CBSA confirmed that online classes are NOT an essential reason to travel

[GradStudent18]

Yes it was during covid but i had an exemption as per the travel restriction. I prefer not to provide my country of origin, port of entry was TO.

Also during covid, and the airline rep told me it changes on an hourly basis, even having an exemption is not a guarantee that you will get to travel, they needed to verify that with their reps in Canada.

I had to wait over an hour at the airline counter.

Thanks a lot for replying. Totally respect your privacy.


I get that the airline is verifying with CBSA before allowing people to board.


But for students, they're surely going to ask whether classes are online or in-class. When I called CBSA, that was the 1st question they asked me.


Then I was told that online studies would mean that my travel is non-essential.