Visa-Free Countries for Canadians and PR Holders (2026)

Last reviewed: 28 July 2026. Reviewed by Usman Khalil, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, RCIC R709592. Every entry rule below was checked against a government, embassy, consular or border-authority source on that date. Entry rules change without notice, and several of the rules on this page are scheduled to change before the end of 2026. Confirm with the destination’s own immigration authority and with your airline before you book.

This guide answers one question properly: where can you go, and what do you have to file before you get there. It is written for two different readers, and the difference between them is the most misunderstood thing in this whole subject.

If you are a Canadian citizen travelling on a Canadian passport, the tables below are for you. If you are a Canadian permanent resident travelling on your original passport, they are not. A foreign border officer looks at the passport in your hand, not at your status in Canada. A permanent resident of Canada holding a Pakistani, Indian, Nigerian or Filipino passport is treated by every foreign border authority as a national of that country. Canadian PR status does not give you Canadian visa-free access anywhere. What it does do, in a specific and useful set of countries, is covered in its own section further down.

How to read this guide

Four categories get blurred together constantly, and the difference between them is the difference between boarding and being turned away at check-in.

• Visa-free. You arrive, you are admitted, no application and no fee. This is genuinely rare and getting rarer.
• Electronic travel authorisation. You apply online before you fly, you pay, you are screened, and the airline will not board you without it. The UK ETA, the Kenyan eTA, the New Zealand NZeTA, the Sri Lankan ETA, the Israeli ETA-IL and the forthcoming European ETIAS all work this way. Canada runs the same kind of system in the other direction through its own electronic travel authorization, which visa-exempt foreign nationals need before flying to Canada. This is not the same as visa-free, even though it is often listed under that heading.
• Visa on arrival. You apply and pay at the border. You can be refused at the border. Booking a non-refundable trip on the assumption that a visa on arrival is a formality is a mistake. Visa on arrival is not visa-free.
• Mandatory pre-arrival declaration. A form that is not a visa and not an authorisation, but is still compulsory, and increasingly carries a penalty if skipped. Thailand’s TDAC, Colombia’s Check-Mig, the All Indonesia Declaration Form, South Africa’s customs traveller declaration, Barbados’s online ED form and Jamaica’s C5 are all in this category. These are the fastest-growing requirement in international travel and the one most often missing from older articles.

Two more mechanics matter. First, a rolling window such as “90 days in any 180 days” does not reset when you leave and come back. It is calculated by looking backwards from the day of entry. Second, land, air and sea entry are not always the same. Mexico’s arrival form differs by land and by air. Thailand’s TDAC applies at all three. Where the difference is material, it is noted below.

Finally, a maximum stay is almost always a ceiling, not an entitlement. The officer at the border decides how long you get, and can give you less.

What changed for Canadian travellers in 2026

If you last checked these rules a year ago, these are the changes most likely to affect a trip you are already planning.

• Brazil now requires a visa of Canadians. Almost every older list still shows Brazil as visa-free. It is not.
• The European Entry/Exit System has been fully operational across the Schengen area since 10 April 2026. Passport stamping is being replaced by biometric registration of your face and fingerprints.
• ETIAS is not yet live. It is scheduled for the last quarter of 2026, and the fee is EUR 20, not the EUR 7 figure still repeated in older articles and on some stale pages.
• The UK ETA is being strictly enforced. Required since 8 January 2025, enforced without discretion from 25 February 2026, and now GBP 20 rather than GBP 10.
• Canadians staying in the United States more than 30 days must file Form G-325R. This catches snowbirds and it is the single most missed rule on this page.
• Namibia is no longer visa-free for Canadians. Most African travel content has not caught up.
• China’s visa waiver and South Korea’s K-ETA exemption both expire on 31 December 2026. Neither is permanent, and both are listed on other sites as though they were.
• Vietnam and Indonesia both require a visa of Canadians. The waivers that are widely cited do not cover Canada.
• Turkiye has dropped the e-Visa for Canadian tourists.

Europe, the Schengen area and the United Kingdom

Everything below describes a Canadian citizen travelling on a Canadian passport for short-stay tourism, verified as at 28 July 2026. A Canadian permanent resident is treated by European border authorities as a national of whichever passport they hold, so PR status confers none of this access. Two things changed in 2026: the EU Entry/Exit System became fully operational on 10 April 2026 and now replaces passport stamping with biometric registration, and the United Kingdom began strict enforcement of its Electronic Travel Authorisation on 25 February 2026. ETIAS, which many outdated articles describe as already live, is still not in operation.

The Entry/Exit System is live, and passport stamps are going away

The Entry/Exit System, or EES, is not a visa and not something a traveller applies for in advance. It is a border process. Rollout began on 12 October 2025, and the Commission confirms it “is fully operational across all Schengen countries since 10 April 2026”. A Canadian arriving at a Schengen external border – a flight, a ferry, or a land crossing from a non-Schengen country – now has a facial image and fingerprints captured and linked to their passport, with entry and exit dates recorded electronically. There is nothing to fill in beforehand and nothing to pay.

Because stamping is being replaced, travellers can no longer flip through a passport to work out how much of their 90-day allowance they have used, so anyone making several European trips in a year should keep their own record of entry and exit dates.

ETIAS is not yet in force

The European Travel Information and Authorisation System is not operational. The Commission’s policy page states that ETIAS “is currently not in operation and no applications for travel authorisations are collected at this point”, so any site telling Canadians to apply for one today is wrong. The Commission’s April 2026 guidance says ETIAS “is scheduled to start in the last quarter of 2026”, with the exact date to be communicated later in the year. That start date is not confirmed by an official source.

When it does start, the fee will be EUR 20. The widely repeated EUR 7 figure is obsolete; the increase was announced by the Commission on 17 July 2025. Some official EU pages still display the old number. Applicants under 18 and over 70 are exempt. An ETIAS authorisation will be valid for three years or until the travel document used in the application expires, whichever comes first, and will cover 30 countries: the 29 Schengen states plus Cyprus.

How the 90 days in any 180 days rule actually works

Schengen visa-free travel allows 90 days in any 180-day period. The allowance is cumulative across the whole area, not per country. On any given day a border officer looks back over the previous 180 days and counts every day already spent inside the area. It does not reset by leaving and coming back; a hop out and a fresh entry simply adds more days to the same running total. Days return to the allowance only as they fall out the back of the 180-day window.

Three clocks run separately from the Schengen one. Ireland has a permanent Treaty opt-out and applies its own visa and border policy, so its 90 days is a separate allowance and does not count against Schengen. Cyprus is not in the Schengen area: the Commission states that Cyprus participates in Schengen cooperation but that internal border controls have not yet been abolished and integration is “currently underway”. Its 90 days is likewise separate. The United Kingdom runs its own six-month clock. Time in any of the three is invisible to the Schengen count.

The Schengen area is 29 countries

The Commission’s statement is plain: “The Schengen area is composed of 29 countries: 25 EU Member States and 4 non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).”

Bulgaria and Romania are full members. Air and sea border controls were lifted on 31 March 2024, and on 1 January 2025 checks on persons at the internal land borders were lifted too. The common claim that these two states merely “recognise” Schengen visas without being in the area is wrong. Time in Bulgaria or Romania counts against the same 90-in-180 total as time in France or Italy.

The United Kingdom: ETA, GBP 20, and two dates

Canadians do not need a UK visa for tourism, but they do need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA). Two dates are routinely conflated: Canadians have been required to hold an ETA since 8 January 2025, and from 25 February 2026 the UK moved to strict enforcement, barring non-visa nationals from entering without one. The cost is GBP 20, raised from GBP 10 in April 2025 – the GBP 10 figure in older articles is wrong. An ETA permits multiple journeys for stays of up to six months at a time and is valid for two years or until the holder’s passport expires, whichever is sooner. It also covers Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Business visas and work permits are separate and are required.

One trap for dual nationals: a Canadian who is also a British or Irish citizen cannot apply for an ETA, because the requirement does not apply to British and Irish citizens. Such a traveller must enter on that citizenship instead.

Corrections to claims that appear in older listings

Georgia is 365 days, not 90. This is one of the most frequent errors in visa-free listings. The Government of Canada states that neither a tourist nor a business visa is required for up to 365 days. The advisory is normal security precautions with regional advisories, a high degree of caution in Tbilisi, and avoid all travel to Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Turkiye no longer requires an e-Visa of Canadian tourists. travel.gc.ca states “Tourism visa: not required for stays of up to 90 days in a 180-day period”. There is a conflict on that same page, which elsewhere still instructs Canadians to apply online and purchase an e-Visa. That stale sentence contradicts the page’s own entry requirements and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is controlling: no e-Visa is needed for Canadian tourism. Business and student travel still require a visa. The advisory is a high degree of caution, with regional advisories, because of the threat of terrorist attacks and possible demonstrations.

Ukraine remains legally visa-free for 90 days within a 180-day period, but Global Affairs Canada advises “Avoid all travel” to Ukraine because of the Russian military invasion, warning that personal safety and security are at great risk. This is not an ordinary visa-free destination.

