What's changed

The eTA extension applies only to citizens of Indonesia and Malaysia who meet one of two eligibility tests at the time of application: a prior Canadian temporary resident visa (TRV) issued within the preceding ten years, or a currently valid U.S. non-immigrant visa. The eTA is valid for five years or until passport expiry, whichever comes first, and most applications are approved within minutes of submission through the official online portal at Canada.ca.

The measure narrows but does not eliminate the visitor-visa requirement for Indonesian and Malaysian citizens. Travellers who do not meet the prior-TRV or valid-U.S.-visa tests continue to need a multiple-entry visitor visa to enter Canada. Land, sea, and rail entries from either country remain subject to the visitor-visa requirement regardless of eligibility status; the eTA pathway is restricted to air travel to or through Canada.

Indonesia and Malaysia join a list of jurisdictions that received the same conditional eTA expansion in June 2023, when Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) added the Philippines, Thailand, Argentina, Costa Rica, Morocco, Panama, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, and the United Arab Emirates to the prior-TRV or U.S.-visa eligibility framework. Qatar received unconditional eTA eligibility (without the TRV or U.S.-visa test) in November 2025 — a fuller status that Indonesia and Malaysia have not been granted under the current order.

Who's affected

Canada hosted 18,300 visitors from Indonesia and 11,500 from Malaysia in calendar year 2025, according to figures cited by IRCC. The new framework targets the subset of those travellers who have previously held Canadian TRVs — frequent business travellers, conference delegates, family visitors, and tourists with recent travel histories — together with Indonesian and Malaysian citizens who currently hold U.S. B-1/B-2 visitor visas, F-1 student visas, or H-class work visas.

Business travel between the three economies is the principal target of the policy. Indonesia is Canada's largest trading partner in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); Malaysia ranks among the top four. The eTA pathway reduces the document-handling burden on routine business visits — corporate meetings, trade-mission attendance, conference participation — that historically required full TRV processing through Visa Application Centres.

Education and tourism flows are also affected. International students returning to home countries for breaks, professional researchers attending Canadian academic conferences, and tourists making repeat visits to Canada all qualify under the prior-TRV test if their last Canadian visa was issued within the preceding ten years.

When it takes effect

The eTA framework for Indonesian and Malaysian citizens is live as of 5:30 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on May 26, 2026. Applications submitted before that timestamp from either nationality continue to be processed under the previous visitor-visa rules; applications submitted from 5:30 a.m. forward by eligible applicants flow through the eTA channel automatically.

There is no transition period or grandfathering provision: travellers boarding flights to Canada from Indonesia or Malaysia after the effective time who hold a valid eTA and meet the eligibility test may board with that authorization. Travellers who applied for and received a visitor visa before May 26 may continue to use that visa for its remaining validity; the eTA option does not retroactively replace already-issued visas.

Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers retain final admissibility discretion at ports of entry regardless of eTA status. Holders of eTAs from Indonesia and Malaysia must satisfy standard temporary-resident admissibility requirements — proof of funds, ties to home country, no inadmissibility findings — at the inbound airport.