FIDERA LAW
Canadian immigration law

Visit Canada

Visit Canada

A visa covers every arrival, an authorisation only covers flying.

Most visitor refusals come down to two things. Whether you hold the document your nationality and mode of arrival actually require, and whether an officer is satisfied you will leave at the end of your stay. Neither is a paperwork question, and there is no appeal from getting them wrong.

The four situations How we can help

Two questions decide almost everything here

The visitor branch looks like the simplest part of the system and produces a great many refusals. Two questions account for most of them. What document your nationality and your mode of arrival require, and whether you act before your status expires or after.

  • A visa is needed for every mode of arrival. An authorisation is only for flying. A visa required national needs a visitor visa whether they come by air, car, train, bus or boat. A visa exempt national needs an electronic travel authorisation to fly, and in most cases needs nothing beyond a valid passport to arrive by land or sea. The published exception is travel by sea from Saint Pierre and Miquelon other than by cruise ship, which does require an authorisation to board.
  • The test is whether you will leave. The Regulations require the officer to be satisfied of it, and it is the ground almost every refusal turns on. It is about your circumstances rather than your paperwork.
  • Wanting permanent residence is not a bar. The Act provides expressly that an intention to become a permanent resident does not prevent you becoming a temporary resident, provided the officer is satisfied you will leave at the end of your stay.
  • Six months is a default, not a right. An officer can fix a different period, and what you were actually given depends on how your passport was marked.
  • One date separates a formality from an emergency. Applying before your status expires keeps you lawful while you wait. Applying after it expires puts you into restoration, with ninety days for almost everyone, no status in the meantime, and no right to work or study. A foreign worker holding a letter of support from a participating province or territory is exempt from the ninety days.
  • There is no appeal. Only a fresh application where something has genuinely changed, or judicial review in the Federal Court.
In force 31 January 2025 · verified 19 August 2026

Officers can now cancel a visa or authorisation case by case

The Regulations were amended to give officers an express discretionary power to cancel an electronic travel authorisation, a visitor visa, a work permit or a study permit, decided case by case. The department's notice describes the amendments as enabling officers to cancel a document in further situations, including on a grant of permanent residence, on death, and where a passport is reported lost, stolen or abandoned. We could not source any provision making cancellation automatic in those situations, so we treat all of them as discretionary.

One consequence is worth knowing before you file anything. A refusal of a later application, such as a work permit, a study permit or another visa, is itself a ground on which an existing visitor visa can be cancelled. So applications interact with each other in a way they did not before 2025.

The four situations

Most common

Visitor visas

The test an officer applies, single against multiple entry, how long you actually get, and what a refusal does to everything afterwards.

See requirements → If you are visa exempt

Electronic travel authorisation

Seven dollars, five years, air travel only, and the expanded list that lets some visa required nationals fly without a visa.

See requirements →
If time is running out

Extending and restoring status

Maintained status if you act in time, and ninety days to restore if you do not, with one published exemption. The difference is one date.

See requirements → For a parent

The Super Visa

Five years on each entry rather than six months, extendable from inside Canada, with its own income and insurance rules.

See requirements →

What we look at before a visitor application goes in

Whether the officer will be satisfied you will leave at the end of your stay, since that is the test almost every refusal turns on. Whether you need a visa or an authorisation, which depends on how you arrive as much as on your nationality. And where a previous refusal or an overstay sits in your history, because both are disclosable in everything that follows.

01 / Start here

Strategy consultation

A paid session that tests your record against this route and the alternatives, checks how your work is classified, and tells you plainly where you actually stand.

02 / Review

Lawyer review, you file

You prepare and submit; we review the classification, the evidence and the documentation before it goes in, and flag what would be questioned.

03 / Representation

Full representation

We build, document and file the matter as your lawyer of record, and carry it through to the federal permanent residence stage.

Every matter begins with the strategy consultation. If you instruct us within six months of that consultation for a lawyer review or for full representation, the consultation fee is credited against that work. One credit per person.

Book a strategy consultation Email us

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a visa or an authorisation?

It depends on your nationality and on how you arrive, and the second half of that is the part people miss. If you are from a visa required country you need a visitor visa for every mode of arrival, including by car, train, bus and boat. If you are visa exempt you need an electronic travel authorisation to fly, and in most cases nothing but a valid passport to arrive by car, bus, train or boat, including a cruise ship. There is one published exception to that, which is travel by sea from Saint Pierre and Miquelon other than by cruise ship, where you do need an authorisation to board your boat. A small group of visa required nationals can use an authorisation instead of a visa, but only when flying, and only if they meet further conditions.

What does an officer actually decide?

Whether you will leave Canada at the end of the period authorised for your stay. That is the requirement in the Regulations and it is what almost every refusal rests on. It is a judgement about your circumstances as a whole, including your ties at home, the purpose of the trip, your finances and your travel history, rather than a document you can supply.

I am being sponsored for permanent residence. Can I still visit?

Yes, and the Act says so expressly. An intention to become a permanent resident does not stop you becoming a temporary resident, provided the officer is satisfied you will leave at the end of your authorised stay. That is called dual intent. It does not remove the requirement, so the application still has to address it honestly. We could not source any separate visitor stream for people who are being sponsored, so you are applying under the ordinary visitor rules with the sponsorship disclosed.

How long can I stay?

Usually six months, and it is not automatic. That is the default period in the Regulations, and an officer can fix a different one taking account of your means of support, the period you asked for and your passport expiry. How to tell what you were actually given is on the visitor visa page, because the answer differs depending on whether your passport was stamped, annotated by hand, or not stamped at all.

What happens if my stay is running out?

It depends entirely on one date. Apply before your status expires and you keep lawful status while the decision is made, which is called maintained status. Let it expire first and you are into restoration, which for almost everyone closes ninety days after you lost status, does not preserve your status, and does not let you work or study while it is pending. There is one published exemption from the ninety days, for a foreign worker who holds a letter of support from a participating province or territory.

Is there an appeal if a visitor application is refused?

No. There is no formal appeal from a temporary residence decision. You can apply again, though the department's own guidance is that this is worth doing only where your circumstances have genuinely changed or you have new information addressing the reason for refusal. The other route is an application to the Federal Court for leave and judicial review, which tests the decision for legal error rather than rehearing it.

Will a refusal follow me around?

It has to be disclosed, which is not the same as being fatal. The application forms ask whether you have ever been refused any visa or admission, or ordered to leave Canada or any other country, and whether you have overstayed or worked or studied without authorisation. Answer accurately. One narrower consequence is worth knowing. If you already hold an electronic travel authorisation and a visa is then refused on the ground that you would not leave, you become ineligible to hold that authorisation and it can be cancelled. That is not a bar on applying for one. The department tells refused applicants the opposite, that a past refusal of entry or of a travel document does not mean an authorisation will be refused, that each application is assessed case by case, and that you are encouraged to apply regardless of a previous immigration decision.

Am I covered for health care as a visitor?

No. Canada does not pay for hospital or medical services for visitors, and the department's advice is to buy insurance before you travel. Provincial rules are outside what we set out here, and we confirm the position for your province rather than generalising.

Where to look next

For parents and grandparents

The Super Visa

Five years per entry, an income test that changed in your favour in March 2026, and mandatory insurance.

See requirements → If the goal is permanent

Bring your family

Where a visit is really the first step towards someone staying, sponsorship is the other conversation.

See requirements →