The micro-states, and why Schengen still bites

Andorra is landlocked, has no airport and is not in the Schengen area. It can only be entered through France or Spain, so Schengen entry rules – and, once live, ETIAS – apply on the way in and again on the way out. Anyone who does need a Schengen visa should hold a multiple-entry one, since single-entry holders may be refused re-entry to France or Spain. No maximum tourist stay for Andorra itself is stated by an official source.

Monaco has no independent immigration regime: “The Government of France handles all matters related to customs and immigration for Monaco.” Passport validity is measured against departure from the Schengen area, and stays over 90 days need a visa from a French consulate in Canada before arrival.

San Marino does not issue entrance visas at all, and stays of under 10 days need no permit – but a tourist permit is required for stays of 10 to 30 days. Most visa-free listings omit this entirely.

Regional advisories and passport validity

Global Affairs Canada advises a high degree of caution in Bosnia and Herzegovina, citing crime and unmarked landmines and unexploded ordnance in rural and isolated mountainous areas, and in Moldova, where Transnistria carries an “Avoid non-essential travel” advisory. Serbia and Kosovo are at “Take normal security precautions” with regional advisories: a high degree of caution within 10 km of the Kosovo border, and “Avoid non-essential travel” for northern Kosovo.

Passport validity requirements are not uniform. Cyprus requires six months beyond departure; Bosnia and Herzegovina and North Macedonia require three months beyond intended departure; Monaco requires three months beyond departure from the Schengen area; Ireland, San Marino and Andorra require validity for the duration of the stay.

What could not be confirmed for this region

These points are not confirmed by an official source, and readers must check them with the destination’s own immigration or border authority before relying on them.

• The exact ETIAS start date. The launch is scheduled for the last quarter of 2026, but the specific date is not confirmed by an official source.
• The date Cyprus will complete its entry into the Schengen area. No target date is confirmed by an official source.
• Entry requirements for Vatican City and the Holy See. The Government of Canada publishes no destination page for it. There is no separate border control between Italy and Vatican City and Italy’s Schengen rules govern arrival, but that is not confirmed by an official source.
• The maximum visa-free tourist stay in Andorra as a number of days. This is not confirmed by an official source; the operative constraint is the France or Spain Schengen entry.
• Whether Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia apply their 90 days on a rolling 180-day basis. The Government of Canada states only “up to 90 days” for these four; the rolling-window qualifier is not confirmed by an official source for them.

Official sources used for this section

• European Commission – Entry/Exit System (EES)
• European Commission – Main differences between EES and ETIAS (April 2026)
• European Commission – ETIAS policy page and current status
• European Commission – ETIAS will cost EUR 20 (17 July 2025)
• European Commission – Schengen area composition, Ireland opt-out, Cyprus status
• European Commission – Bulgaria and Romania join the Schengen area
• Council of the EU – decision to lift land border controls with Bulgaria and Romania
• EEAS – Entry/Exit System country list
• UK Government – apply for an Electronic Travel Authorisation
• UK Home Office – ETA factsheet, April 2026
• UK Government – enforcement of the ETA from 25 February 2026
• UK Government – ETA requirement for non-Europeans from 8 January 2025
• Government of Canada – United Kingdom travel advice
• Government of Canada – Ireland travel advice
• Government of Canada – Cyprus travel advice
• Government of Canada – Italy travel advice (representative Schengen page)
• Government of Canada – Liechtenstein travel advice
• Government of Canada – Albania travel advice
• Government of Canada – Bosnia and Herzegovina travel advice
• Government of Canada – Montenegro travel advice
• Government of Canada – North Macedonia travel advice
• Government of Canada – Serbia travel advice
• Government of Canada – Kosovo travel advice
• Government of Canada – Moldova travel advice
• Government of Canada – Georgia travel advice
• Government of Canada – Turkiye travel advice
• Government of Canada – Ukraine travel advice and advisory
• Government of Canada – Monaco travel advice
• Government of Canada – San Marino travel advice
• Government of Canada – Andorra travel advice

The United States, Mexico, Central America and South America

This section covers a Canadian citizen travelling on a Canadian passport for short-stay tourism. A Canadian permanent resident is treated by foreign border authorities as a national of whatever passport they hold, so nothing below applies to a PR who is not also a Canadian citizen. The biggest 2026 change is that Brazil now requires a visa of Canadians. The second catches more people: Canadians staying in the United States longer than 30 days must now register with the US government.

Brazil now requires a visa – the correction that matters most

Brazil is no longer visa-free for Canadian citizens. The Government of Canada destination page lists tourist, business and student visas all as required. Canadians apply for a visitor visa, the VIVIS, and an electronic version is available through the official Brazil Government eVisa portal operated by VFS Global, which states the eVisa is open exclusively to citizens of the United States, Canada and Australia. Any checklist still showing Brazil as visa-free is out of date.

Several details could not be pinned to a readable official source, because the Brazilian foreign ministry site blocks retrieval. The date the requirement took effect is not confirmed by an official source, although official consular announcement titles are consistent with 10 April 2025. The eVisa fee, its validity period and the maximum stay per entry are each not confirmed by an official source. Confirmed: a visa is required, and anyone remaining more than 90 days needs an extension from the Federal Police before the authorised stay expires.

United States: no ESTA, but Form G-325R registration after 30 days

Canadians do not need an ESTA. ESTA attaches specifically to the US Visa Waiver Program, and Canada is not a VWP country – it does not appear on the State Department’s VWP list. Canadians travel under a separate, direct visa exemption, so the VWP machinery never engages. The State Department says citizens of Canada need no nonimmigrant visa except for listed purposes: officials in the A, G and NATO categories, treaty traders and investors (E-1 and E-2), the K categories, and the S informant categories. The same page notes permanent residents of Canada do need one – the exemption is citizenship-based, not residence-based.

Air travellers need a passport valid for the stay, or a NEXUS card; at land and water crossings those 16 and over need a passport or Trusted Traveler card. The rule most often missed, though, is registration. Foreign nationals visiting for longer than 30 days must be registered with the US government, and failing to register risks penalties, fines and misdemeanor prosecution. The controlling instrument is the Department of Homeland Security interim final rule Alien Registration Form and Evidence of Registration, effective 11 April 2025, under which all aliens above age 14 who remain in the United States 30 days or longer must apply for registration. The mechanism is a myUSCIS account followed by Form G-325R, Biographic Information (Registration), currently free of charge, plus fingerprinting.

The rule names the gap it closes: many Canadian nonimmigrants entering for business or pleasure are not issued a Form I-94, even though they were never registered through a visa process. That is the snowbird wintering in Florida or Arizona, the visitor staying with family for six weeks, or anyone crossing by land and waved through without paperwork. Canadians can normally stay six months, so a large share of ordinary visitors sit above the 30-day line. Travellers can check whether they were registered by looking up their I-94 record on the CBP website. How the rule is enforced in practice is not confirmed by an official source.

Mexico: the paper FMM has split in two

Mexico remains visa-free, but the old paper form is gone for most travellers. Arrivals by air complete the digital FMMD, the Multiple Digital Migratory Form, online on arrival, and may be processed at an e-gate kiosk. Arrivals by land still complete the paper or online FMM, with an exception for stays under 72 hours in the northern border zone. Whichever form applies must be carried as proof of legal status. The often-quoted 180 days is a ceiling set by the officer, not an entitlement.

Central America: CA-4 is not a uniform 180-day zone

Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua are parties to the CA-4 Border Control Agreement, whose free-movement allowance is 90 days. El Salvador is the outlier, listed at 180 days for Canadian tourists while the other three are each 90. Cumulative rules differ too: Guatemala caps overall stay at 180 days, Honduras allows 30 more for 120 total, and Nicaragua extends to 180. CA-4 does not remove stamping obligations – in Nicaragua entry and exit stamps remain required.

Belize allows 30 days; longer requires a visa from the immigration authorities. Costa Rica and Panama each allow 180 days at the officer’s discretion, and a Costa Rican overstay can bring deportation and a five to ten year re-entry ban. Panama requires the equivalent of US$500 or a credit card on entry and treats the entry stamp as mandatory, with a US$1,000 fine for missing one. Honduras charges a US$3 land entry fee.

South America: the traps

Bolivia is 30 days, not 90. The 90-day figure in older articles is only reachable through two successive 30-day extensions, and it is a per-calendar-year cap, not a per-entry allowance. Bolivia also requires SIGEMIG web registration before arrival, including lodging details for the whole stay, done at the port of entry if not completed in advance.

Chile has no reciprocity fee. The historic fee was abolished and no official source mentions one. A tourist card is issued automatically on arrival, valid up to 90 days, extendable online by 90 more, and must be kept for departure. A separate Digital Affidavit for Entry to Chile covers the agricultural declaration, and Rapa Nui has its own form and a 30-day limit.

Venezuela requires a visa, and Global Affairs Canada advises “Avoid all travel”. Visas are explicitly not available on arrival. Entering without one risks potentially lengthy detention or imprisonment. This is not a leisure destination.

