Canada tourist visa requirements for 2026: the full list

Canada tourist visa requirements look short on paper: a passport, two forms and some proof. The difficulty is that the proof is judged rather than ticked. An IRCC officer reads your bank statement, job letter and travel plan side by side and asks whether they tell one believable story. This list covers what to collect for a 2026 or 2027 trip from Bangladesh and what each paper is there to prove.

What are the Canada tourist visa requirements in 2026?

To qualify, IRCC's eligibility page says you must hold a valid travel document, be in good health, have no criminal or immigration convictions, show ties to home, convince the officer you will leave at the end of the visit and have enough money for your stay. Some applicants also need a medical exam or an invitation letter. The forms and papers below are how you show each point.

The requirements did not change in substance between 2025 and 2026. If you are planning a 2027 trip, read the IRCC pages again before you apply, because rules and fees can move. What changes most is the detail inside your account: once you answer the questions, IRCC generates a checklist for your situation, and the officer expects every item on it.

Which forms do you need to fill in?

Every person applying completes the application for a temporary resident visa, the IMM 5257, which you fill in inside the online account. Each person aged 18 or over also completes the Family Information form, IMM 5645, listing parents, spouse, children and siblings, including those who are not travelling.

• IMM 5409, the statutory declaration of common-law union, if you live with a partner you are not married to.
• IMM 5476, the use of a representative form, only if you appoint someone to deal with IRCC for you.
• IMM 5475, the authority to release personal information, if you want IRCC to discuss your file with someone who is not your representative.
• A letter for a child travelling without both parents, with the absent parent's consent, where it applies.

Fill in the family form completely. A brother in Toronto or a parent with an old refusal still has to be listed, and a missing relative is one of the details officers compare against other records.

The core papers every visitor file needs

IRCC sets no minimum balance. Our guide to the bank statement for a Canada visa explains how officers read the money, and the Canada visa photo size guide covers the photo rules for when one is needed.

What extra papers fit your situation?

The core list is the same for everyone, but the papers that prove ties and income depend on how you earn a living. Match yourself to one of these profiles.

Salaried employee

An employer letter on letterhead giving your position, start date, salary and the dates of approved leave, signed by someone who can be contacted. Add recent salary slips and a bank statement where the same salary arrives each month. If your income is paid in cash, say so in the letter and show the tax return that declares it.

Business owner

The trade licence, recent tax returns and the business bank statement, plus your personal statement. Officers look for the business income to reach your personal account in a pattern that matches the tax papers. A partnership deed or company registration helps when the licence is not in your name alone.

Student

A letter from your school or university confirming enrolment and the term dates, your student ID, and the papers of whoever pays, usually a parent: their income proof, bank statement and a short letter saying they fund the trip. A trip during a semester needs a reason.

Retired parent visiting children

Pension papers or proof of savings, property in Bangladesh, and the invitation letter from your son or daughter in Canada with their status and income. Show who stays behind at home. Parents planning long stays should compare the visitor visa with the super visa, which has its own rules on insurance and the host's income.

Spouse or dependant funded by family

The marriage certificate or birth certificate that links you to the person paying, their income and bank papers, and a signed letter from them. Your own ties still matter: children at home, property, or your own work.

What should an invitation letter from Canada include?

IRCC's invitation letter guidance asks for your full name, date of birth, address and phone, your relationship to the host, the purpose and length of the trip, where you will stay, how you will pay and when you plan to leave. The host adds their own name, date of birth, address, job, their status in Canada with a copy of proof, and the names and birth dates of their spouse and dependants.

IRCC says plainly that the letter does not guarantee a visa. It explains the visit; it does not replace your own ties and money. If your host is paying, add their bank statement or pay slips so the promise can be checked.

Do papers in Bangla need to be translated?

Yes. IRCC accepts supporting papers in English or French, so a Bangla deed, a birth certificate or a bank seal in Bangla needs an English translation. IRCC's help centre answer on languages asks for the translation, a copy of the original and, unless a certified translator did the work, an affidavit from the translator. A family member may not translate your papers.

A good visa agency builds the checklist with you before anything is uploaded. Agencies that use Visolv send clients a checklist through their own branded portal, where you photograph each paper on your phone; the software reads each one, checks names, dates and figures against the rest of the file and points the caseworker to the exact page when something does not match. Form answers are drafted in the order of the official form for the caseworker and you to approve. Those checks make the file consistent. They do not decide it.

Which mistakes make a complete file look weak?

A file can contain every paper on the checklist and still fail, because the papers disagree with each other or with the form. These are the gaps officers notice most often in Bangladeshi visitor files.

• A salary on the form that differs from the salary slips or the employer letter.
• Leave dates that end before the return flight in the travel plan.
• A bank balance that rose sharply in the last month, with no sale deed, loan paper or gift letter explaining it.
• Relatives in Canada left off the IMM 5645.
• An earlier refusal from any country answered with no.
• Generic travel plans copied from the internet, with no named hotels, hosts or dates.

How early should you start collecting papers?

Start about two months before you plan to apply. Bank statements and solvency letters should be recent on the day you submit, so order them last, but tax returns, the trade licence, old passports and the host's papers from Canada can take weeks. If your checklist mentions a police certificate or a medical exam, start those first, because they depend on other offices.

Keep one folder for each traveller and name every scan clearly. When the biometrics letter arrives, you will want to book quickly rather than chase a missing page. For the full route from the account to the passport request, see our guide to the Canada visit visa from Bangladesh, and for what the fees add up to, the Canada visa fee breakdown.

The checklist decides what you collect, and consistency decides how it reads. If you want a second reader before IRCC, use a visa agency that runs its files through Visolv, and see how the checks work before you hand over your papers.

The Visolv team

Editorial team, Easital Technologies (Dhaka)

Visolv is software for visa agencies, made in Dhaka by Easital Technologies: an AI caseworker that reads and checks every paper in a client's file, writes the drafts and builds the upload pack under the agency's own brand. We write about what we see in real visa files from Bangladesh.