Guides · Travel history

Your CBSA travel history report: how to get it, and when not to ask

If you are getting ready to apply for citizenship, you don’t need to ask the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) for your travel history report: IRCC can collect it for you when it needs it. CBSA says that asking for it yourself, when an application has that option, can cause a significant delay.

Checked against CBSA’s and IRCC’s pages on 17 October 2026. Sources: CBSA: Travel History Report, Physical presence calculator: frequently asked questions.

What the report is

• A record of your entries into Canada, your exits, or both. CBSA keeps it for 15 years.
• Exits have been recorded for everyone crossing by land since 11 July 2019, and on commercial flights since 25 June 2020.
• Exit information is limited, and is included only when you ask for it.

When not to ask

• A citizenship application. IRCC can collect the report on your behalf.
• A PR card application. Answering “Yes” to the consent to disclose information on the form lets IRCC collect it.

How to ask, if you still need it

• Online, through the Government of Canada’s access to information and privacy request service, which CBSA’s page links.
• For yourself it is free, under the Privacy Act. For someone else, you send their signed authority (form BSF745).
• Say whether you want your entries, your exits or both.
• It can take up to 30 days.

Your own list comes first

Your application needs every absence in the five years before you sign, with exact dates, whatever the border recorded. Put your trips in the calculator to see your count, then check them in IRCC’s physical presence calculator before you apply.