Suriname is not simply visa-free. No visa is needed for tourism, but an electronic tourist card must be obtained online through the Surinamese government portal before arrival, and a pre-paid entry tax paid in advance with the voucher shown at airline check-in. The card is single-entry and expires after 90 days, and anyone staying beyond 30 days must report to the police Immigration Section within a week.

Colombia allows 90 days, capped at 180 per calendar year, and requires the free Check-Mig form between 72 hours and 1 hour before boarding, both inbound and outbound, including land, maritime and river crossings. An entry fee is payable on arrival. Peru allows 90 days per 365-day period, with digital records for air arrivals, but land arrivals must get a physical passport stamp. Guyana allows 90 days with the same warning – no arrival stamp could mean difficulty leaving or even jail time. Ecuador allows 90 days per 12 months, extendable once by 90, and the Galapagos is capped at 60 days a year with a Transit Control Card. Canadians entering Ecuador overland from Colombia or Peru must present an apostilled five-year criminal record check.

Uruguay allows 90 days, with extensions requested from migration authorities in country. Argentina and Paraguay are visa-free, but no maximum stay is stated by the controlling official source for either, so the commonly cited 90 days is not confirmed by an official source.

Visa-free does not mean paperwork-free

Mandatory pre-arrival electronic forms are now the norm here. Seven destinations require one: Belize iDeclare, for entry and exit; the Guatemala electronic declaration with its QR code, before arriving and before leaving; the Honduras online customs declaration, also a QR code; Colombia Check-Mig, inbound and outbound; Bolivia SIGEMIG; the Suriname electronic tourist card with its pre-paid entry tax; and the Mexico FMMD for air arrivals. None is a visa, but missing one can stop a traveller at check-in or the border just as effectively. Keep the categories straight: a visa on arrival is not visa-free, since a visa is still required, only issued at the border. No destination here offers Canadians one – Brazil and Venezuela require the visa in hand before departure.

Entry rules by destination

What could not be confirmed for this region

These are not confirmed by an official source and must be checked with the destination’s immigration authority.

• Brazil: the date the requirement took effect, the eVisa fee, its validity, the maximum stay per entry, and whether consular visitor visas run in parallel.
• Argentina and Paraguay: the maximum visa-free stay, so the repeated 90 days cannot be confirmed.
• Venezuela: the maximum stay on a tourist visa.
• Colombia: the amount of the arrival entry fee, which is updated annually and not published on the source.
• Suriname: the entry tax amount and the cost of the electronic tourist card.
• Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Uruguay and Guyana: whether any electronic arrival form exists – none is mentioned or ruled out.
• El Salvador and Nicaragua: whether any tourist card or entry fee applies.
• Honduras: whether the online customs declaration also serves as an immigration form.
• Chile: whether the Digital Affidavit is mandatory for everyone or only for those declaring agricultural products.
• United States: CBP’s own wording on ESTA and the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, and how the 30-day registration rule is enforced in practice. The exemption and the rule itself are confirmed.

Rules here are moving: the US registration requirement is recent, Brazil’s eVisa mechanics are new, Colombia’s entry fee changes annually, and Mexico’s FMM-to-FMMD shift is still under way.

Official sources used for this section

• Government of Canada travel advice – United States
• US Department of State – Citizens of Canada and Bermuda
• US Department of State – Visa Waiver Program country list
• Federal Register – Alien Registration Form and Evidence of Registration (interim final rule)
• Government of Canada travel advice – Mexico
• Government of Canada travel advice – Belize
• Government of Canada travel advice – Guatemala
• Government of Canada travel advice – Honduras
• Government of Canada travel advice – El Salvador
• Government of Canada travel advice – Nicaragua
• Government of Canada travel advice – Costa Rica
• Government of Canada travel advice – Panama
• Government of Canada travel advice – Brazil
• Brazil Government eVisa portal – how to apply
• US Department of State – Brazil country information
• Government of Canada travel advice – Colombia
• Government of Canada travel advice – Ecuador
• Government of Canada travel advice – Peru
• Government of Canada travel advice – Bolivia
• Government of Canada travel advice – Chile
• Government of Canada travel advice – Argentina
• Government of Canada travel advice – Uruguay
• Government of Canada travel advice – Paraguay
• Government of Canada travel advice – Guyana
• Government of Canada travel advice – Suriname
• Government of Canada travel advice – Venezuela

The Caribbean and Bermuda

The rules below are written for a Canadian citizen travelling on a Canadian passport for tourism. A Canadian permanent resident is judged by foreign border authorities on the passport they actually hold, so PR status by itself gives no access to anything listed here. The single biggest change across this region for 2026 is that the pre-arrival paperwork has moved online: Barbados, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Aruba, Curacao and Montserrat all now expect a form filed on a government website before departure, each with its own submission window. The second biggest issue is not a change at all but a persistent error in older articles: Cuba is not visa-free for Canadians, and the Bahamas Click2Clear system has nothing to do with tourists.

Cuba is not visa-free

Cuba requires a visa. Global Affairs Canada states plainly that Canadian tourists travelling to Cuba need a visa, which allows stays of up to 90 days. In practice that visa is the tourist card, and it is normally bundled into a tour-operator package or into the ticket on a direct flight from Canada. A traveller routing through a third country does not get that bundling and must obtain an electronic visa beforehand, which produces a 10-character code. Any list that puts Cuba in a “visa-free for Canadians” column is wrong.

On top of the visa there is the D’Viajeros online form, which replaced three former paper documents including the old Customs Declaration Form. The 10-character e-visa code must be entered on it. The submission window is genuinely disputed between two official sources and is not confirmed by an official source: travel.gc.ca says the form may be completed as early as 72 hours before entry, while the General Customs of the Republic of Cuba says it is completed with a maximum of 48 hours before arrival. Filing inside 48 hours of arrival satisfies both readings. The two sources also disagree on how mandatory the form is. Cuban Customs says that not filling it out does not prevent travel to the island, while travel.gc.ca says a traveller must provide the information before entering the country; the strict legal position is not confirmed by an official source. Airlines check the form at boarding, so it should be treated as mandatory in practice. Separately, proof of medical insurance must be shown on entry, and the 90-day stay can reach a six-month total only by applying for an extension in Cuba.

The Bahamas: Click2Clear is a cargo system

Articles that tell Bahamas-bound tourists to file a Click2Clear declaration are describing the wrong system. The Bahamas Customs Department states that Click2Clear is a system for the import and export of cargo only, and that this does not include baggage claim after returning from vacation or travel abroad. Individuals do not even hold Click2Clear accounts, because declarations are handled only by licensed customs brokers. There is no mandatory pre-arrival online form for tourists entering the Bahamas: travellers complete and sign a paper immigration card, stamped at the point of entry, and no tourist visa is required for stays of up to eight months.

A Bahamas Digital Arrival Card does exist, but it was soft-launched on 5 May 2026 as a voluntary pilot offered to selected flights, and the traditional paper-based process remains in place alongside it. It is not a requirement. Which airports, airlines or flights are in the pilot, and any date on which the card becomes mandatory, are not confirmed by an official source. This is the most volatile item in the region and should be re-checked before every trip.

Barbados: the online form is mandatory, and travel.gc.ca is behind

Two official sources disagree here, and the Barbados government source controls. The Barbados Government Information Service states that all incoming passengers must complete the online Embarkation and Disembarkation form through the official government travel form portal at travelform.gov.bb, anytime within 72 hours prior to travel, and urges submission no later than 24 hours ahead. travel.gc.ca still describes only an arrival form completed at the immigration office on arrival, so it is behind the destination government on this point. File online in advance. No tourist visa is required for up to 180 days, and immigration officers determine the length of stay granted.

Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands run on United States rules

Both are United States territory, so United States admission rules apply rather than Caribbean ones. Canadian citizens need no visa and do not use ESTA, and the usual admission is six months. The trap is registration: travel.gc.ca states that Canadians and other foreign nationals visiting the United States for periods longer than 30 days must be registered with the United States Government, the Form G-325R alien registration requirement. Canadians who treat these islands as ordinary Caribbean destinations, and long-stay winter travellers in particular, routinely miss it. The 30-day threshold applies in San Juan and Charlotte Amalie exactly as it does in Florida.

Guadeloupe and Martinique are French but not Schengen

Both are French overseas departments, and travel.gc.ca states explicitly that neither is part of the Schengen area. Each grants a separate 90-day allowance that does not consume, and is not consumed by, Schengen time, so Schengen arithmetic does not apply to a Caribbean trip. Whether the EU Entry/Exit System or ETIAS applies to these departments is not confirmed by an official source, so no such requirement should be assumed either way.

Haiti: visa-free on paper, “Avoid all travel” in practice

Haiti allows Canadians 90 days without a visa and requires no online form. The Government of Canada risk level for Haiti is “Avoid all travel” because of kidnappings, gang violence and civil unrest. That advisory travels with the entry rule and should not be separated from it.

