Natal philopatry is rare in long-distance migrant shorebirds and requires long-term population studies to detect. We report on the rate of natal philopatry from a 18-year study of Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus) marked as hatchlings to an arctic breeding site near Churchill, Manitoba. About 2% (27/1271) of banded hatchlings returned to the Churchill area to breed. There was no male/female bias in rates of philopatry: 17 male and 10 female hatchlings recruited into the local breeding population. The annual rate of recruitment of hatchlings varied between 0 and 10.7%. Age of first encounter on breeding areas ranged from 1 to 8 years (median age 4) suggesting either unusually delayed age at first breeding, or low detection rates for philopatric hatchlings. The maximum age of a recruited (known-age) hatchling was 9 years. Natal dispersal distances did not differ between males and females, and averaged 5 km between hatching and breeding locations. We used a time-since-marking mark-recapture model to calculate apparent survival of hatchlings. Apparent survival in the interval after first capture was φ₁  =  0.0475 (95% CI: 0.030–0.075), whereas apparent survival (φ₂ ) of birds during subsequent intervals was 0.866 (95% CI: 0.764–0.927). Low rates of natal philopatry suggest little advantage to site familiarity for juveniles, and agree with theoretical predictions for migratory species with widespread habitat availability.