Canada eTA for Families: Do Children and Babies Need One?

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.

• Their valid passport — the number, issue and expiry dates go into the form exactly as printed.
• An email address for the decision — a parent’s email is fine and can be reused across the family’s applications.
• Payment for each application — one fee per traveller.
• Honest answers to the background questions for each applicant (trivially quick for children).

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:

• The child’s eTA from the last trip is gone because the child’s passport was renewed since — a new passport always needs a new eTA.
• The child’s passport expires before the return date, which is a problem regardless of the eTA.

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:

• Travelling with one parent: carry a consent letter from the non-travelling parent (with their contact details and a copy of their ID), plus the child’s birth certificate showing both parents.
• Travelling with guardians, grandparents or a school group: a consent letter from both parents and documentation of the accompanying adult’s authority.
• Unaccompanied minors: airline rules on top of the consent paperwork — check with the carrier early.

These letters are not always requested — but when they are, nothing else substitutes.

1. Count travellers: everyone needs an eTA, babies included.
2. Check every passport expiry against the return date — children’s first.
3. Apply for each traveller with their own passport details; a parent completes children’s forms.
4. Watch one inbox for all the approval emails and save each one.
5. Verify each approval’s passport number matches the physical passport it belongs to.
6. If a child travels without both parents, prepare the consent letter and birth certificate.