What you actually need to enter Canada

If you are a US citizen flying or driving to Canada for a holiday, you need no visa and no eTA. You need proof of citizenship and identity, which in practice means a passport. Your passport has to be valid at the time you enter and nothing more, so the six-month rule you may have read about does not apply here.

That is the easy part, and most articles stop there. The two things that actually turn American visitors around at the Canadian border are less obvious: an old criminal conviction, including a drink-driving offence from decades ago, and the assumption that Medicare travels with you. Both are worth ten minutes before you go.

Our Canada guide covers entry rules, what to carry at the border, local apps and money norms for your own dates and passport, and it is free.

The document rules, by how you are travelling

Canada's own wording, from the Canada Border Services Agency, is that "to prove your identity and citizenship, regardless of age, the CBSA recommends travelling with a valid passport." Writing for international travellers, the CBSA calls a passport "the only reliable and universally accepted travel and identification document when abroad."

Flying. Carry the passport. The airline checks your documents before Canada ever sees you, and the passport is the document every airline accepts without argument. The State Department's Canada page also lists the US passport card and a NEXUS card as accepted for entry.

Driving, taking a bus or train, or arriving by sea. You have more options, because there is no airline document check first. The CBSA says US citizens "may also present documents that show your" full name, date of birth and citizenship, and that "if one document doesn't include all of this information, you can use a combination of documents." The examples it gives are a birth certificate, a certificate of citizenship or naturalisation, and a US enhanced driver's licence. Enhanced licences are issued by only some states, so check yours rather than assuming.

An ordinary driver's licence on its own is not enough for any mode of travel. It proves identity and says nothing about citizenship, which is the half Canada actually needs.

Green card holders. Since 26 April 2022, lawful permanent residents of the United States have been exempt from the eTA. IRCC's wording is that they "must show these documents for all methods of travel to Canada: a valid passport from their country or territory of nationality (or an equivalent acceptable travel document) and a valid green card (or equivalent valid proof of status in the United States)." The CBSA adds that if you are "entering Canada by land or water directly from the US or Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, present your US permanent resident card to an officer on arrival. You don't need to present your passport." Flying, you need both. Carry both regardless, because the difference is not worth arguing about at a counter.

Banff National Park. Photo by Jacky Huang on Unsplash.

Who does need an eTA

The eTA is an air-travel requirement for visa-exempt foreign nationals, and it does not apply to US citizens at all. IRCC's page is explicit: "U.S. citizens are exempt from the eTA requirement and must carry proper identification such as a valid U.S. passport."

If you hold a passport from another visa-exempt country, IRCC's rule is that you "need an electronic travel authorization (eTA) and a valid passport to board your flight to Canada if you're a citizen of any of the eTA-required countries or territories." Arriving by car, bus, train or boat, you generally do not need one, with a single published exception for travel by sea from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

It costs CAD 7, confirmed on IRCC's own apply page on 28 August 2026, which describes itself as "the Government of Canada's official website to apply for an eTA." The fee can change, so check that page rather than this one. It is valid up to five years or until your passport expires, whichever comes first, and a new passport means a new eTA. Most applicants are approved by email within minutes, though some take days if documents are requested.

Apply only on canada.ca. Plenty of third-party sites will complete the same form for a markup, and IRCC endorses none of them.

The one that catches people out: an old conviction

This is the reason to read the rest of this page even if you have crossed into Canada twenty times.

IRCC's position is that "if you have committed or been convicted of a crime, you may not be allowed into Canada," and its list of examples includes "driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol." A separate IRCC page on impaired driving states that if you have been convicted of driving while impaired, "you may be inadmissible to Canada for serious criminality, whether the crime happened in Canada or outside Canada."

There is no automatic expiry on this. A DUI from 1994 is still a conviction, and Canadian border officers can see it. What changes with time is which remedy is open to you:

Deemed rehabilitation can apply once enough time has passed, which for a single offence treated as non-serious criminality is at least 10 years from completion of the sentence. Canada toughened impaired-driving penalties on 18 December 2018, and IRCC says that for offences committed before that date it assesses inadmissibility using the penalties in force at the time. That distinction genuinely matters, and it means an older offence can be easier to move past than a recent one.

Individual rehabilitation requires an application to IRCC and at least five years since the end of your sentence. IRCC warns these "can take over a year to process."

A temporary resident permit can let you enter if less than five years have passed or you have compelling reasons to travel. IRCC states plainly that "there is no guarantee that you'll be issued a TRP or be authorized to enter Canada."

The inadmissibility pages do not state these fees inline, so we are not going to quote a figure we cannot show you on the page. IRCC publishes current amounts on its fee list, which is the place to check before you apply.

