Canada eTA Denied? Why It Happens and What to Do Next

The refusal email is brief, but it names the ground on which your application failed — and everything you do next depends on it. Broadly, refusals fall into two families:

• Fixable application problems — a passport reported lost or stolen, unverifiable details, an error in what you entered.
• Admissibility problems — criminal history, a previous overstay or removal, prior refusals, security concerns. These follow you to the next application and need to be addressed, not retyped.

• Passport flagged as lost or stolen — if you ever reported your passport missing and then found it, that report may still be active. Travelling on a flagged passport is impossible; resolve it with your passport authority first.
• A previous visa or entry refusal — from Canada or elsewhere — that was not declared, or that raises questions.
• A criminal record, including offences that seem minor or old — impaired driving is a classic example that makes travellers inadmissible to Canada.
• Immigration history — an overstay on a previous Canadian visit, unauthorised work, or a removal from Canada.
• Answers that do not match records. The automated checks compare your answers against databases; a "no" where records say "yes" is treated as misrepresentation — often worse than the underlying issue itself.

Reapply only when you can change something real: the lost-passport flag has been lifted, you have a new passport, you made a data-entry error, or you can now answer a background question accurately with the right context. In those cases a fresh, corrected application can genuinely succeed.

Do not reapply with identical information hoping for a different officer or a luckier day — eTA screening is systematic, and a repeat refusal adds another negative record to your file.

• Visitor visa (TRV): the standard route when eTA screening keeps refusing you. A visa application lets you submit documents, explanations and context that the automated eTA process cannot consider — police certificates, court records, proof of rehabilitation, reasons for travel.
• Temporary Resident Permit (TRP): for travellers who are formally inadmissible (for example, a criminal record) but have a compelling reason to enter Canada. A TRP can overcome inadmissibility for a specific visit.
• Authorization to Return to Canada (ARC): required if you were previously removed from Canada. No eTA or visa will work until the ARC is granted.

Canada is unusually strict about criminal inadmissibility — a single DUI can block entry. But it is also unusually structured about the way back: deemed rehabilitation (enough time passed since a single minor offence), individual rehabilitation (a formal application after five years), or a TRP for the interim. If your refusal traces to a record, these are the doors — an eTA reapplication is not.

There is no administrative appeal for an eTA. The formal route is asking the Federal Court of Canada for judicial review, which requires a lawyer and challenges the decision's lawfulness rather than re-arguing the facts — proportionate only in unusual cases. For nearly everyone, the practical path is fixing the underlying reason and reapplying, or switching to a visitor visa where your evidence can actually be heard.

1. Identify the exact ground in the refusal email.
2. If it is a data or passport problem — fix it, then reapply.
3. If it is history (record, overstay, removal, past refusals) — choose the right instrument: visa, TRP, rehabilitation or ARC.
4. Declare everything on the next application, whatever it is. Concealment converts a solvable problem into misrepresentation.
5. Rebuild your timeline: alternative routes take longer than an eTA — do not keep non-refundable bookings while this resolves.