Digital arrival forms, one by one

The forms now in use across the region are the Jamaica Immigration/Customs C5, the Dominican Republic E-Ticket, the Saint Lucia electronic immigration form, the British Virgin Islands Embarkation/Disembarkation (ED) card, the digital Bermuda Arrival Card, the Aruba ED card, the Curacao Digital Immigration (DI) card, the Montserrat online Immigration and Customs form, and, functioning like a form for planning purposes, the Bonaire visitor entry tax.

Jamaica deserves a domain warning. The government portal is enterjamaica.gov.jm. Lookalike .com and .org domains exist, are not government sites, and charge fees for what is a free government form. Jamaica’s own official sources also disagree on whether the online route is compulsory: the C5 portal says all passengers are required to complete the online C5 card in advance of travelling, while PICA’s main travel documents page says the C5 may be submitted either online or as a physical form. The safe reading is that the C5 is mandatory and filing it online in advance is the expected route. The stay is 90 days, extendable by up to a further 90. The same scam risk applies region-wide: fee-charging third-party “ED card” websites are not government portals anywhere.

Submission windows differ and have changed repeatedly since 2023. Aruba and Curacao use a 7-day window before travel. The British Virgin Islands, Barbados, Montserrat and the Bahamas pilot use 72 hours. Saint Lucia uses 3 days for air travel, with one form per family or group. Cuba sits in the disputed 48 to 72 hour band. The Dominican Republic E-Ticket must be completed before boarding, but no specific hours-before-arrival deadline is confirmed by an official source, and the Jamaica C5 window is likewise not confirmed by an official source. Bermuda’s Arrival Card must be completed before arrival, and cruise ship passengers are exempt. For Sint Maarten, travel.gc.ca describes only a paper immigration form handed out on the aircraft; whether a mandatory digital entry form now exists there is not confirmed by an official source.

Fees, taxes and stay-length traps

Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire each grant 90 days in a 180-day period, a rolling window rather than a fresh allowance per entry that resets on exit. Most other destinations in the table grant a per-entry stay set by the officer at the border. Bonaire charges a USD 75 visitor entry tax per person per visit, payable online in advance or on arrival, with a reduced USD 10 category, valid for one month; who qualifies for the reduced or exempt rates is not confirmed by an official source. The British Virgin Islands charge a USD 10 arrival tax and a USD 20 departure tax on top of the ED card.

Saint Kitts and Nevis is the one place where the maximum stay should not be stated with confidence. travel.gc.ca states no maximum, while the Consulate General of Saint Kitts and Nevis in Toronto states that stay is determined by the Immigration authority on arrival and that the maximum stay is initially one month. The 90-day figure repeated on many non-government sites is not supported by any official source located, so the conflict is reported here rather than resolved in the traveller’s favour. Antigua and Barbuda’s Eseaclear system, like Click2Clear, is a carrier notification system for crew and passenger lists, not a traveller form.

What could not be confirmed for this region

The following points are not confirmed by an official source, and readers must check them directly with the destination’s immigration or border authority before travelling.

• Whether Cuba’s D’Viajeros form must be filed within 48 hours or 72 hours of arrival, and whether it is legally mandatory or only enforced at boarding by airlines.
• Whether Cuba’s electronic visa has replaced the paper tourist card for all travellers, rather than only those arriving via a third country.
• The maximum visa-free stay in Saint Kitts and Nevis, where the only official figure located is the Toronto consulate’s “initially one month” and no immigration department figure was obtained.
• The maximum permitted stay in Montserrat, which neither the Government of Canada nor the Government of Montserrat states.
• Whether a mandatory digital entry form now exists for Sint Maarten, and if so at what official web address.
• Which airports, airlines and flights are in the Bahamas Digital Arrival Card pilot, and any date on which it becomes mandatory.
• Whether any electronic passenger customs declaration exists for arriving travellers in the Bahamas, separate from the cargo-only Click2Clear system.
• The specific submission deadline for the Dominican Republic E-Ticket beyond “before boarding”, and any submission window at all for the Jamaica C5.
• The Turks and Caicos Islands maximum stay at destination-government level, and the absence of any pre-arrival online form there.
• Whether the EU Entry/Exit System or ETIAS applies to Guadeloupe and Martinique.
• The full list of who pays Bonaire’s USD 75 entry tax versus the reduced USD 10 rate or an exemption.
• Confirmation from Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda and Saint Kitts and Nevis government sources that Canadians are visa-exempt, which currently rests on Government of Canada pages alone.

Official sources used for this section

• Government of Canada travel advice: Cuba
• General Customs of the Republic of Cuba: D’Viajeros digital form
• Bahamas Customs Department: Click2Clear scope
• Bahamas Customs Department: Click2Clear information for individuals
• The Bahamas: Digital Arrival Card soft launch announcement
• Government of Canada travel advice: Bahamas
• Barbados Government Information Service: online ED form FAQ
• Barbados official travel form portal
• Government of Canada travel advice: Barbados
• Jamaica PICA: official C5 portal
• Jamaica PICA: travel documents required
• Government of Canada travel advice: Jamaica
• Dominican Republic Direccion General de Migracion: E-Ticket
• Government of Canada travel advice: Dominican Republic
• Government of Canada travel advice: Saint Lucia
• Consulate General of Saint Kitts and Nevis in Toronto: travel and tourism
• Government of Canada travel advice: Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Antigua and Barbuda Immigration Department: entry requirements
• Turks and Caicos Islands Border Force: entry requirements
• Government of Canada travel advice: British Virgin Islands
• Government of Canada travel advice: Bermuda
• Government of Canada travel advice: Aruba
• Government of Canada travel advice: Curacao
• Government of Bonaire: visitor entry tax portal
• Government of Montserrat: online Immigration and Customs form
• Government of Canada travel advice: Sint Maarten
• Government of Canada travel advice: United States
• Government of Canada travel advice: Haiti
• Government of Canada travel advice: Guadeloupe
• Government of Canada travel advice: Martinique

East Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific

Everything below describes what a Canadian citizen travelling on a regular Canadian passport can expect at the border. A Canadian permanent resident is treated by every authority in this region as a national of whatever passport they actually hold, so PR status alone changes nothing here and the rules that follow may not apply. The single biggest change for 2026 is that mainland China opened to Canadian passport holders under a trial visa waiver that expires on 31 December 2026, while South Korea’s K-ETA exemption expires on the same date. The second biggest change is quieter but affects far more travellers: a wave of mandatory free digital arrival cards now sits between the traveller and the immigration desk in at least eleven destinations, and older articles rarely mention them.

Entry requirements at a glance

China and South Korea: two allowances that die on 31 December 2026

Mainland China is the most volatile entry in this region. Canadian passport holders are visa-exempt for up to 30 days for tourism, business, family and friends visits, exchange and transit, but only under a unilateral trial waiver that runs from 17 February 2026 to 31 December 2026. Both the Government of Canada’s China page and the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs describe it as time-limited with that end date. Anyone booking travel that lands in 2027 must assume the waiver is gone unless China announces an extension, and the Government of Canada’s own instruction is to verify eligibility with the nearest Chinese embassy or consulate before travelling. This is a trial programme, not a permanent policy change, and articles that say “Canadians can now visit China visa-free” without printing 31 December 2026 are misleading readers into a booking they may not be able to complete.

South Korea carries the same expiry date but for a different reason. Canadians are exempt from the Korea Electronic Travel Authority, the K-ETA, until 31 December 2026. That exemption is a tourism promotion measure that has already been extended more than once, so it should be treated as temporary. Critically, the exemption does not mean there is nothing to file. The Korean e-Arrival Card is a separate, mandatory and free requirement that still applies: it can be submitted online up to three days before arrival or completed on paper at the port of entry. Scam sites charging for the free e-Arrival Card are an active problem that the Government of Canada warns about directly.

Corrections to claims that circulate widely

Thailand is 60 days, not 30 and not 90. A Canadian passport holder arriving for tourism receives a 60-day visa exemption on arrival, extendable at an Immigration Office by a maximum of 30 further days at the officer’s discretion. The Thailand Digital Arrival Card is mandatory at every point of entry – air, land and sea – which trips up travellers crossing overland from Malaysia, Laos or Cambodia who assume arrival cards are an airport formality. It is free through the official Thai Immigration Bureau portal.

Vietnam requires a visa of Canadians. The 45-day unilateral exemption reported for a handful of Western nationalities does not include Canada. The Government of Canada lists the tourist visa as required, and the practical route is the electronic tourist visa, single or multiple entry, valid for a maximum of 90 days. The only exemption on record applies to Canadian spouses or children of Vietnamese citizens, through a visa exemption certificate.

Indonesia requires a visa of Canadians. A Canadian tourist must obtain a visa in advance or a visa on arrival at selected points of entry. On top of that, the All Indonesia Declaration Form is a mandatory electronic immigration and customs declaration to be completed before airport check-in, up to 72 hours before arrival, and it produces a QR code that must be shown to officials. Travellers entering Bali also pay a separate tourist levy in addition to any visa fee. Three separate obligations, none of which is optional.

Australia uses the ETA, subclass 601. The eVisitor, subclass 651, is for European passport holders and is not the Canadian pathway; the Government of Canada links Canadians specifically to the subclass 601 listing. The Department of Home Affairs frames the allowance as up to three months on each entry, with unlimited entries across a 12-month period, which is more precise than a flat “90 days” and is the framing to plan around. The ETA must be tied to the passport actually carried.

