🇨🇦 Canada (visitor / TRV) — Visa Documents for Indians

How you apply

You must apply online through the IRCC Portal. Paper applications are accepted only in narrow cases — if you cannot apply online, including for reasons of disability, or if you travel on a refugee, stateless or non-citizen document. Biometrics come after you apply, not before.

Beyond the paperwork, an officer has to be satisfied that you are admissible: that you have no record of criminal activity, that you are not a risk to Canada's security, that you are in good health, and that you will provide any further document they ask for. One thing worth knowing early — if you have ever been granted permanent residence in Canada you may still be a permanent resident, and IRCC cannot issue you a visitor visa at all. You would need a permanent resident travel document instead.

Source: IRCC

What you gather, and what the portal decides

Everyone brings these

• A valid passport or travel document — IRCC asks that it be valid for at least 6 months from the date you plan to travel, and says to renew it before you apply rather than after
• A clear colour copy of the page showing your date of birth and country of origin, plus any pages carrying stamps, visas or markings
• A letter authorising a minor child to travel to Canada, where one applies — with more documents depending on whether the child travels alone

IRCC does publish a checklist, and it is worth downloading before you start. It is form IMM 5484, “Document Checklist: Temporary Resident Visa (Visitor Visa) outside of Canada”, last updated May 2026. If you apply on paper you complete it, put your documents in the order it gives, and place it on top of the package. If you apply online — which is how almost everyone applies — you do not submit it at all; IRCC's own words are that it is “only used to help you complete your application”. Treat it as the baseline to prepare against rather than the thing you file.

What actually governs an online application is the list the portal builds for you. When you start applying, your answers generate a personalised document checklist, and that is the one IRCC expects you to satisfy — it can ask for things IMM 5484 does not, because your local visa office can add its own requirements. So the honest answer to “what documents do I need” for Canada is: start from the published checklist, then do what the portal tells you.

Your local visa office can require additional documents on top of the portal's list. IRCC asks where you are applying from and then gives the requirements for that country, so two applicants filing the same trip from different countries can owe different papers.

Build these files with the checklist above

Source: IRCC

The forms, by number

Canada runs on numbered forms, and it helps to know them before you open the portal. IMM 5257 is 🔴 the application itself, and there is a trap in it: if you complete it on a computer it must be validated to generate a barcode, and the barcode page — page 5 of 5 — goes on top of your package. Anyone aged 18 or over also completes IMM 5707, the Family Information form. Three more apply only in particular cases: IMM 5409 if you are declaring a common-law union, IMM 5476 if you are using a representative, and IMM 5475 if you want IRCC and the border agency to be able to release your file information to someone else. The instruction guide that explains all of them is IMM 5256.

You send a copy of the information page, and it must show your passport number, the issue and expiry dates, your photo, your name, and your date and place of birth. 🔴 One requirement catches frequent travellers out: your passport must have at least one completely blank page that is not the last page. A well-stamped passport with only the back page free does not satisfy it. If you hold a valid US non-immigrant visa, include a copy of that too.

Two photographs, with your name and date of birth written on the back of both. There is a useful exception: if you are required to give biometric fingerprints and a photo, you do not need to include paper photographs with the application at all — the biometrics appointment covers it.

Canada's translation rule is unlike anyone else's here, and it is more forgiving than it first looks. Any document that is not in English or French must be accompanied by an English or French translation — and the translator does not have to be certified. A person fluent in both languages can do it. But if they are not a certified translator, they must also swear an affidavit confirming the translation, and that affidavit goes in with the document.

If the country you live in is not the country on your passport, you must prove you are there legally — a copy of your current immigration status in your country of residence. This applies to a great many Indian passport holders applying from the Gulf, and it is a document people forget precisely because it has nothing to do with Canada.

Source: IRCC

Why you are going changes the instructions

IRCC gives different instructions depending on why you are going — as a tourist, to visit family, for business, to visit a spouse or partner who sponsored you, for compassionate reasons, to join a vessel as marine crew, or to attend a FIFA World Cup 2026 match. Pick the one that matches your trip before you gather anything.

If you are visiting children or grandchildren in Canada, the Super Visa is a different thing from a visitor visa: it lets you stay 5 years at a time and gives multiple entries for up to 10 years. It also asks considerably more of you, and this is where these applications fail. 🔴 A medical exam is required every time, with no 6-month exemption. You must show private medical insurance valid for a minimum of one year. And your host — the child or grandchild inviting you, plus their co-signer if there is one — has to meet Canada's Low Income Cut-Off. There are two ways to show it: their best income from either of the last two tax years, evidenced by a Notice of Assessment, or their income at a minimum of 75% of the cut-off topped up by your own. They must also prove their status with a citizenship certificate, Canadian birth certificate, PR card, Confirmation of Permanent Residence or Indian status card, and their invitation has to set out their family composition. No cut-off figure is published on the checklist itself — it varies with family size and year — so check the current table rather than trusting a number you read elsewhere.

Source: IRCC

Whether you need a medical exam

Most visitors do not need one, and it is worth checking before you spend money on it. If you are staying 6 months or less you generally need no immigration medical exam, unless you will be working in a job where public health has to be protected — health care, laboratories, long-term care, schools and child care, in-home caregiving, farm work and similar. If you are staying more than 6 months you need one if you have lived in or travelled to a listed country for 6 months or more in a row in the year before you come, or you will do one of those jobs, or you are applying for a parent and grandparent super visa. 🔴 India is on that list, and IRCC names New Delhi as the responsible regional medical office. Two practical points: only a doctor from IRCC's panel physician list can do the exam — your own doctor cannot — and you are encouraged to have it before you apply, which IRCC calls an upfront medical exam. If you do, send the proof with your application or you risk a delay.

Source: IRCC

What it costs

CAD $100 for the visitor visa, or $500 for a family of five or more applying together. Biometrics are separate: $85 per person, capped at $170 for a family. Fees are paid at the end of the online application, by credit or debit card.

You do not choose between a single-entry and a multiple-entry visa, and it makes no difference to the price: the fee is the same for both, and IRCC decides which to give you based on your application. There is nothing to opt into and no advantage in asking.

Source: IRCC

Biometrics, and the date they cap

You give biometrics after applying: wait for the instruction letter, then book the collection appointment as soon as you can, because delay in booking is delay in processing. 🔴 IRCC will not issue a visa valid for longer than your biometrics — if they are close to expiring, that caps how long a visa you can be given.

Source: IRCC