If someone wants to travel to Canada, they have to fulfill some requirements to travel there. Also, the Canadian government puts restrictions on traveling in this Covid-19 pandemic. Now the question arises: Is s/he be eligible to travel to Canada with a green card?
United States (U.S.) citizens with a green card can travel Canada without any hassle. Sometimes in this Covid-19 outbreak, you need to show electronic travel authorization (eTA) or a valid visitor visa to visit Canada.
So in this article, you will get to know about a basic idea for traveling to Canada with a green card. So keep reading this article!
Who can travel and enter Canada?
If you want to travel and visit a county like Canada, you need to meet some requirements. If you are eligible for that, then you are allowed to visit Canada. And you can only travel, visit and enter Canada if you are one among the following;
- Citizen of Canada
- If you have dual citizenship with a Canadian passport
- Canadian permanent residents
- The person who is registered with Canada’s Indian Act
- Protected person
- United States citizens if they are eligible.
Travel to Canada With a Green Card:
If you are a United States citizen and are a green card holder, you do not need a visitor visa to travel to Canada. You may need an electronic travel authorization (eTA) if you are flying to or having a transit through Canada.
When you are flying to Canada, you need to present some valid documents. As following;
- Valid green cards as proof that you are a citizen of the United State
- Your valid U.S passport that you used for the electronic travel authorization (eTA).
Once you are done with all the formalities and documents, the border services officer will check and verify your electronic travel authorization when you arrive in Canada.
Foreign nationals who are allowed to travel:
If someone wants to visit or travel Canada from foreign nations,s/he has to meet some requirements to travel to Canada. There are basically two categories in this manner. One is as an immediate family member of a Canadian citizen, and another is as a foreign citizen.
1. Immediate family member:
Immediate family members are referred to as dependent children, one’s spouse, step-parent or parent, the guardian, or the tutor. So in order to get the eligibility of traveling as an immediate family member, you must present some pieces of evidence. And you need to be both as following;
- You have to be an immediate family member of a Canadian permanent resident or the citizen
- You need to stay in Canada for at least 15 days. If you want to stay less than 15 days, then you also have to go through with the same requirements that other foreign nations do.
2. Other foreign nationals:
If you are not from the United States, then you will be counted as a foreign national. And as a citizen of a foreign nation, you have to meet at least two requirements. The requirements are as following;
- You have to make sure that you are traveling for an essential purpose.
- You have to either travel directly from the U.S., and you do not belong to the travel restrictions group.
Travelers from foreign nations who are exempt from the travel restrictions:
In Canada, the government has some travel restrictions for entering Canada. And for the foreign national’s people, they must go through some serious process to enter Canada.
Other than these, if you really want to visit Canada, you have to make sure that you are exempt from the travel restrictions.
So this is so important to know who belongs to the travel restrictions and who is exempt. So below are given who are exempt from the travel restrictions.
- Some international students
- Foreign workers (temporary)
- People who are already approved as a permanent resident of Canada. Yet they are not a permanent resident.
- The passengers of transit. (have to remain in the certain airport transit area)
- immediate family members with written authorization from the Immigrations as a temporary resident of Canada.
- The valid members of the Department of National Defense and their immediate family members.
- Air force crew and marine crew members
- French Citizens who live in the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon
- People who will provide and offer an essential service to Canada. Only if they do not pose any significant harm to the people.
- Any person who represents Canada in the national interest. This opinion is from the Minister of Public Safety or Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Immigration, Refugees, Citizenship.
- Any person coming as medical assistance has to be approved by the Minister of Health for COVID-19 assistance.
- People who have some emergency in medical deliveries.
Traveling in the Covid-19 pandemic:
We all know that Covid-19 outbreaks are spreading all over the world. So the Canadian authority also put some extra requirements to reduce the spreading of it. If you are traveling by air, you have to make sure that you passed the health check, which is conducted by the airlines.
And you must need a Covid-19 test certificate from a legitimate medical authority before the flight. Also, you have to make sure that you wear a non-medical mask and cover your face during the flight. After reaching Canada, you have to go through another medical test at the airport.
The bottom line:
If you want to travel to Canada with a green card, then you may go through some formalities in Airports. But if you are from foreign nations or any other purpose, you have to show valid purposes. Only the people with essential services and legitimate documents can enter Canada.
So before traveling to Canada, it is important to know about all the factors and essential information about it. Hopefully, now you know the basic things you need to know about traveling to Canada with a green card.