IMM 5562 Travel History, officially called Supplementary Information: Your Travels, is an Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) form used to collect information about certain trips taken outside your country of origin or country of residence.
If the form is required for your application, completing it accurately can take some preparation, particularly if you have travelled frequently or cannot immediately remember dates from several years ago.
This guide explains what IMM 5562 asks for, which trips may need to be included, how far back your travel history should go, and practical ways to reconstruct your travel dates.
IMM 5562 is officially titled Supplementary Information: Your Travels. The form collects details of trips taken outside your country of origin or country of residence.
According to IRCC’s current instructions, applicants completing the form are asked to provide trips taken during the past 10 years or since their 18th birthday, whichever period is shorter. This includes travel for tourism, business, training and other purposes.
The form may also require travel information for certain family members, so it is important to follow the instructions that apply to your particular application.
Whether you need IMM 5562 depends on the immigration program and the document requirements for your application.
You should therefore check the document checklist and instructions for your specific application rather than assuming that everyone applying to immigrate to Canada needs the form.
Where IMM 5562 is required, IRCC’s instructions state that the principal applicant should complete it on behalf of themselves and include the requested travel information for their spouse or common-law partner and dependent children aged 18 or older.
IRCC asks for trips taken during the past 10 years or since your 18th birthday, whichever is more recent.
For example, someone who is 35 would generally be looking at the previous 10 years rather than listing every trip taken since turning 18.
Someone who recently turned 21 would generally be looking at the period since their 18th birthday.
Always follow the instructions accompanying the form and your particular immigration application, as requirements can change.
IRCC’s instructions say to list trips taken outside your country of origin or country of residence during the relevant period.
Examples can include travel for:
The purpose of each trip should be described as requested on the form.
Do not assume that only long holidays or significant journeys matter. A short trip may still fall within the information requested by the form.
This is one of the most important details to understand when preparing IMM 5562 Travel History.
IRCC’s form instructions ask for trips you have taken outside your country of origin or country of residence during the applicable period.
That wording matters.
Rather than simply listing every border crossing you can remember, read the instructions carefully and determine which journeys fall within the information IRCC is requesting based on your circumstances.
If your country of residence changed during the relevant period or your situation is unusual, you may need to consider carefully how the instructions apply to your travel history.
IMM 5562 asks for details that allow IRCC to understand when and where you travelled.
For each relevant trip, you may need information such as:
Before starting the form, it can therefore be useful to create a chronological list of your journeys.
This is especially helpful if you travel frequently for work or have taken numerous short trips over the required period.
Remembering a decade of travel can be difficult. If you cannot immediately recall a date, try reconstructing your history from records rather than guessing.
Depending on what records you have available, useful sources may include:
No single source will necessarily contain your entire travel history. Comparing several records can help you build a more reliable timeline.
For example, a flight confirmation might establish when you departed, while a calendar entry or accommodation booking could help confirm the duration and purpose of the trip.
Old passports can be useful, but they should not necessarily be your only source.
Some countries may not stamp every entry or departure, stamps may be difficult to read, and frequent travellers may have journeys that are not immediately obvious from their passport pages.
Instead, use passport stamps as one piece of evidence and compare them with other records you still have.
Creating your travel history before entering information into the form can make this process much easier.
IMM 5562 and IMM 5669 Schedule A collect different types of information, but they may cover overlapping periods of your life.
Schedule A focuses more broadly on your background, including personal history and residential addresses, while IMM 5562 focuses specifically on relevant travel.
You should therefore review the information together for accuracy.
For example, travelling abroad while employed or studying does not automatically create an inconsistency. You may simply have taken a holiday or business trip during that period.
The concern arises when information across your application describes your circumstances in ways that cannot easily be reconciled.
No. Travelling somewhere does not necessarily mean you lived there.
A two-week holiday in another country is part of your travel history, but it would not normally become a residential address simply because you stayed there temporarily.
Similarly, your address history is intended to show where you actually lived during the period requested by the relevant form.
Keeping these concepts separate can make it easier to prepare both forms accurately:
Travel history records relevant journeys.
Address history records where you lived.
Personal history records what you were doing during the relevant periods.
