emails and which one you have explains how to tell them apart, and what to check when there is no approval email yet covers the wait.

Common questions this screen creates

“Do I need to print the Transaction Approved page for the airport?” No. An eTA is an electronic record linked to your passport number, and the airline checks it by scanning your passport. Keep the receipt for your own records, not for the gate.

“I paid but never received any email.” Check your junk folder first — IRCC names this as the most common cause. If the address you typed into the form had a typo, no email will ever arrive, because the confirmation goes to what you typed, not to what you meant. The form asked you to re-enter the email precisely to catch that, and it does not allow pasting into the second field.

“Can I get the $7 back if I made a mistake?” No. The fee is non-refundable, and there is no edit function after submission. If a value was wrong, the repair is to apply again, correctly, and pay again.

“I got to the payment screen and it would not go through.” That is a session timeout, not a card problem. The form cannot be saved and the session expires if you take too long, and you usually discover it at the last step. See what happens when the eTA form times out.

“I paid twice by mistake.” Two applications for the same passport is not a disaster — but you have two Order IDs and you need both receipts, which is another reason to save the screen every time.

“My family of four all paid — why did we get four screens?” Because the form takes one person at a time. IRCC states it directly: “for a family of three, you will need to complete and submit the form three times.” Four people means four forms, four payments, four Transaction Approved screens, and four separate eTAs to keep track of.

The short version

  1. Transaction Approved means the card went through. It is not an eTA and not a decision.
  2. Save it immediately — print, PDF or screenshot. You cannot get it back later.
  3. The answer comes by email only. Check spam.
  4. The $7 is non-refundable and there is no edit button after submission.
  5. One person per form. One receipt each.

If you have not submitted yet, the whole form is walked through screen by screen, with IRCC’s own wording, in our field-by-field guide to the Canada eTA application form.