Visa on arrival is not visa-free. Tonga, Palau and the Marshall Islands all appear on informal visa-free lists but are formally visa-required destinations where the visa happens to be issued at the border. Tonga issues a tourist visa on arrival for stays of up to 30 days and all other visa types must be obtained beforehand; Palau issues a 30-day visa at the airport; the Marshall Islands issues a tourist visa on arrival at the airport. The practical difference matters because a border officer can refuse to issue a visa, and there is no advance approval to point to.

Pacific and Southeast Asian traps

Brunei is visa-free for up to 90 days, but the Government of Canada writes the rule inversely as “visa required for stays of more than 90 days,” which is easy to misread. Brunei imposes two separate pre-arrival steps – an E-Arrival Card that must be registered and approved before arriving by air, land or sea, and an Arrival Declaration Form submitted through the BruHealth application up to 72 hours before arrival – plus proof of medical insurance covering the whole stay. That insurance requirement is unusual in the region.

New Zealand is a three-part process, not one. The NZeTA is the electronic authorisation and is valid for up to two years with multiple entries. The International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy is paid when the NZeTA is requested. The New Zealand Traveller Declaration is a separate digital form completed before arrival. Immigration New Zealand’s published figures are NZD 100 for the levy and NZD 17 by mobile app or NZD 23 through the website for the NZeTA, but those come from a fee table with rates effective 1 October 2024; the current-year amounts are not confirmed by an official source and should be re-checked on the Immigration New Zealand site before paying.

The Cook Islands allowance is 31 days, not 30, a small discrepancy that appears constantly in secondary sources. The Solomon Islands runs a rolling cap of 90 days within any 12-month period for tourism rather than a fresh allowance on each entry, and business travel is limited to 30 days. French Polynesia and New Caledonia are French overseas territories but sit outside the Schengen area, so time spent in either does not count against a Schengen allowance and no ETIAS process is involved.

Finally, digital arrival cards are now the norm rather than the exception, and all of them are free through official channels. Taiwan’s TWAC, Korea’s e-Arrival Card, Brunei’s E-Arrival Card and BruHealth form, Cambodia’s e-Arrival, Papua New Guinea’s PNGDAC and New Zealand’s Traveller Declaration join the better known Singapore SGAC, Malaysia MDAC, Thailand TDAC, Philippines eTravel and Indonesia All Indonesia Declaration Form. Paid look-alike sites are a documented problem for the MDAC, the Korean e-Arrival Card and the TWAC in particular.

What could not be confirmed for this region

The following points are not confirmed by an official source and readers must check them directly with the destination’s immigration or border authority before travelling.

• The cost of the Australian ETA subclass 601, and the destination-side list of eligible passports confirming Canada.
• South Korea’s maximum visa-free stay in days for Canadian tourists, and Korean-government confirmation of the 31 December 2026 K-ETA exemption end date.
• The Thailand Digital Arrival Card’s start date and its submission window in days before arrival.
• Indonesia’s e-VOA fee and permitted stay, whether Canada appears on Indonesia’s visa-on-arrival eligible list, and the amount of the Bali tourist levy.
• Visa fees and permitted stay lengths for Laos, and visa fees for Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Tonga.
• Maximum stay lengths for the Marshall Islands, Laos and Papua New Guinea.
• Palau’s extension fee, and whether any Palau Pledge requirement applies.
• Whether the NZeTA fees of NZD 17 and NZD 23 are still current in 2026.
• Destination-side corroboration of Taiwan’s TWAC timing and the Philippines eTravel 72-hour window.
• Whether Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, the Cook Islands, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, Mongolia, Japan, Macao or Hong Kong operate any digital arrival card. No official page consulted mentions one, but silence is not confirmation.

Official sources used for this section

• Government of Canada travel advice: China
• PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs: visa exemption for Canadian ordinary passport holders
• Government of Canada travel advice: South Korea
• Republic of Korea e-Arrival Card portal
• Government of Canada travel advice: Thailand
• Thailand Digital Arrival Card, Thai Immigration Bureau
• Government of Canada travel advice: Vietnam
• Vietnam Immigration Department e-visa portal
• Government of Canada travel advice: Indonesia
• All Indonesia Declaration Form
• Government of Canada travel advice: Australia
• Australian Department of Home Affairs: Electronic Travel Authority subclass 601
• Government of Canada travel advice: New Zealand
• Immigration New Zealand: paying the International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy
• Government of Canada travel advice: Japan
• Government of Canada travel advice: Taiwan
• Taiwan Arrival Card, Taiwan National Immigration Agency
• Government of Canada travel advice: Singapore
• Singapore Immigration and Checkpoints Authority: SG Arrival Card
• Government of Canada travel advice: Malaysia
• Malaysia Digital Arrival Card, Malaysian Immigration Department
• Government of Canada travel advice: Philippines
• Philippines eTravel registration system
• Government of Canada travel advice: Brunei
• Government of Canada travel advice: Hong Kong
• Hong Kong Immigration Department: visit visa and entry permit requirements
• Government of Canada travel advice: Cambodia
• Government of Canada travel advice: Tonga
• Government of Canada travel advice: Palau
• Government of Canada travel advice: Solomon Islands

South Asia, the Middle East and the Caucasus

Everything below is written for a Canadian citizen travelling on a Canadian passport. A Canadian permanent resident is treated by foreign border authorities as a national of whatever passport they hold, so PR status confers none of this access. The biggest change across this region in 2026 is that “no visa” increasingly still means “mandatory electronic permission”: Israel’s ETA-IL, Sri Lanka’s ETA, India’s e-Arrival Card and Nepal’s NepaliPort registration are all separate compulsory steps that older guides do not mention. The second is security: as at 23 July 2026 Global Affairs Canada has Bahrain and Kuwait at Avoid all travel for the whole country, and the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Jordan at Avoid non-essential travel for the whole country.

Entry requirements at a glance

Visa on arrival is not visa-free

Several destinations here are listed as “easy” because a visa can be bought at the border. That is a visa on arrival, and it is not visa-free entry. The United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Kuwait, Nepal, the Maldives and Bangladesh all issue the visa at the port of entry, so the decision is made by an officer at the counter and can go against the traveller. Bangladesh is the clearest example: Canadians may apply on arrival for a single-entry tourist or business visa valid up to 30 days, but the Government of Canada page warns explicitly that there is a risk of being denied entry. Nepal’s visa can be obtained at Tribhuvan International Airport or at selected land crossings, but a passport photo and cash in Canadian or US dollars must be carried, and an exit visa is needed in order to leave. The only entries here that need no visa at all are Turkiye, Georgia, Qatar and Oman, and Oman’s allowance stops at 14 days. Israel and Sri Lanka are often listed as visa-free but both require a compulsory electronic authorisation, ETA-IL and the Sri Lankan ETA respectively, so neither is visa-free in the sense used on this page.

Israel: ETA-IL has been mandatory since 1 January 2025

Israel does not require a visa from Canadians for stays of up to 90 days, but since 1 January 2025 every visa-exempt traveller must hold an approved ETA-IL before arriving. The Israeli Ministry of Tourism states that without an ETA entry will not be allowed. Apply at least 72 hours before the expected arrival; an approval remains valid for up to two years or until the passport expires, whichever comes first. The passport rule is shorter than the usual six months: it must be valid 90 days beyond entry. The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated the ETA-IL would cost NIS 25 after the free pilot period, but whether that is still the fee, and how many entries an approval permits, are not confirmed by an official source. Global Affairs Canada advises Avoid non-essential travel for Israel and Avoid all travel for the West Bank and Gaza, with avoid all travel also applying east of Highway 98 in the Golan, within 5 km of the Lebanon border and within 10 km of the Gaza Strip border.

Sri Lanka: the ETA became free on 25 May 2026

Sri Lanka’s 30-day tourist ETA is free for Canadians, with a double-entry facility, with effect from 25 May 2026. Canada is one of 40 nationalities on that list; others still pay US$50 online or US$60 on arrival, and ETA fees paid before 25 May 2026 are not refundable. The ETA remains compulsory and must be obtained before travelling, and an online arrival card can be completed from three days before arrival. This concession is volatile – Sri Lanka introduced and then withdrew a free-visa pilot once before – so the date stamp matters and the position should be re-checked before booking.

Turkiye: the e-Visa is gone for Canadian tourists

Ordinary Canadian passport holders no longer need a Turkish e-Visa for tourism. The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the controlling source, states that ordinary passport holders are exempt from a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. There is a conflict in the Canadian material: the travel.gc.ca Turkiye page still carries a residual instruction to buy an e-visa online, contradicting its own “not required” entry. Follow the Turkish MFA. Canadian official passport holders still need a visa, and the passport must be valid at least 150 days from entry. Turkiye is covered in more depth in the Europe section.

