# Living and working in Canada with no SIN



## Ellby (Oct 15, 2011)

Hello all, I'm new here, and I'm curious if anyone can help me. My husband and I are US citizens living in Toronto. He is a customs officer and I am a stay at home mom with no income. We are unable to open up any new accounts here in Canada because we have no SIN (the Canadian equivalent of an SSN). This means we cannot open a Canadian credit card, which we would need to qualify for a wireless phone account here in Canada. 

We both have US cell phones and plans, but as of right now we can't make any calls or use the internet on our cell phones because we would be roaming. So we're stuck. I don't even know where to turn. We have passports and work permits, and my husband has a Canadian bank account, but as US Citizens we cannot get an SIN. If anyone knows anything about opening up an account in a country other than one where you are a citizen... please let me know. Thanks


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## Auld Yin (Mar 10, 2009)

What do your husband's colleagues do? Presumably they face the same issues. There's probably a goodly number of contingents of US citizens working in Canada temporarily, for example the US embassies and consulates. When he accepted the assignments were such matters no covered in a bulletin of some sort?


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## Ellby (Oct 15, 2011)

Auld Yin said:


> What do your husband's colleagues do? Presumably they face the same issues. There's probably a goodly number of contingents of US citizens working in Canada temporarily, for example the US embassies and consulates. When he accepted the assignments were such matters no covered in a bulletin of some sort?


To be honest I thought the same thing but my husband is quite stubborn so I'm just trying to gather as much information as possible to present to him, and urge him (rather forcefully) to ask the people he works with what they did. Thank you!


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## G-Mo (Aug 17, 2011)

I don't understand... Does your husband work for US customs and get paid to a US bank account? You need a SIN, even a temporary one, to work in Canada, and can get one through Service Canada, even with a temporary work permit.

You could always get a vanilla pre-paid Visa/MasterCard at Shoppers Drug Mart, that won't help you with a credit check though. You could go to a pre-paid cell phone service for the time being.


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## Accidentalguy (Oct 9, 2011)

*Correct*

If you have a work permit, you can get a "temporary" SIN that has an expiry date corresponding to your work permit. Go to the Service Canada website for more information.


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## EVHB (Feb 11, 2008)

And if the bank doesn't want to give you a credit card, ask them for a secured one: you put f.e. $1,000 on a bank account that they block, so you don't have acces to it any more. And in return, they give you a credit card with a $1,000 limit. After a couple of months (6-12 months), you can ask for a unsecured card. So don't forget to pay the total amount every month, don't use it as real credit.


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## cjm16 (Oct 19, 2011)

I can't speak for the credit thing, but I have a solution to your cell phone issue. Verizon has a Canada plan that allows you to use your phone to/from Canada and in Canada without roaming fees - including data. 

No matter what cell carrier you have now, they will let you out of the contract without early termination fees because they don't offer service where you live - you can use your husbands bank statement as proof.


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