If this applies to you, deal with it months ahead rather than at the border. Turning up hoping it will not come up is how people lose a paid-for trip at a land crossing.

Toronto. Photo by Berkay Gumustekin on Unsplash.

Medicare does not come with you, and Canada is not an exception

Canada feels close enough to home that a lot of American visitors never think about health cover. It is a foreign country for insurance purposes, and Original Medicare will generally not pay for care there.

Medicare's own fact sheet, Medicare Coverage Outside the United States, states that "in most situations, Medicare won't pay for health care or supplies you get outside the U.S." It lists three narrow exceptions, and one of them mentions Canada specifically. Read it closely, because it is much narrower than it first sounds:

You're traveling through Canada without unreasonable delay by the most direct route between Alaska and another state when a medical emergency occurs, and the Canadian hospital is closer than the nearest U.S. hospital that can treat you.

That is a rule about driving the Alaska Highway. It is not a rule about visiting Canada. If you fly to Vancouver for a week and break a hip, none of the three exceptions help you.

Some Medicare Advantage plans add travel benefits, and some Medigap policies include a limited foreign travel emergency benefit with a deductible and a lifetime cap. Both vary by plan, so the useful action is to find out what your own plan says before you go rather than after.

If your plan leaves a gap, a travel medical policy fills it. One thing to check before price: age eligibility. Insurers cap it, often in the small print rather than on the quote page, and the caps are lower than people expect. Heymondo, for example, capped eligibility at age 69 for trips of up to 29 days and age 49 for trips of 30 days or more when we checked its terms in August 2026. Caps move, and the insurer sets them rather than the marketplace, so read the current policy wording before you buy. Because of that, a marketplace where you can compare eligibility across insurers is usually more useful to an older traveller than a single provider's quote form. Squaremouth lists policies from multiple insurers and lets you filter, which is why we point there rather than at one company.

If your existing cover already handles you abroad, you do not need to buy anything. Check first.

Lake Louise. Photo by Charlie Gallant on Unsplash.

Cannabis and cash

Cannabis is legal in Canada and illegal to bring across the border. The CBSA's wording is that "Transporting cannabis across the border in any form ... without a permit or exemption authorized by Health Canada remains a serious criminal offence subject to arrest and prosecution, despite the legalization of cannabis in Canada." It explicitly covers "any oils containing THC or cannabidiol (CBD)," and it holds in both directions. If you have it with you, you must declare it. A CBD tincture in a wash bag has cost people a great deal of trouble.

Declare CAN$10,000 or more. The CBSA's wording: "There are no restrictions on the amount of money you can bring into or take out of Canada, nor is it illegal to do so. However, any time you cross the border, you must declare any currency or monetary instruments you have in your possession that are valued at CAN$10,000 or more." Undeclared currency can be seized. The threshold is not banknotes alone: the CBSA says it "can be any combination of Canadian or foreign currency and monetary instruments, such as stocks, bonds, bank drafts, cheques and traveller's cheques."

What a border officer can ask you

Canada has no published dollar figure for proof of funds, no mandatory return ticket rule and no requirement to show a hotel booking. What IRCC does say is that to visit you must "convince an immigration officer that you have ties" such as a job, home, financial assets or family "that will take you back to your home country," that you will leave at the end of your visit, and that you have "enough money for your stay." How much that is "depends on how long you will stay and if you will stay in a hotel, or with friends or relatives."

So there is nothing to submit in advance and nothing to print out. There is a conversation you should be able to have easily: where you are staying, how long, and what you are going back to. Knowing your own answer to those three is the whole preparation.

US citizens do not need a tourist visa for stays of less than 180 days, per the State Department's Canada page. A longer stay generally does require one.

Canada's Travel Advisory is Level 1, Exercise normal precautions, issued 5 June 2026, with the summary that "Canada is generally a safe destination for travelers."

One more thing on the way home

Coming back into the United States by air from Canada, you need a US passport book or another approved document. The land border is more forgiving than the airport, and people who drove up on an enhanced licence and then decide to fly home have been caught by this. If your plans might change mid-trip, take the passport.

Before you go

Check your passport is unexpired, and stop there. There is no six-month rule for Canada.

If anyone travelling with you has any criminal conviction, including an old DUI, look into it now rather than at the booth.

Find out in writing what your health plan covers in Canada, and fill the gap if there is one.

Leave the cannabis and the CBD at home.

Know where you are staying and when you are coming back.

For the rules that apply to your passport and your dates, plus airport transport, local apps and what to expect on arrival, generate a Canada guide.

Everything on this page was checked against IRCC, CBSA, Medicare and State Department sources on 3 September 2026. Fees and rules change, so confirm anything load-bearing on the official page we have linked.