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Visa requirements for Canadian citizens

Travel regulations abroad From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Visa requirements for Canadian citizens are administrative entry restrictions by the authorities of other states placed on citizens of Canada.

As of 2025, Canadian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 183 countries and territories, resulting in the Canadian passport being ranked 9th in the world according to the Henley Passport Index.[1] It is ranked 8th by the Global Passport Power Rank.[2]

Besides visa requirements, countries may have other specified entry requirements that have to be met in order for citizens of Canada to be granted entry, such as not having a criminal record, known health issues, or that the traveler has sufficient funds for the duration of their stay, or a return ticket.

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Visa requirements map

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Visa requirements for Canadian citizens holding ordinary passports
  Canada
  Visa not required or Electronic Travel Authorisation
  Visa available both on arrival or online
  Visa on arrival
  eVisa
  Visa required prior to arrival or not established

Visa requirements

The following table indicates the entry requirements and duration of stay for a given country, along with any notes that may be relevant for that given country.

More information Country, Entry requirement ...

    Dependent, disputed, or restricted territories

    Visa requirements for Canadian citizens for visits to various territories, disputed areas, partially recognized countries, and restricted zones:

    Africa
    Asia
    Caribbean and North Atlantic
    Europe
    • Abkhazia — Visa required.[454] Visa on arrival available if arriving from Russian border only by train or car and must possess a multi entry Russian visa to be eligible and must exit via Russian border only.
    • Mount Athos — Special permit required (4 days: EUR 25 for Orthodox visitors, EUR 35 for non-Orthodox visitors, EUR 18 for students). There is a visitors' quota: maximum 100 Orthodox and 10 non-Orthodox per day and women are not allowed.[455][456]
    • Belarus Brest and Grodno — Visa not required for 10 days.[457]
    • Autonomous Republic of Crimea Crimea — Visa issued by Russia is required.[458]
    • Northern Cyprus — Visa free access for 3 months. Passport required.[459]
    • United Nations UN Buffer Zone in Cyprus — Access Permit is required for travelling inside the zone, except Civil Use Areas.[460]
    • Gibraltar — Visa not required.[461]
    • Norway Jan Mayen — Permit issued by the local police required for staying for less than 24 hours[462] and permit issued by the Norwegian police for staying for more than 24 hours.[463]
    • Svalbard of Norway — Right to live and work under the Svalbard Treaty.
    • Kosovo — Visa free for 90 days.[464]
    • South Ossetia — To enter South Ossetia, visitors must have a multiple-entry visa for Russia and register their stay with the Migration Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs within 3 days.[465][466]
    • Transnistria — Visa free. Registration required after 24h.[467][468]
    Oceania
    South America
    • Galápagos — Online pre-registration is required. Transit Control Card must also be obtained at the airport prior to departure.[486]
    South Atlantic and Antarctica
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    Consular protection of Canadian citizens abroad

    Thumb
    Countries that have a Canadian Embassy or High Commission are shown in blue. Canada is shown in green.

    Canada has diplomatic and consular offices (including honorary consuls) in over 270 locations in approximately 180 foreign countries. In some countries Canadians may receive consular assistance from British missions or Australian missions under the Canada–Australia Consular Services Sharing Agreement.

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    Non-visa restrictions

    Blank passport pages

    Many countries require a minimum number of blank pages to be available in the passport being presented, typically one or two pages.[502] Endorsement pages, which often appear after the visa pages, are not counted as being valid or available.

    Vaccination

    Thumb
    Cover of the new International Certificate of Vaccination issued by the Bureau of Quarantine in the Philippines since 2021

    The African countries of Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo, South Sudan, Uganda, and Zambia, require all incoming passengers older than nine months to one year[503] to have a current International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis, as does the South American territory of French Guiana.[504]

    Some other countries require vaccination only if the passenger is coming from an infected area or has visited one recently or has transited for 12 hours in those countries: Algeria, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Lesotho, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[505][506]

    Passport validity length

    Very few countries, such as Paraguay, just require a valid passport on arrival.