Armenia: the “111 country” exemption is a trap

A widely repeated 2026 claim is that Armenia has gone visa-free for Canadians. It has not. The Armenian MFA document behind that claim is a temporary visa exemption running 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2027 that does list Canada, but it is conditional: it covers only nationals holding a valid residence permit from the United States, an EU or Schengen state, or the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Oman. Canada is not on Armenia’s standing 45-country unilateral visa-free list. An ordinary Canadian citizen resident in Canada still needs a visa, applied for at evisa.mfa.am.

Gulf and Levant: advisories, documents and stamps

The United Arab Emirates issues its tourist visa free at the port of entry and now allows 90 days within a 180-day period, not the 30 days older references give. Two document traps apply: Canadian temporary passports and emergency travel documents are refused for entry entirely and can only be used to exit or transit, and travellers must leave on the passport they entered with. Global Affairs Canada advises Avoid non-essential travel to the whole country. Oman is visa-free for stays up to 14 days, with an e-Visa through the Royal Oman Police portal or payment on arrival at Muscat for longer stays, and it too is at Avoid non-essential travel. Saudi Arabia and Jordan are also at Avoid non-essential travel; Jordan does not issue visas at the King Hussein (Allenby) Bridge crossing, so it must be obtained online or from a Jordanian mission beforehand, and stays over 14 days must be registered with local police within 13 days of entry. Bahrain and Kuwait are both under a whole-country Avoid all travel advisory as at 23 July 2026 and are not ordinary destinations, however simple their paperwork looks.

Two document-based refusal risks run across the Gulf. Passports carrying an “X” gender identifier will be refused entry by Kuwait and may be refused entry by Oman. Separately, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait have all refused entry over Israeli visas or stamps, or Egyptian or Jordanian stamps issued at offices bordering Israel – a real problem for itineraries that include Israel. Qatar also requires health insurance recognised by its Ministry of Public Health as a condition of entry, not as a recommendation.

South Asia: two digital steps in India, one new one in Nepal

India requires both an e-Visa and a separate mandatory e-Arrival Card, completed online up to 72 hours before arrival; holding an approved e-Visa does not remove that second obligation. The e-Tourist visa is issued as 30-day single entry, or one-year or five-year multiple entry, but a tourist may only stay 180 consecutive days in India even where the visa’s validity is longer; longer stays require FRRO registration within 14 days of arrival. The High Commission of India in Ottawa gives the Canadian e-Visa fee as US$80 plus a 2.5 per cent bank charge, but whether that figure is current is not confirmed by an official source. India carries regional advisories including Avoid all travel for Jammu and Kashmir and within 10 km of the Pakistan border, and Avoid non-essential travel for Manipur.

Nepal has required NepaliPort digital registration of all foreign nationals since 16 September 2025, recent enough to be missing from older guides, and it sits alongside rather than instead of the tourist visa. Azerbaijan is a different trap: its e-Visa must be applied for at least three working days before arrival and is single entry valid 30 days, but all land crossings are closed to passenger traffic, so Canadians can only enter by air, though they may exit by land. Georgia is the regional outlier at 365 days visa-free with no electronic form, subject to holding valid accident and health insurance throughout.

What could not be confirmed for this region

These points are not confirmed by an official source. Check them with the destination’s immigration authority before relying on them.

• Qatar: the permitted length of a visa-free stay. The Government of Canada page gives no duration, and the commonly repeated 90 days in 180 days figure could not be verified.
• Bahrain: the permitted length of stay and the validity of the eVisa.
• Kuwait: the permitted length of stay on the on-arrival visa or e-Visa.
• Pakistan: the authorised length of stay on a tourist e-Visa.
• Maldives: whether the IMUGA traveller declaration or any other pre-arrival declaration is currently required. The Government of Canada page makes no mention of it.
• United Arab Emirates: Canada’s placement in the 90-day on-arrival group could not be independently confirmed from a UAE government source.
• Saudi Arabia: Canadian eligibility for the tourist e-Visa, its one-year validity and the 90-day annual cap rest on the Government of Canada page only.
• Israel: the current ETA-IL fee and the number of entries a single approval permits.
• Armenia: the specific e-visa categories, durations and fees.
• Azerbaijan: the exact name and address of the official e-Visa portal.
• Bhutan: whether a pre-booked package through an authorised travel agent is strictly mandatory. The Government of Canada page and Bhutan’s own tourism site are in tension on this.
• India: whether the US$80 e-Visa fee for Canadians is current.
• Bangladesh, Nepal, the Maldives and Georgia rest on the Government of Canada pages alone, as no destination-government source could be retrieved.

Official sources used for this section

• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for India
• Government of India – Indian e-Visa portal
• High Commission of India, Ottawa – e-Visa fees
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Sri Lanka
• Sri Lanka Department of Immigration and Emigration – ETA fees
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Nepal
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for the Maldives
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Bhutan
• Bhutan Department of Tourism – Visa
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Pakistan
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Bangladesh
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for the United Arab Emirates
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Qatar
• Visit Qatar (Qatar Tourism) – Visas
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Saudi Arabia
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Israel and Palestine
• State of Israel – Entry to Israel
• Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs – ETA-IL approval
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Jordan
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Oman
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Bahrain
• Kingdom of Bahrain – Official eVisa portal
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Kuwait
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Turkiye
• Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Visa information for foreigners
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Georgia
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Armenia
• Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Visa-free list
• Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Temporary visa exemption list
• Government of Canada – Travel advice and advisories for Azerbaijan

Africa

Everything below describes a Canadian citizen travelling on a Canadian passport; a Canadian permanent resident is treated by African border authorities as a national of whatever passport they hold, so PR status confers none of this access. The largest change for 2026 is that South Africa’s Customs Online Traveller Declaration became mandatory on 1 July 2026 for both entry and exit, and the most common error in older articles is the claim that Namibia is visa-free for Canadians. It is not. A great many African destinations are visa on arrival or e-visa destinations rather than genuinely visa-free, and outdated articles routinely blur the two.

Visa-free, visa on arrival and visa required are three different things

A visa on arrival is not visa-free travel. It means a visa is legally required, must be paid for, and is issued at the border counter instead of in advance; if the payment method is refused or the officer is not satisfied, entry can be denied. Egypt, Namibia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi are all visa-required countries that happen to sell the visa at the port of entry. Ethiopia and Uganda have visa on arrival on paper, but the Government of Canada advises getting the e-visa in advance in both cases: for Uganda because qualifying travellers have still been refused entry, and for Ethiopia because arriving without a visa can lead to fines or detention.

Namibia is no longer visa-free for Canadians

This is the correction that matters most. Namibia once admitted Canadian passport holders without a visa, and a great deal of travel content still says so. It is wrong. Both the Government of Canada destination page and the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security fact sheet now list Canada among the nationalities that require a visa, with eligibility to obtain it on arrival at designated ports – Hosea Kutako International, Walvis Bay International and the main land borders – or to apply for an e-visa online. The fee for nationals of non-African countries is stated as NAD 1,600, roughly USD 90, for adults, and a 90-day multiple-entry holiday visa may be granted; that fact sheet is official but undated in the retrieved text, so both figures are not confirmed by an official source as current. Namibia added countries to its visa-on-arrival list by notice dated 23 September 2025, so the list itself is live.

South Africa: a new mandatory declaration, and a 90-day ceiling that does not reset

From 1 July 2026, the South African Revenue Service requires every traveller entering or leaving South Africa to submit the Customs Online Traveller Declaration online before they travel, unless they qualify for one of the limited paper-based exceptions. It applies by air, land, sea and rail, to citizens as well as visitors, and to children and infants. SARS states that travellers will not be denied entry or departure solely for not having declared before arriving at a port, and self-service terminals and Scan-to-Declare QR codes exist there, so the obligation is real but is not currently an entry-refusal trigger. Any article written before July 2026 is wrong on this, and enforcement is new enough to be volatile.

The second South African trap is the 90 days. Canadians need no visa for stays of up to 90 days, but that is a ceiling and not an entitlement. Officers may stamp fewer days than 90, and leaving the country and coming back does not confer a fresh 90-day allowance. A passport must be valid 30 days beyond departure with at least 2 blank visa pages, and a return or onward ticket is required.

Kenya, Egypt and Zimbabwe: three different traps

Kenya abolished visas for all nationalities and replaced them with the Electronic Travel Authorization of Kenya, the eTA, which every visitor including infants and children must hold before starting the journey; transit passengers who do not clear border control are exempt. The trap is the number 90. The eTA is valid for travel within 90 days from issuance, while the duration of the stay is determined at the point of entry. The 90 days is a travel window, not an entitlement to remain 90 days, and no official Kenyan page states a maximum stay at all. Fees start at USD 30 for normal processing of up to 72 hours, with an additional USD 100 for immediate expedited processing, so USD 30 is a floor and not a flat price. Because many look-alike commercial eTA sites exist, the Government of Canada directs travellers to the official Kenya eTA website.

