Did you fill in your eTA application form and applied for your eTA? Then it will be processed right away. Generally speaking, the application is approved the same day and you will receive a confirmation of your issued eTA by e-mail. However, it might occur that the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) requires additional information before the eTA is issued. Read here what you can do if this situation arises.

Causes and urgency

The chance that the IRCC asks for additional information is very small and can have various reasons. Most of the time, answering a few additional questions or providing a picture or scan of a document, such as the passport, is enough. However, the application procedure is put on hold until the required information (or documents) have been provided. It is therefore very important that you provide the additional information as quickly as possible, to make sure that you receive your eTA on time.

Step-by-step plan on providing additional information for eTA

Step 1: Generate your GCKey

If you received an e-mail asking you to provide additional information, you first need to generate a GCKey. This is necessary to see what information the IRCC requires from you. Generating a GCKey is done as follows:

1. Go to this page
2. On the page, under the button "Simple Secure Access", press the blue button "Sign up"
3. Next, click on "I accept"
4. Create a username and click on "Continue"
5. Create a password, fill it in twice and click on "Continue"
6. Choose a recovery question, provide the answer for the recovery question and click on "Continue"
7. Click on "I accept" and then on "Continue"

Step 2: Creating your IRCC account

You are then forwarded to the page where you can create an IRCC account. You can also open that page through this link :

1. At the bottom click on "I accept"
2. Fill in your first name, last name and e-mail address, and choose the desired language (English or French)
3. In the next step, fill in four recovery questions with answers
4. At the bottom of the page, click on "Continue"

Stap 3: Linking your IRCC account to your eTA application

After completing the previous step, you are forwarded to the "My Information" page of your IRCC account. Here, you can link your IRCC account to your eTA application:

1. Scroll down until you see "What would you like to do today" and click on "Link application to this account"
2. In the pull-down menu (button on the right), select the category "Electronic Travel Authorization (eTA)"
3. Fill in your "Application Number" (starts with a V, this can be found in your e-mail)
4. At "Family Name", fill in your last name or last names as filled in on the eTA application
5. At "Given Name", fill in your complete first names as filled in on the eTA application
6. Fill in your date of birth and your passport information, as filled in on the eTA application, and click on "Continue"
7. Click on "Search for my application"
8. Click on "Link my application"
9. Click on "Go to main account page"
10. Take note: If no message is found for you, this means that you did not fill in the information exactly as you did in the eTA application form

Step 4: Check which information you need to provide

After linking your IRCC account to your eTA application, you are returned to the "My Information" page of your IRCC account. At the bottom of the page, you can find your current eTA application. If you are not logged in automatically, you will need to log in again here (with your GCKey, so username and password):

1. Scroll down until the sub-header "View my submitted applications or profiles" appears
2. Click on "Check status and messages" or "Check full application status"
3. You will enter a page named "Application/profile details"
4. Scroll down until you see the sub-header "Application Messages" or "Messages about your application"
5. Click on the link under the sub-header (oftentimes this is the arrow at the far left of the chart, in the line that says "New message")
6. Click on "View this message"
7. Open the PDF file that will be automatically downloaded
8. Read the letter to find out which information is required

Step 5: Providing the required information or documents

The required information can only be provided through your own IRCC account. It is not possible to send these by e-mail. Providing the additional information or documents works as follows.

1. Provide the missing information as documents in one of the following formats: .jpg, .doc, .docx or .pdf, maximum size of 4 MB per document
2. If you are no longer logged in, log in through: this page
3. Scroll down until you see the sub-header "View my submitted applications or profiles"
4. Click on the blue button "Check status and messages" or "Check full application status"
5. Click on "View submitted applications"
6. Click on the button "Upload file" and select the documents you wish to provide by pressing the button "Browse"
7. After the notification "Success uploading file" has appeared click on "Return to your documents"
8. Repeat the process for each file you need to upload with the button "Upload file"
9. After you have provided all the documents click on "Next"
10. Fill in your name and the answer to the question
11. Click on "Sign" and then on "Transmit"

Your eTA application will now be processed again. If all of the information was received in good order, you will generally receive your eTa travel authorisation by e-mail within 72 hours.