    However many countries and groupings now require only an identity card – especially from their neighbours. Other countries may have special bilateral arrangements that depart from the generality of their passport validity length policies to shorten the period of passport validity required for each other's citizens[507][508] or even accept passports that have already expired (but not been cancelled).[509]

    Some countries, such as Japan,[510] Ireland and the United Kingdom,[511] require a passport valid throughout the period of the intended stay.

    In the absence of specific bilateral agreements, countries requiring passports to be valid for at least 6 more months on arrival include Afghanistan, Algeria, Anguilla, Bahrain,[512] Bhutan, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Curaçao, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel,[513] Jordan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Laos, Madagascar, Malaysia, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Peru,[514] Philippines,[515] Qatar, Rwanda, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Turkey, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Venezuela, and Vietnam.[516]

    Countries requiring passports valid for at least 4 months on arrival include Micronesia and Zambia.

    Countries requiring passports with a validity of at least 3 months beyond the date of intended departure include Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Honduras, Montenegro, Nauru, Moldova and New Zealand. Similarly, the EEA countries of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, all European Union countries (except Ireland) together with Switzerland also require 3 months validity beyond the date of the bearer's intended departure unless the bearer is an EEA or Swiss national.

    Countries requiring passports valid for at least 3 months on arrival include Albania, North Macedonia, Panama, and Senegal.

    Bermuda requires passports to be valid for at least 45 days upon entry.

    Countries that require a passport validity of at least one month beyond the date of intended departure include Eritrea, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Macau, the Maldives[517] and South Africa.

    Maximum passport age

    Countries of the Schengen area require non-EU passports to be less than 10 years old upon entry.[518] A number of holders of British passports, which until September 2018 could be issued with a validity period of up to 10 years and nine months if the previous passport was not expired, were unable to travel to the EU subsequent to Brexit due to this restriction.[519]

    Criminal record

    Some countries, including Australia, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand and the United States,[520] routinely deny entry to non-citizens who have a criminal record, while others impose restrictions depending on the type of conviction and the length of the sentence.

    Persona non grata

    The government of a country can declare a diplomat persona non grata, banning them from entering the country or expelling them if they have already entered. In non-diplomatic use, the authorities of a country may also declare a foreigner persona non grata permanently or temporarily, usually because of unlawful activity.[521]

    Israeli stamps

    Kuwait,[522] Lebanon,[523] Libya,[524] and Yemen[525] do not allow entry to people with passport stamps from Israel or whose passports have either a used or an unused Israeli visa, or where there is evidence of previous travel to Israel such as entry or exit stamps from neighbouring border posts in transit countries such as Jordan and Egypt.

    To circumvent this Arab League boycott of Israel, the Israeli immigration services have now mostly ceased to stamp foreign nationals' passports on either entry to or exit from Israel (unless the entry is for some work-related purposes). Since 15 January 2013, Israel no longer stamps foreign passports at Ben Gurion Airport. Passports are still (as of 22 June 2017) stamped at Erez when passing into and out of Gaza.[citation needed]

    Iran refuses admission to holders of passports containing an Israeli visa or stamp that is less than 12 months old.

    Biometrics

    Several countries mandate that all travellers, or all foreign travellers, be fingerprinted on arrival and will refuse admission to or even arrest travellers who refuse to comply. In some countries, such as the United States, this may apply even to transit passengers who merely wish to change planes rather than go landside.[526]

    Fingerprinting countries/regions include Afghanistan,[527][528] Argentina,[529] Brunei, Cambodia,[530] China,[531] Ethiopia,[532] Ghana, Guinea,[533] India, Japan,[534][535] Kenya (both fingerprints and a photo are taken),[536] Malaysia upon entry and departure,[537] Mongolia, Saudi Arabia,[538] Singapore, South Korea,[539] Taiwan, Thailand,[540] Uganda,[541] the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

