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CSA TRAVEL INFORMATION GUIDE
If your ESTA application is approved, but the passport you are using will expire in less than two
years, you will note that your ESTA approval will only remain valid for the duration of your passport’s
validity. After that time, once you receive your new passport, you will need to reapply for further
ESTA approval.
If your ESTA application is denied, and you still wish to visit the United States, you will be required to
apply for a regular non-immigrant visa at a U.S. embassy or consulate.
Fast Facts
• Canadian citizens do not apply for ESA under any circumstances
• Canadian Permanent Residents (landed immigrants) who are citizens of VWP countries
travelling by land do not need to apply for ESTA. You do need ESTA approval if travelling
to the U.S. by air or sea on a commercial flight or vessel.
• Canadian Permanent Residents (landed immigrants) who are not citizens of VWP
countries require a visa regardless if travelling by land, sea or air. As such you do not need
to apply for ESTA as well.
•
If you are a citizen of a VWP country and transiting the U.S. by air on a connecting flight
to a final destination in a different country, you still must apply for ESTA approval.
How Long Can I Visit?
It is important to remember that the length of time you are allowed to be absent from your home
province/territory without losing your government health insurance benefits, and the length of time
you can legally visit the United States (or any other country for that matter) in any one year, are not
necessarily the same.
Most provincial/territorial health insurance programs make no distinction between being absent
from the province/territory but still remaining within Canada, and being absent and travelling
internationally.
While some provincial/territorial plans are very rigid in terms of the amount of time a resident can
be away from the home province/territory, others are more generous in terms of allowing a possible
second trip – outside of the traditional snowbird season – across Canada or even internationally.
Ontario permits its residents to be absent from Ontario for seven months of the year. For the
remaining five months, Ontarians must remain within Ontario. Newfoundland & Labrador permit
its residents to travel for eight months each year with the remaining four months specifically being
spent in the province. In both cases, however, residents from these two provinces cannot stay in the
United States for this amount of time without special permission from the United States government.
The maximum allowed time for a Canadian citizen is still only six months under U.S. law. For a
Canadian permanent resident, the time limit only 90 days.
It is important to note that your number of allowed days in the United States each year does not
automatically reset itself on January 1
st
simply because the calendar year has changed. The time is
calculated based on your travel dates and can continue from one calendar year into the next. Your
departure date from the U.S., as a Canadian citizen for example, cannot be more than 182 consecu-
tive days from your date of arrival. In essence there is both a per-trip and per-year limit.