Short version: an Italian passport holder flying into Canada needs an eTA before boarding. It is issued by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), costs 7 CAD, and is not the same thing as a visa — Italy does not need a visitor visa for a short stay, but the eTA is still compulsory. The government’s own form for requesting it exists in English and French only.
Because Italy is on the visa-exempt list, an Italian passport only becomes flight-ready once an eTA has been matched to it electronically; nothing gets stamped or mailed. For background on the wider system, see what separates an eTA from a visitor visa and the general application walkthrough. Below is what changes for an Italian passport specifically: the number format, dual nationality, and passports issued abroad through a consulate.
Do Italian citizens need an eTA for Canada?
Yes, whenever the trip involves flying. Italy belongs to the group of countries whose nationals skip the visa for a short visit, and the eTA takes the visa’s place for that group. Every flight into Canada needs one, and so does a connecting flight that merely touches down at a Canadian airport. The link is digital and lives against the passport number, so there is no physical document to carry or lose.
Having an eTA is not the same as being allowed in: a border officer still makes that call on arrival. Working or studying needs its own permit, and if IRCC grants one of those, it bundles an eTA in automatically — no separate application needed for that part.
Italy is far from the only visa-exempt EU country working through this same requirement; see the guide for French citizens for how the passport-number details differ there.
Dual citizens and passports issued by a consulate abroad
A very large share of people with Italian citizenship live outside Italy, most often through descent (jure sanguinis), and many of their passports were never issued inside the country at all — an Italian consulate abroad issued them instead. For the eTA, that distinction makes no difference: a consulate-issued passport is a full Italian passport, entered the same way, with Italy as the country of issue regardless of which city’s consulate stamped it.
Holding Canadian citizenship alongside Italian citizenship changes the picture, though. A Canadian citizen cannot apply for an eTA at all and has to enter on a Canadian passport instead — that rule applies to dual nationals too. The guide for dual nationals covers which passport belongs on which leg of a trip. A third citizenship in the mix, say through a parent from another country, does not change which passport rule applies: it is whichever passport you are actually travelling on.
Can you apply in Italian?
Not directly — the request form itself only comes in English or French. What does exist in Italian, alongside 17 other languages, is a field-by-field description of the same Government of Canada eTA page, so an Italian speaker can have that translation open on one screen while typing the answers into the English or French form on another. The translation is a reading aid, not a substitute form.
What is the format of an Italian passport number?
Modern Italian passports carry a nine-character number: two letters, then seven digits — something in the shape of YA0000000. Copy it exactly from the photo page, no spaces, no hyphens. The letter O next to the digit 0, and the letter I next to the digit 1, are where most typing errors happen, so give those characters a second look before you submit.
A wrong passport number or the wrong country code can stop you boarding — the government says so directly — and the fix, reapplying, might not happen fast enough if you only discover the mistake at the gate. Verify the number against the physical passport in hand, not against a scan, an old document, or memory.
| Item | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Passport number | Two letters followed by seven digits, exactly as printed on the photo page |
| Country of issue | The code matching your passport’s information page (Italy) |
| Surname and given names | Exactly as shown on the passport |
| Form language | English or French; field help is also available in Italian |
Locating the country code on an Italian passport
Somewhere on the photo page is a field labelled “Code”, “Issuing country”, “Authority” or similar — that is what the drop-down on the form is asking for, not the country name spelled out. A number of entries in that list look alike, so match what is printed rather than picking from memory, and this applies the same way whether the passport came from an office in Italy or a consulate elsewhere.
Getting ready before you open the form
The session times out and cannot be resumed later, so lay these out first:
- The Italian passport itself, open to the photo page.
- An inbox you can check immediately — IRCC only replies by email, spam folder included.
- A card from the accepted list: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, their prepaid equivalents, Visa Debit, Debit Mastercard, UnionPay, JCB.
- Honest answers ready for the background questions (refusals, criminal record, tuberculosis) plus your current job details.
Applications and payments are per person, so three travellers means the form gets filled in three separate times, children included — see the page on minors for how that works with kids.
Cost and turnaround
Budget 7 CAD per person, charged at submission and non-refundable either way. Most requests clear within minutes; a smaller share gets flagged for extra documents and can stretch to several days, so leave a margin before locking in flights or hotels you cannot cancel.
“Transaction Approved” on screen only confirms the charge went through — the actual eTA decision comes later, by email. Save or print that payment confirmation the moment you see it, because there is no later screen or copy to retrieve it from.
How long an Italian traveller’s eTA stays valid
Up to five years, or until the linked passport expires, whichever comes first, and it covers any number of short trips in that window. A new passport — including one reissued through a consulate — breaks the link, so a fresh eTA is needed after renewal. Check your current passport’s expiry date first: a passport with one year left caps the eTA at one year too.
Applying yourself versus a paid service
Doing it directly on canada.ca keeps the cost to the 7 CAD government fee and nothing else. If you would rather be guided through the English or French form, get-eta.com is a paid, private service — clearly not the government itself — where you can begin the application; IRCC still makes the actual decision, and anything charged past 7 CAD is that service’s own fee for the help.
After sending the application, checking status online with your passport details and application number works if the approval email is taking a while.
Arriving by land or sea instead
Land and sea crossings — driving in from the United States, for instance — generally skip the eTA requirement altogether. There is one narrow carve-out that applies to any visa-exempt nationality, Italian included: arriving by sea from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon outside of a cruise. The cruise and ferry guide has the details. Any leg of the trip that involves flying still needs the eTA for that leg.
Frequently asked questions
Do Italian citizens need a visa for Canada? No, not for a short stay — but an eTA is required to fly, and the two are not the same thing.
Is the eTA request form itself in Italian? No, only English and French; field-by-field help is published in Italian separately.
What does an Italian passport number look like on the form? Two letters followed by seven digits, typed exactly as printed on the photo page.
Does a consulate-issued Italian passport need anything different? No — enter it the same way, with Italy as the country of issue.
Can a submitted application be corrected afterward? No, nothing can be edited post-submission, so double-check every field before paying.
Do infants and children need their own eTA? Yes — every Italian passport holder, regardless of age, needs an eTA tied to their own document.
The short version
- An eTA is required to fly to Canada on an Italian passport; the fee is 7 CAD.
- The request form is English or French only; field help also exists in Italian.
- Current Italian passport numbers run two letters, then seven digits.
- A consulate-issued Italian passport is entered exactly like one issued in Italy.
- Dual nationals with Canadian citizenship travel on the Canadian passport instead.
- Every traveller applies separately, and the eTA lasts up to five years or until the passport expires.
For the current official wording, see the Government of Canada’s page on applying for an eTA.