    Many countries also require a photo be taken of people entering the country. The United States, which does not fully implement exit control formalities at its land frontiers (although long mandated by its own legislation),[542][543][544] intends to implement facial recognition for passengers departing from international airports to identify people who overstay their visa.[545]

    Together with fingerprint and face recognition, iris scanning is one of three biometric identification technologies internationally standardised since 2006 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for use in e-passports[546] and the United Arab Emirates conducts iris scanning on visitors who need to apply for a visa.[547][548] The United States Department of Homeland Security has announced plans to greatly increase the biometric data it collects at US borders.[549] In 2018, Singapore began trials of iris scanning at three land and maritime immigration checkpoints.[550][551]

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    Visa requirements amendment log

    Visa requirements for Canadian citizens were lifted by Austria in 1956,[552] Finland in 1958,[552] Japan (20 September 1964),[553] Micronesia (18 December 1980),[554] Taiwan (1 January 1994),[555] Ukraine (1 August 2005),[556] Kyrgyzstan (27 July 2012),[557] Mongolia (1 January 2014), Kazakhstan (1 January 2017), Argentina (1 January 2018),[558] Armenia (10 July 2018),[559][560][561][562] Brazil (17 June 2019).[563] and Turkey (1 January 2024)[564]

    Canadian citizens were made eligible for eVisas by India (1 May 2015),[565] Brazil (25 January 2018, visa free from 17 June 2019 to 10 April 2025),[566] Angola (30 March 2018).[567] and Brazil (10 April 2025)

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    Foreign travel statistics

    According to the statistics these are the numbers of Canadian visitors to various countries per annum in 2015 (unless otherwise noted):

    More information Destination, Number of visitors ...
    1. Data for 2016
    2. Data for 2017
    3. Data for 2014
    4. Counting only guests in tourist accommodation establishments.
    5. Data for 2013
    6. Data for 2011
    7. Data for arrivals by air only.
    8. Data for 2012
    9. Excluding one-day visits
    10. Data for 2010
    11. Data for 2007
    12. Data for 2009
    13. Total number includes tourists, business travelers, students, exchange visitors, temporary workers and families, diplomats and other representatives and all other classes of nonimmigrant admissions (I-94).
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    See also

    Notes

    1. Customs procedure for 24-hour visa-free transit is required in principle, except in Beijing (both Capital and Daxing), Chengdu Tianfu, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Shanghai Pudong, Shenzhen, Xi'an and Xiamen if no leaving of international transit areas.[85]
      • Panghok - Taichang (Vietnam)
      • Lantui - Baka (China)
      • Meuang mom - Wan Pong (Myanmar)
      • Tanalaeng Dry Port - Nongkai (Thailand)
      • Nonghaed - Nam kanh (Vietnam)
      • Pakxan - Bungkan (Thailand)
      • Nam phao - Cau treo (Vietnam)
      • Na pao - Cha lo (Vietnam)
      • Nam ngeun - Huay konl (Thailand)
      • Namheuang - Nakaseng (Thailand)
      • Phoudou (Thailand)
      • Nam soy - Na meo (Vietnam)
      • Phoukeua - Kontoum (Vietnam)
      • Lalai (Vietnam)
      • Pangmone - Phayao (Thailand)
      • Daktaock - Nam Giang (Vietnam)
      • Savannakhet Airport
      • Vientiane
      • Savannakhet
      • Bokeo
      • Vientiane
      • Savannakhet
      • Khammouane
      • Bokeo
      • Samliemkham (Thailand and Myanmar)
      • Khamsavath - Nongkai (Thailand)
      • Daensavan - Lao bao (Vietnam)
      • Veunkham - Nong nok khian (Cambodia)
      • Vang tao - Chongmek (Thailand)
      • Boten - Bo han (China)
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      References

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