© 2026 Evisa Rocket. All rights reserved.
© 2026 Evisa Rocket. All rights reserved.
The eTA is linked to an individual passport, and every passenger boarding a flight to Canada must have their own — including infants and newborns. A baby travelling on a parent’s lap still has their own passport, and that passport needs its own approved eTA. At check-in, the airline scans each passport and must find a valid eTA behind each one; a missing child eTA stops the whole family at the desk.
A parent or legal guardian completes the application on the child’s behalf, using the child’s own passport details — not their own. The form asks who is filling it in (yourself, or someone else as parent/guardian or representative); answer accordingly and then enter the child’s details exactly as printed in the child’s passport. Each child’s application is assessed individually, like any adult’s, and each gets its own approval email — save them all.
There is no group form, but the applications are short: a family of four is usually done in well under an hour, and most approvals arrive within minutes of each submission.
Children’s passports are valid for shorter periods than adults’ — and the eTA dies with the passport. Two ways this ambushes families:
Before booking, line up every passport on the kitchen table and check each expiry date against the trip — then check each eTA against each passport number.
The eTA gets your child onto the plane, but the Canadian border officer’s questions are about custody and consent. Canada actively screens for child abduction, so prepare:
These letters are not always requested — but when they are, nothing else substitutes.
Yes. Every traveller flying to Canada needs an individual eTA linked to their own passport, regardless of age — a newborn included. A parent or guardian completes the application on the baby’s behalf using the baby’s passport details.
No. There is no group authorisation — each traveller submits (or has submitted for them) an individual application, each with its own fee and its own approval. The same parent email address can be used across all of them.
A parent or legal guardian, declaring on the form that they are applying on someone else’s behalf. All passport and personal details entered must be the child’s own, exactly as printed in the child’s passport.
No. The eTA is linked to the old passport and became unusable the moment the passport was replaced. Child passports are renewed more often than adults’, so this is the most common family pitfall — apply for a new eTA with the new passport.
Beyond passport and eTA: a consent letter from the non-travelling parent (with contact details and a copy of their ID) and ideally the child’s birth certificate naming both parents. Canadian border officers actively screen solo-parent travel and may ask for these.
Each application carries the same processing fee regardless of the applicant’s age — there is no child discount, because each traveller receives a full individual authorisation valid up to five years.