CANPASS by PDF – a new trial

written by Andy Spencer | 11 June, 2026

With World Cup traffic significantly increasing arrivals into Canada, CBSA has launched a pilot program allowing BizAv and GA operators to submit a PDF form up to five days before arrival.

Calling CANPASS is a familiar pastime for many pilots operating into Canada. Traditionally, pilots are required to call 2-48hrs prior to their arrival to preregister crew and pax details with CBSA. Depending on how busy the call centre is, this can sometimes take “a while”. It’s also quite arduous to have to pass all of the personal particulars of crew and pax over the phone.

But now, some of that burden can be alleviated by a simple PDF.

If you want to take part, it’s open to all. So first thing, download this PDF. It seems to only open properly in Acrobat, nothing else. So if you use Acrobat to open it, it should look like this:

If you try to open it with another program, it’ll probably look like this:

(and then you’ll have to do what we did and download Acrobat to make it work!)

There are a few things to keep in mind:

  1. The form is only a pre-submission. It allows you to provide the personal details that typically take the most time over the phone, including names, passport details and dates of birth for crew and passengers. Once submitted, the form is sent via email and you should receive a confirmation email from CBSA.
  2. You must still call CANPASS between 2-48hrs before arriving in Canada. But this call should be considerably quicker, as you’re only confirming that the info previously submitted remains accurate and that there have been no changes.
  3. You must still call CANPASS after landing to determine whether you can proceed with disembarkation or if you need to wait for CBSA officers to attend the aircraft.
  4. Keep a copy of all crew and pax details readily available in case CBSA asks you to verify any information during either call.

The trial program is currently scheduled to run until 19 July 2026. The more operators who participate, the more useful feedback CBSA will receive when deciding whether to make the program permanent!

You can download the CBSA Pre Registration Form here.

CANPASS:
Within Canada: 1-888-226-7277
Outside Canada: +1-905-679-2073

You can also visit the CBSA General Aviation Reporting website here.