Egypt requires a visa. It can be obtained as an e-visa through the Egypt e-Visa Portal, where the application must be created at least 7 days before departure and Canada is on the eligible-nationalities list, or as a 30-day tourist visa on arrival paid in US dollars cash. The two official sources give different prices: the Government of Canada says a visa on arrival costs between USD 60 and USD 100 per person depending on travel plans, while the portal quotes USD 30 single entry and USD 65 multiple entry for the tourism e-visa. These are different products, so no single figure should be relied on. Travellers entering at Taba who will stay only within the Sinai Peninsula, including Sharm El Sheikh, can instead receive a free 14-day entry stamp, valid only at Taba and only if they do not leave Sinai.

Zimbabwe is a Category B country for Canadians, which means a visa is required. It is not visa-free. Canada is absent from the visa-exempt Category A list, and the Zimbabwe Department of Immigration states that Category B nationals require a visa but may obtain it at the port of entry after paying the fee. The published schedule is USD 30 for an ordinary single-entry visa, the same price online or at the border, and USD 55 for a multiple-entry visa. A single-entry visa runs 30 days and can be extended twice, to 90 days in total.

Pre-arrival forms that catch visa-free travellers

Seychelles is genuinely visa-free – the Immigration and Civil Status authority states there are no visa requirements for any traveller except Kosovo passport holders – but it is not paperwork-free. The Seychelles Travel Authorisation, issued through the Seychelles Electronic Border System, is mandatory before departure, and the system warns that failure to comply may lead to a penalty fee on arrival. The Visitor’s Permit itself is free for the first three months and costs SCR 5,000 per subsequent three-month extension. The Travel Authorisation’s price is not confirmed by an official source.

Cabo Verde stacks two separate obligations on a visa-free entry of up to 30 days. An Electronic Travel Authorisation must be obtained before entering, valid for one year or until the passport changes, whichever comes first. Separately, travellers must complete an online pre-registration and pay the airport security fee on the EASE platform at least 5 days before arrival.

Nigeria requires both an e-Visa and the Landing and Exit Card, needed for departure as well as arrival. The Government of Canada says the online form must be completed before entering or exiting Nigeria, while the Nigeria Immigration Service describes the cards as completed on arrival at or departure from Nigerian borders; the two are in tension and the correct timing is not confirmed by an official source. Canadian-Nigerian dual citizens must enter and exit on the Nigerian passport. Mauritius asks travellers to complete the Mauritius All in One Travel Form through the SafeMauritius portal, but the Canadian wording frames it as expediting arrival rather than a condition of entry, so whether it is legally mandatory is not confirmed by an official source.

Yellow fever, new portals and travel advisories

Ghana and Uganda require proof of yellow fever vaccination for entry from all countries, not merely from endemic ones, which is the rule elsewhere on this list. Kenya runs spot checks for yellow fever certificates; Nigeria and The Gambia require proof only from travellers arriving from or transiting a yellow fever country, and Ethiopia requires it only from travellers arriving from or transiting Brazil, Bolivia, Peru or Venezuela. Ghana launched its e-visa portal on 25 May 2026 according to the Ghana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, though the Ghana Immigration Service post announcing it is dated 28 May 2026, so the two official dates do not agree. Neither says paper or embassy applications have been discontinued, so the e-visa is not necessarily the only route, and Ghana’s visa on arrival exists only as a discretionary emergency category.

Nigeria, Ethiopia and Uganda all carry a Global Affairs Canada advisory of “Avoid non-essential travel (with regional advisories)” and must not be presented as routine trips. For Nigeria the advisory explicitly includes Abuja, and several states are at “Avoid all travel”, because of unpredictable security, terrorism, crime and kidnapping. Ethiopia’s reflects civil unrest, armed conflict, fuel shortages and crime, with several regions at “Avoid all travel”; Addis Ababa alone sits at “Exercise a high degree of caution”. Uganda’s reflects the regional Ebola situation, terrorism and high crime. Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt, Kenya and Tanzania each contain regional “Avoid all travel” zones inside a lower national advisory, while Seychelles and Mauritius sit at “Take normal security precautions”. Rwanda and Zambia are also at “Take normal security precautions” nationally but carry regional advisories, including “Exercise a high degree of caution” within 20 km of Zambia’s borders.

What could not be confirmed for this region

The following points are not confirmed by an official source, and readers must check them directly with the destination’s immigration or border authority before travelling.

• The price of the Seychelles Travel Authorisation. The commonly quoted EUR 10 or EUR 15 figure has no official source.
• The maximum stay Kenya grants on an eTA, and whether the eTA is single or multiple entry.
• The maximum stay and validity of the Egypt e-visa, as distinct from the 30-day visa on arrival.
• Ethiopia’s e-visa fees, duration options and entry types, and Tanzania’s visa on arrival and eVisa fees.
• Uganda’s visa fees and permitted stay, and the fee for the East African Tourist Visa.
• Nigeria’s e-visa fee, validity and permitted stay, whether its former visa on arrival scheme was formally abolished, and whether the Landing and Exit Card is completed online in advance or at the border.
• Ghana’s visa fees, validity and permitted stay, and whether the e-visa is now the only application route.
• Whether Canadians are eligible for the KAZA UNIVISA, and its fee and validity.
• Cabo Verde’s airport security fee amount, and whether Canada is affected by the EASE notice on nationalities requiring an entry visa from 1 January 2026.
• Whether Malawi’s USD 75 and USD 150 fees apply on arrival as well as online, and whether the Mauritius All in One Travel Form is legally mandatory.
• Namibia’s visa-on-arrival fee and 90-day multiple-entry holiday visa, which come from an official but undated fact sheet.
• Botswana’s visa exemption, and the rules for Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Eswatini, Lesotho and The Gambia, rest on Government of Canada pages alone with no corroborating destination-government source.

Official sources used for this section

• Government of Canada travel advice: Morocco
• Government of Canada travel advice: Tunisia
• Government of Canada travel advice: Egypt
• Egypt e-Visa Portal
• Government of Canada travel advice: South Africa
• South African Revenue Service: Traveller Declaration
• Government of Canada travel advice: Kenya
• Republic of Kenya eTA: frequently asked questions
• Government of Canada travel advice: Rwanda
• Government of Canada travel advice: Tanzania
• Government of Canada travel advice: Namibia
• Namibia Ministry of Home Affairs, Immigration, Safety and Security: visa requirements fact sheet
• Government of Canada travel advice: Botswana
• Government of Canada travel advice: Ghana
• Ghana Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Ghana launches e-visa portal
• Government of Canada travel advice: Nigeria
• Nigeria Immigration Service
• Government of Canada travel advice: Senegal
• Government of Canada travel advice: Seychelles
• Seychelles Immigration and Civil Status: Visitor’s Permit
• Seychelles Electronic Border System: Travel Authorisation
• Government of Canada travel advice: Mauritius
• Government of Canada travel advice: Cabo Verde
• Cabo Verde EASE platform
• Government of Canada travel advice: Zambia
• Government of Canada travel advice: Zimbabwe
• Zimbabwe Department of Immigration: visa categories
• Zimbabwe Department of Immigration: visa fee schedule
• Government of Canada travel advice: Ethiopia
• Government of Canada travel advice: Uganda

Canadian permanent residents: what a PR card actually does

Start from the rule that governs everything else. Visa-free access is a function of the passport you hold, not of your status in Canada. A Canadian permanent resident travelling on an Indian, Pakistani, Nigerian, Chinese or Filipino passport is treated at every foreign border as a national of that country. Canadian PR status confers no Canadian visa-free access anywhere in the world, and no amount of time in Canada changes that.

What PR status does do is narrower and more specific, and it is worth knowing precisely, because it is worth real money in reduced visa applications. A limited number of destinations grant facilitated entry to holders of any passport who additionally hold a qualifying third-country document. The most common qualifying documents are a Canadian PR card, a United States visa or green card, a Schengen visa or residence permit, and a United Kingdom visa or residence permit. Only the destinations in the table below were confirmed against an official source to name Canada.

Where a Canadian PR card or Canadian visa is officially recognised

Where Canada is deliberately not on the list

This is the single most common error in online coverage of this subject, and it is expensive when it is wrong, because it produces a denied boarding rather than a refused application. The following regimes key off Schengen, EU, United States or United Kingdom documents and do not name Canada at all. A Canadian PR card or Canadian visa will not help you here.

• Serbia accepts Schengen, United Kingdom, EU member state and United States visas, and residence permits in the Schengen area, the EU or the United States. Canada is absent.
• Bosnia and Herzegovina accepts a multiple visa or residence permit issued in the Schengen area, the EU or the United States. Canada is absent.
• Albania accepts a multiple-entry visa or residence permit issued by an EU country, the United States or the United Kingdom, and additionally requires that the document has already been used in the issuing country. Canada is absent.
• North Macedonia accepts a multiple-entry Schengen type C visa, and since 1 January 2025 a multiple-entry United States visa. Canada is absent, and the allowance is 15 days per entry, not 90.
• Turkiye’s supporting-document route to the e-Visa, which applies to a named list of nationalities including India and Pakistan, accepts a valid visa or residence permit from a Schengen country, the United States, the United Kingdom or Ireland. Canada is absent. This is worth stating twice, because it is asserted the other way round constantly.
• Colombia accepts a Schengen or United States visa or residence permit, and only for eight named nationalities. Canada is absent.
• Argentina’s 2025 measure for Chinese and Dominican nationals accepts a United States visa only.
• The United Arab Emirates route for Indian nationals specifically accepts a United States visit visa, a United States green card, or a United Kingdom or EU residence visa. Canada is absent from that particular route, although it does appear in the separate 2026 expansion listed in the table above.
• Kosovo’s accessible text names only Schengen documents, and the only page located was on an archived Ministry of Foreign Affairs domain. Treat it as unconfirmed.

