Yes, you can reapply for a Canada eTA after a refusal. The IRCC Help Centre addresses the question of whether one can reapply after an eTA refusal. What matters is whether the reason for the original refusal still applies, because submitting the same information a second time will produce the same result. Before you start a new eTA application, take the time to understand what went wrong the first time. A refusal is not a permanent door closing; it is, in most cases, a signal that something in your application needs to change. ...

You’re looking at your eTA approval email and the validity period says five years. It’s tempting to read that as five years of uninterrupted time in Canada. It isn’t. Your eTA’s five-year validity tells you how long the document itself stays usable: it says nothing about how long you’re allowed to remain in Canada on any single visit. The two numbers are completely separate, and mixing them up is one of the most common misreads of an eTA approval. ...

No, you don’t need an eTA. Canadian permanent residents are exempt from the eTA requirement entirely. But that exemption doesn’t solve your problem. What you actually need to board a flight to Canada isn’t an eTA: it’s proof of your PR status, and without a valid PR card in hand, you can’t board a commercial flight at all. That’s the core of the situation. The eTA question has a clean answer, but the travel document question is more complicated, and it’s the one that will determine whether you get on the plane. ...

The approval email has arrived. Before you close it and start packing, open it again — because the very first thing you need to do is check one specific detail against your physical passport. Everything else on this list matters, but a passport number mismatch can stop you from boarding the plane, and that problem needs to be caught now, not at the check-in desk. Your eTA is electronically linked to the passport you used when you applied. Airline staff will scan that passport to confirm the eTA is valid. If the numbers don’t match, you won’t board. So before anything else: pull out your passport, find the document number, and compare it character by character with the number in your approval email. ...

Most eTA decisions arrive by email within minutes; if yours needs longer, the next email is due within 72 hours — and it often lands in the junk folder. If nothing has shown up in your junk folder by then, check your eTA status (a paid private service, separate from the Government of Canada) to see whether you’re approved, still pending, or need to take further action. The official eTA Check Status tool is the definitive record. Choose “I haven’t received a decision” and enter the application number from the first IRCC email (usually starts with V) plus the passport number, country of issue, issue date and expiry date. If no IRCC email with an application number has arrived 72 hours after you applied, submit IRCC’s web form, choosing “Electronic Travel Authorization” and then “Case Specific Enquiries”; replies take several days, and IRCC’s own guidance is not to travel until a decision is made. And if the only thing you have from the application is a screen reading “Transaction Approved”, that is confirmation that your card was charged — it is not an approval and not a decision. ...

Your approved eTA is still valid. Travel dates on the eTA application form don’t determine when or how often you can use it. The eTA is valid for up to five years from the date it was issued, or until the passport it’s linked to expires, whichever comes first. A different departure date, a rescheduled flight, or dates you estimated and got slightly wrong don’t change that. You don’t need to apply again. ...

You open the approval email, see your eTA number, and start booking hotels. It feels like the hard part is done. That feeling is understandable — but it’s based on a misreading of what the eTA actually does. An approved eTA does not guarantee you entry into Canada. The rules say this plainly: a valid eTA and travel document do not guarantee entry. What the eTA does is clear you for boarding the flight. What happens at the Canadian border is a separate decision, made by a separate authority, and it can go differently from what the approval email implies. ...

No minimum is set: Canada asks eTA travellers for a valid passport, not six months of validity. But the expiry date still caps two things: your eTA ends when the passport does, and without an entry stamp you can stay 6 months or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. You can apply for and use an eTA with a passport that expires in as little as a few weeks, provided it’s still valid on the day you travel. Ready to file? get-eta.com is a paid private service, separate from the Government of Canada, where you can apply for a Canada eTA on the passport you will carry. ...

You’re at the airline check-in desk, passport in one hand and Green Card in the other, and the agent asks whether you have an eTA. It’s a reasonable question — most foreign nationals flying to Canada from countries that don’t require a visa still need one. But you’re not in that category. As a U.S. lawful permanent resident (LPR) with valid status, you do not need a Canada eTA to fly. The exemption is clear: Green Card holders are specifically excluded from the eTA requirement. What you do need — and this matters just as much — is the right combination of documents at check-in and at the border. Getting the exemption wrong in either direction causes real problems, so it’s worth understanding exactly how the rule works and what to carry. ...

You’re packing for your flight to Canada and you have your eTA approval email. But the eTA itself isn’t a document you carry—it’s electronically linked to your passport. Here’s what you actually need to show, and the one check you must do before leaving home. The short answer: your passport is the only mandatory document at both the airline counter and the Canadian border. Everything else depends on your situation. But that passport has to be the exact one tied to your eTA, and if the numbers don’t match, an approval email won’t save your trip. This all assumes you need an eTA in the first place — permanent residents don’t, though they carry a different document instead, as covered in our guide on returning to Canada as a PR without a PR card. ...