Canada Visitor Visa (TRV) & eTA 2026 — Requirements and Super Visa

TRV vs eTA — Which One Do You Need?

	TRV (Visitor Visa)	eTA
Who needs it	Citizens of ~140 visa-required countries (India, China, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, most of Africa, Middle East, parts of Asia/Latin America)	Citizens of visa-exempt countries (UK, most EU, Australia, Japan, South Korea) flying to Canada
Format	Physical/digital visa placed in passport	Electronic, linked to passport
Fee	CAD $100 + $85 biometrics ($170 for a family)	CAD $7
Validity	Up to 10 years or passport expiry, whichever first	Up to 5 years or passport expiry
Processing time	~30 days average as of mid-2026, varies significantly by country	Usually within minutes, occasionally a few days
US citizens	Not required	Not required

Most visitors are admitted for up to 6 months per entry, though a border officer has discretion to authorize a shorter or longer stay.

What an Officer Looks For

Under IRPR section 179, a visa officer must be satisfied you are a genuine temporary visitor who will leave at the end of your authorized stay. They weigh:

• Ties to your home country (job, property, family)
• Financial ability to cover the trip — no fixed dollar figure, but 3–6 months of bank statements, employment letters, and prepaid accommodation or an invitation letter all help
• Purpose and duration of the trip
• Immigration history and overall credibility

Super Visa — For Parents and Grandparents

A completely different, longer-stay option for parents and grandparents of Canadian citizens or PRs:

Feature	Detail
Stay length	Up to 5 years per entry
Visa validity	Up to 10 years
Medical insurance	Private Canadian insurer, minimum $100,000 emergency coverage for a full year
Income requirement	Host child/grandchild must meet Minimum Necessary Income (MNI), a threshold derived from Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) table and based on total family size
Other documents	Letter of invitation, medical exam, standard TRV requirements

As of the July 2025 update, MNI thresholds run from roughly $30,526/year for a single-person household up to $80,784/year for a household of seven or more — always confirm the current table directly on canada.ca before relying on a specific figure, since it's adjusted annually.

The Super Visa is the practical alternative while the Parents and Grandparents Program (PGP) lottery intake stays closed — most years PGP only issues invitations to people already in a prior lottery pool. It's worth being clear-eyed about what the Super Visa isn't: it doesn't create any path to permanent residence on its own. A parent on Super Visa status remains a visitor throughout — no work rights, no provincial health coverage in most provinces, and no time credited toward a future citizenship application. Families still aiming for PR generally need to pursue the PGP lottery or another sponsorship route in parallel, treating the Super Visa purely as a bridge for extended family time in the meantime.

Extending a Stay or Fixing Expired Status

If you're already in Canada as a visitor and want to stay longer, apply for an extension before your authorized period expires. Applying on time gives you implied status, meaning you can legally remain in Canada while IRCC processes the extension, even past your original expiry date. If your status has already lapsed, restoration is possible within 90 days of expiry; past that window, the only option is leaving Canada and applying for a fresh TRV from abroad.

Common Refusal Reasons

• Insufficient or unclear evidence of ties to the home country
• Financial documents that don't show a consistent, explainable profile
• Unclear purpose of visit or inconsistent travel history
• Past visa refusals not properly disclosed and explained

A Refusal Isn't a Ban — But Reapplying the Same Way Is the Real Mistake

Visitor visa refusals are common: across recent periods, IRCC's published Open Data shows global TRV refusal rates hovering roughly in the 40–60% range, with enormous variation by country — some source markets approve well over 80%, others under 30%. Check the figure for your own country and visa office rather than assuming an average applies to you. The most frequent ground cited is IRPR section 179(b): the officer wasn't satisfied you'd leave Canada at the end of your stay. Despite how it feels, that's a finding about the evidence in your file, not a permanent bar — a refusal on its own doesn't lock you out of Canada (a misrepresentation finding, covered on our settlement funds page, is the exception that does).

There's no formal appeal, and no mandatory waiting period before you can apply again — you could technically resubmit the same day. In practice, that's the trap: the next officer sees the prior refusal, so a file that simply mirrors the first one usually gets the same result and costs you another set of fees. The refusal letter itself is a template with ticked boxes. The officer's actual reasoning lives in your GCMS notes, which you can request through IRCC's ATIP portal for about CAD $5 (a response is legally due within 30 days, though delays happen). Reading them tells you which specific concern — thin ties, an unexplained deposit, a vague travel purpose — sank the file, so the next application can answer it directly instead of guessing.

Your realistic options, in rough order of how often they're the right call:

• Reapply with a materially stronger file — new evidence addressing the officer's stated concern, ideally with a short letter of explanation mapping each concern to the document that resolves it. This is the right move when the refusal was about thin evidence, which is most of them.
• Request reconsideration through IRCC's web form — narrower than it sounds, since an officer's authority over a decided file generally ends. It's worth trying only where there's a specific factual error in the notes (a miscalculated bank balance, a document that was in the file but overlooked), not as a general second look.
• Judicial review at the Federal Court — challenges whether the decision was legally reasonable or procedurally fair, not whether you disagree with it. It fits where the officer ignored evidence, misread key information, or gave reasons the record doesn't support. Like other judicial reviews (see our work permit page for the strict 15/60-day deadlines), it needs the Court's permission first.

One distinction worth knowing: a refusal means an officer assessed your eligibility and found it lacking, while a rejection usually means the application was returned as incomplete or incorrectly filed — and rejections can typically be fixed and resubmitted quickly, without any refusal on your record.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a visitor visa if I am just transiting through a Canadian airport?

In most cases yes — a TRV or eTA depending on your nationality, unless you qualify for the limited Transit Without Visa Program. Check requirements before booking connecting flights through Canada.

Can I work or study on a visitor visa?

No. A standard visitor visa does not authorize paid work or formal study programs. Short non-credit courses or casual tourist activities are generally fine, but anything more requires a separate work or study permit.

How long does a Canada visitor visa take to process?

It varies widely by visa office — from about 2 weeks at low-volume offices to 6+ months at high-volume markets like India or Pakistan. Check IRCC's live processing-time tool for your specific country.

My visitor visa was refused — can I appeal or reapply right away?

There's no formal appeal, and no mandatory waiting period before reapplying. But resubmitting the same file usually repeats the result, since the next officer sees the prior refusal. Request your GCMS notes (about CAD $5 through IRCC's ATIP portal) to see the officer's real reasoning, then reapply with evidence that answers it directly.

Does a visitor visa refusal mean I'm banned from Canada?

No. A standard refusal, most often under IRPR 179(b) for insufficient evidence you'll leave at the end of your stay, isn't a ban. A finding of misrepresentation is different and can carry a five-year inadmissibility period.