Canada eTA: what do you need to enter Canada for a road trip?

The electronic travel authorization applies to citizens of visa-exempt countries — including France, Belgium, Switzerland and most of Europe — flying to or transiting through Canada. It costs CAD $7 (roughly €5), is paid by card, and remains valid five years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. During that period entries are unlimited, with each stay allowed to run up to six months.

The application is made exclusively on the Canadian government's official website (canada.ca), with a valid passport, a payment card and an email address. Most applications are approved within minutes by email; some take a few days if supporting documents are requested. The golden rule: apply for the eTA before booking flights, never the night before departure.

Type 'Canada eTA' into a search engine and the top results are often private, official-looking websites charging €30 to €80 for a service that costs 5. They fill in the same form you would, sometimes with errors, and add strictly nothing — the Canadian government explicitly warns against these intermediaries.

The only legitimate site is canada.ca (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada). Check the URL before paying: if the displayed price exceeds CAD $7, you're in the wrong place. That reflex applies to every electronic authorisation on the planet, from the American ESTA to New Zealand's NZeTA.

A little-known quirk that matters to road trippers: the eTA is only required for air arrivals. If your itinerary enters Canada overland — Seattle to Vancouver, Montana's parks into Alberta, or the Niagara crossing — no eTA is needed: a valid passport is enough for visa-exempt nationals, with admission decided at the border post.

Mind the reverse direction: a loop passing through the United States does require the American ESTA (or, overland, the I-94 form at the border). And if you fly out of Canada after entering by road, still no eTA needed — it only concerns air arrivals into Canada. Our ESTA article covers the American side of these cross-border loops.

An approved eTA doesn't guarantee admission: the final call belongs to the border services officer, who may ask for a return ticket, proof of funds and an itinerary. For a road trip, having the vehicle or motorhome booking and the first nights' accommodation to hand smooths the crossing.

If you cross the Canada–US border in a rental, check the contract explicitly allows it: most large Canadian and American companies permit it in both directions at no extra cost, but the authorisation must be written into the contract for the insurance to follow. Research on international mobility backs the broader story: a study by Eric Neumayer published in 2010 in The Professional Geographer shows each layer of formality — visas and authorisations — significantly reduces bilateral travel flows, which explains the global shift towards light electronic authorisations like the eTA (available on Google Scholar: scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Neumayer+visa+restrictions+bilateral+travel+Professional+Geographer). Canada made that switch in 2016: enjoy it, the formality is genuinely minimal.

Every traveller needs their own eTA, babies included — CAD $7 per passport, six-month-olds too. French-Canadian dual nationals cannot apply for an eTA: they must enter on their valid Canadian passport. As for US green card holders, the regime changed: they now need a visa or an eTA according to their nationality, green card or not.

On the driving side, EU licences are accepted as-is for tourist stays across the country; an international driving permit is required nowhere but remains advisable for long stays and some English-speaking provinces if your licence isn't bilingual. Rental, insurance and Quebec's mandatory winter tyres from December to mid-March are covered in our dedicated Canada rental guide.