“I applied a few years ago and I think it lasts five years — can you check it for me?” We get that message every week at GetETA, usually a few days before a flight. Almost everyone remembers the five years. Almost nobody remembers the second half of the rule, and that is the half that ruins trips.
The rule, in one line
Your eTA is valid for five years from the day it was approved, or until your passport expires — whichever comes first.
Both halves matter. If your passport expires in fourteen months, so does your eTA, no matter how recently you got it. The five years are a maximum, not a promise.
Why the passport half catches people
An eTA is not a sticker in your passport and not a document you carry. It is an electronic record linked to one passport number. The airline scans your passport at check-in and the system either finds a valid eTA against that number or it does not.
So the moment you replace the passport — renewal, a lost passport, a new one after a name change — the link breaks. The old eTA stays attached to the old booklet and quietly becomes useless, even if two of its five years are left. You need a new one. We wrote out that whole situation in got a new passport? your eTA does not transfer.
The trap is that nothing tells you. No email, no warning. You find out at the airport.
Validity is not the same as how long you can stay
These two get mixed up constantly, and they are unrelated:
- Validity — how long the eTA itself lives: up to five years.
- Length of stay — how long you may remain in Canada on one visit: usually up to six months, decided by the border services officer when you land.
A five-year eTA lets you fly to Canada as many times as you like within those five years. It does not let you stay for five years.
How to check whether yours is still valid
If you still have the approval email. It states the eTA number and the expiry date. Compare that date with your passport’s expiry date and take the earlier one.
If you do not have the email — the usual case. You do not need it. The record is tied to your passport, so a check by passport details is enough: run an eTA status check and you will see whether the passport has a valid eTA, and until when. If you cannot find the number anywhere, that problem has its own guide.
A trap worth knowing. If the check comes back with nothing, do not assume the eTA expired. More often the passport number was typed with one wrong character — the classic being the letter O read as a zero. Check the number character by character before you conclude anything.
When to check
Two moments, and both take a minute:
- When you book the flight. If the eTA is dead, you have months to fix it rather than hours. If you have to apply again, most approvals arrive in minutes — but a slow one takes days, and days are exactly what you will not have later.
- When you renew your passport, even with no trip planned. New booklet, new eTA. Doing it while you are calm is cheaper than doing it at the airport.
If it has expired
Nothing dramatic: you simply apply again. An expired eTA is not a refusal and carries nothing over — no black mark, no extra scrutiny. Apply for a new eTA with your current passport, and this time save the approval email somewhere you will find it in four years.
One thing not to do: apply again “just in case” while a valid eTA already exists on the same passport. Duplicate applications on one passport slow each other down and buy you nothing. Check first, then decide.
Official information: Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA)