Do you need an onward ticket for Canada?
Not required
Canada's temporary-resident visa regulation contains no return-transport clause at all. The word "ticket" does not appear.
A retrievable official rule affirmatively does not contain a ticket condition. What was read, and what it says, is set out below.
Last verified 5 August 2026 · North America
“will leave Canada by the end of the period authorized for their stay”
What the rule actually says
Section 179 sets out when an officer shall issue a temporary resident visa. It has no means-of-support clause and no return-transport clause — the test is satisfaction that you will leave when your authorised stay ends.
IRCC's eTA guidance frames the same idea for visa-exempt travellers: "You must convince the officer that you are eligible for entry."
A return ticket can help make that case. It is evidence of intent, and Canada has chosen not to make it a condition.
Who checks
The decision is the officer's, on intent. There is no published ticket rule for an airline to enforce.
A note on airline enforcement, because almost every page on this subject states it as fact: airlines screen these rules through IATA Timatic, a paid business product with no public interface. Nobody outside the industry can check what it says for a given route on a given day. New Zealand is the only authority in this set whose own published text names the check-in desk.
Sources
- Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations, s. 179 (Department of Justice, Canada)
- Canada travel advice: entry requirements (UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — another government's summary, used because the destination's own page could not be retrieved)
Airports in Canada
Elsewhere in North America
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