The timelines may overlap, but they answer different questions.
Business travel should not automatically be excluded.
IRCC specifically identifies business trips among the types of travel that should be reported when they fall within the scope of IMM 5562.
This can be particularly important for applicants whose work involves frequent international travel.
If you travelled regularly for work, employer calendars, expense records, flight confirmations or other business records may help you reconstruct older journeys.
The instructions do not create a general exemption simply because a trip was short.
If a journey falls within the travel IRCC asks you to report, do not assume that a weekend trip, brief business visit or short holiday can be ignored.
Frequent travellers may find it useful to prepare a separate chronological list first and then transfer the relevant details to the form.
IMM 5562 is only one part of a larger immigration application.
Your travel history may relate to information contained in other visa documents, including your personal history, addresses, employment information and supporting records.
Before submitting your application, compare the relevant dates and check for obvious errors.
Look particularly for:
The objective is not to make every form look identical. Each document asks a different question. The objective is to ensure that all of the information accurately describes your actual circumstances.
What you should do will depend on the nature of the mistake and the stage of your application.
A small typographical error is different from an omission that materially changes the travel history you provided.
During processing, IRCC may send an IRCC additional document request if further information or documents are needed. If you receive such a request, pay close attention to exactly what IRCC is asking for and any deadline provided.
If you discover a significant error yourself, consider the appropriate method of informing IRCC for your particular application rather than simply waiting to see whether it is noticed.
If an application has been in processing and you want to better understand information recorded on the file, GCMS notes can sometimes provide useful insight into the processing record.
However, requesting notes is not a substitute for completing IMM 5562 accurately at the outset.
The better approach is to reconstruct your travel history carefully, check it against the rest of your application and address uncertainties before submission where possible.
IMM 5562 becomes part of the information IRCC can consider while processing the immigration application.
Depending on the application type and processing stage, IRCC may later issue other communications.
For example, applicants may receive an acknowledgment of receipt confirming that IRCC has received an application, where applicable.
Other processing requirements may follow depending on the immigration pathway and individual circumstances.
An applicant who needs to provide biometrics, for example, may later receive a biometric instruction letter explaining how to proceed.
Several practical mistakes can make an already complicated travel history harder to understand.
Try to avoid:
A final chronological review can help identify trips that may have been missed.
The easiest way to approach IMM 5562 Travel History is often to build your travel timeline before completing the form.
Start with the relevant period and work backwards through each year. Check your passports and then use other records to fill in missing journeys or confirm uncertain dates.
Once you have a working timeline, compare it with your IMM 5669 Schedule A, address history and other application information.
You are not trying to force different records to say exactly the same thing. Instead, you are checking that each one accurately represents the relevant part of your history and that any apparent differences make sense.
For someone who has travelled frequently, this preparation can be much easier than trying to remember every journey while filling in the form itself.
If you are preparing your Canadian immigration application, these related resources can help you understand other forms and stages of the process:
IMM 5562 is IRCC’s Supplementary Information: Your Travels form. It is used to collect information about relevant trips taken outside an applicant’s country of origin or country of residence.
The current IMM 5562 instructions ask for travel during the past 10 years or since your 18th birthday, whichever period is shorter.
Yes, where they fall within the travel IRCC asks you to report. IRCC specifically includes business travel among the purposes that may need to be listed.
Use available records to reconstruct your history as accurately as possible. Old passports, booking confirmations, emails, calendars and other dated records may help establish previous trips.
Where IMM 5562 is required, its instructions ask the principal applicant to include the requested travel information for themselves, their spouse or common-law partner, and dependent children aged 18 or older.
Completing IMM 5562 Travel History can be straightforward if you travel infrequently, but it can require considerably more preparation when you have years of international travel to reconstruct.
The key is to understand which trips IRCC asks you to report, establish the relevant period, use reliable records where your memory is uncertain, and compare the completed timeline with other information in your application.
Taking the time to prepare the history carefully can help reduce omissions and inconsistencies before your application is submitted.
If you need help understanding IMM 5562 or preparing your Canadian immigration application, book a consultation with Canada GMC to discuss your circumstances and next steps.
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