Three traps in the fine print

A PR card is not a visa. Several regimes say “visa” and stop there. Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda’s multiple re-entry visa requirement and Chile’s concession for Chinese nationals all name visas without mentioning residence permits. On the face of the official text, a Canadian PR card does not satisfy them. Do not assume it will be accepted.

Facilitation is usually nationality-specific. Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, the Philippines, Taiwan, Singapore, the Bahamas and the UAE’s 2026 scheme all restrict the concession to a named list of nationalities. It is not offered to the world. Check that your own nationality is on the destination’s list, not merely that the destination “accepts Canadian PR”.

Some regimes attach route conditions. The Cayman Islands require that you arrive directly from Canada or the United States and hold a return ticket back to one of them. Albania requires that the qualifying document has already been used in the issuing country. South Korea’s transit concession requires that you are travelling to or from the country that issued your visa. A document that qualifies on paper can still fail on itinerary.

One live conflict is worth flagging. For Panama, the Embassy of Panama and the Consulate of Panama give inconsistent accounts of whether Executive Decree 196 of 28 October 2024 removed the multiple-entry, prior-use and six-month-validity conditions that the earlier decree imposed. The Embassy indicates it did; the Consulate page still displays the six-month text. Until that is resolved, plan against the stricter reading.

Returning to Canada as a permanent resident

This is the other half of the question, and it is the half that actually strands people. The rules come from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

• Returning by commercial carrier – airplane, boat, train or bus – you must show your PR card and your passport or refugee travel document. Both, not either.
• If you are outside Canada without a valid PR card, you must apply for a permanent resident travel document, a PRTD, before returning by commercial carrier. You are eligible only if you hold PR status, do not have a valid PR card with you, are outside Canada, and will return by commercial vehicle.
• A PR card can only be issued to you inside Canada. IRCC will not mail it abroad or to a third party. That is precisely why the PRTD exists, and it is why an expired PR card discovered at a foreign airport is a serious problem rather than an inconvenience.
• Returning by private vehicle – car, truck, motorcycle or RV – you can use your PR card or other documents to return.
• A Canadian permanent resident must not apply for an eTA. IRCC places permanent residents in the category of travellers who cannot apply for an eTA and instead need to carry other identification, and states plainly that a Canadian permanent resident needs a valid PR card or PRTD. The airline check is against the PR card or PRTD, not against an eTA, which is a document for visa-exempt foreign nationals rather than for permanent residents.

IRCC gives one further warning in its own words, and it is the same warning this whole page exists to make concrete: check the visa requirements of the country you are visiting or transiting through before you travel. Canadian status does not confer any foreign entry right.

Visa-free is not the same as advisable

Several destinations on this page are legally open to a Canadian passport and are, at the same time, subject to a Global Affairs Canada travel advisory covering the whole country. Listing them as easy trips without saying so would be misleading. As at the review date of this page, the following applied at the whole-country level.

Avoid all travel: Ukraine, Venezuela, Haiti, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the Palestinian territories.

Avoid non-essential travel: the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Advisories are revised frequently and regional advisories exist for many more countries than these. Check travel.gc.ca for the destination itself before booking. Note also that travel insurance is commonly void, in whole or in part, for travel against an “avoid all travel” advisory. That is a financial consequence, not just a safety warning.

How to verify your own trip in five steps

No article, including this one, can be a substitute for checking your own itinerary. The rules change by executive decision and can change between the day you book and the day you fly. This is the sequence that actually catches problems.

1. Start with your passport, not your status. Identify the passport you will physically travel on. If you hold more than one, the answer may differ for each, and you must enter and leave a country on the same one.
2. Read the destination’s own immigration or foreign affairs website. Not a blog, not a passport-index tool, not a visa agency. If the destination’s site contradicts a third-party site, the destination’s site wins.
3. Cross-check on travel.gc.ca. The Government of Canada destination pages carry an entry and exit requirements section. Where it disagrees with the destination government, the destination government controls, but the disagreement itself is a signal to look harder. This page flags several such disagreements.
4. Check the airline. Airlines run the Timatic database and make the boarding decision. An airline that says no does not care that you believe the rule says yes. Ask the airline directly if there is any doubt.
5. File every pre-arrival form and carry proof. Print or screenshot the confirmation for every electronic authorisation and declaration, along with your return ticket, accommodation booking and proof of funds. Check that your passport has at least six months of validity beyond your return date and at least two blank pages, because a large number of countries require both.

Frequently asked questions

How many countries can a Canadian passport enter without a visa?

No official source publishes that number, and the figures circulated online come from commercial passport-ranking indexes rather than from governments. This page deliberately does not give a count. The count is also not the useful question, because it lumps together genuine visa-free entry with electronic authorisations and visas on arrival, which behave completely differently at check-in.

Does my Canadian PR card let me travel visa-free?

Not on its own, and not in the way most people expect. You travel on your original passport and are treated as a national of that country. Your PR card opens facilitated entry in a specific set of destinations, listed in the permanent resident section above, and does nothing in most of the rest of the world.

Do Canadians need an ESTA for the United States?

No. ESTA applies to the Visa Waiver Program, and Canada is not a Visa Waiver Program country, so Canadians cannot and should not apply for one. What Canadians do need, if they stay more than 30 days, is Form G-325R alien registration under the Department of Homeland Security rule effective 11 April 2025. That requirement is new relative to most published guidance and it catches long-stay visitors and snowbirds.

Do Canadians need ETIAS yet?

Not as at the review date of this page. ETIAS is scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2026, and the exact start date is not confirmed by an official source. The fee is EUR 20. The separate Entry/Exit System, which is a different thing, is already fully operational and has been since 10 April 2026.

Is a visa on arrival the same as visa-free?

No. A visa on arrival is a visa application made at the border, with a fee, and it can be refused at the border. Countries that appear on other lists as visa-free but are actually visa on arrival for Canadians include Tonga, Palau, the Marshall Islands, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Egypt.

How long can I stay in Europe?

Ninety days in any rolling 180-day period across the 29 Schengen states combined, calculated by looking backwards from your date of entry. Leaving and re-entering does not reset it. Ireland, Cyprus and the United Kingdom are outside the Schengen area and each run their own separate allowance.

What happens if I overstay?

Consequences vary by country and commonly include fines, deportation at your own cost, and a re-entry ban that can run for years. An overstay recorded in one country’s system will also be visible to others, and with the European Entry/Exit System now registering entries and exits biometrically rather than by ink stamp, overstays in the Schengen area are far harder to overlook than they used to be. An overstay abroad can also become a question you have to answer on a future Canadian or third-country immigration application.

How this page was researched, and what it does not cover

Every entry rule on this page was checked against a current government, embassy, consular or border-authority source. Travel blogs, passport-index tools, visa agencies and news articles were not used as controlling evidence for any claim, and where the only available source was of that kind, the claim was either removed or is marked as not confirmed by an official source. The official sources relied on are listed at the end of each regional section.

Three limitations are worth stating plainly rather than hiding.

Some official sources could not be read. A significant number of government portals block automated access, publish their eligibility rules only through interactive nationality selectors, or return their content through scripts rather than as text. That includes portals operated by Brazil, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Cyprus, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Israel and several others. Every claim that would have depended on one of those sources is marked in the relevant section as not confirmed rather than being filled in from an unofficial source.

Some values are genuinely unconfirmed. Each regional section ends with a list of what could not be confirmed for that region. Those lists are not padding. If a fee, a stay length or a submission window appears there, it means no official source stated it, and you should treat any figure you see elsewhere for that item with suspicion.

Official sources sometimes contradict each other. This page records the contradictions it found rather than smoothing them over. travel.gc.ca still tells Canadians to buy a Turkish e-Visa, which contradicts both its own entry for Turkiye and the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. travel.gc.ca is also behind the Barbados Government Information Service on the mandatory online arrival form. Cuban Customs and travel.gc.ca disagree on the D’Viajeros submission window. The Embassy and the Consulate of Panama disagree on the conditions attached to the visa-holder concession. In each case the destination’s own authority is the controlling source.

Entry requirements are set by executive decision in almost every country here and can change without notice or transition period. Several rules on this page carry known expiry dates in 2026. Verify before you book, and verify again before you fly.

Review and scope

Last reviewed on 28 July 2026 by Usman Khalil, Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant, RCIC R709592, of MAK Canadian Immigration Services. This page is reviewed on a scheduled basis and again whenever a listed entry rule materially changes. It is general information about foreign entry requirements. It is not immigration advice, it is not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for confirming your own itinerary directly with the destination’s immigration authority and with your airline before you travel.