Actually a need *a* SIN, but saying the way above made me chuckle!

OK my pension situation is starting to freak me out again.

Here's the background. I had a company pension. It was invested in company shares. After 12 years in the company, thanks to the recession, I lost my job. The pension turned from company shares to cash in a low rate interest bearing holding account for me to move it to another pension scheme. Of course, having lost my job at the same time as the company shares were worth much less than they had been, means less money. The sooner I can get it into a pension scheme and earning decent interest and invested properly again, the better.

Since I plan to stay in canada and don't want to go back to the UK and deal with the hassle and fees of setting up a private pension there and then transfering it here later, I want to transfer it here first.

All the information I have tells me that in order to get a Canadian RRSP, I need a SIN, even a temporary one.

That's where I'm stuck. I don't have one yet. My PR visa is still processing. My Work Permit/LMO is stuck in bureaucracy. I'm just here as a visitor until October.

Any suggestions on how I circumvent this?
What about setting up a business?

Thanks!

If you have no work permit or PR then you can't get a SIN number.

You cannot invest in RRSPs until you have earned income. RRSP limits are set based on the previous years income from your tax return.

http://www.royalbank.com/products/rrsp/rrsp-rules.html

Once you get legal resident status you can apply for a SIN. If you over contribute to an RSP there are penalties.

There may be exceptions for lump sum payments from a layoff or pension transfers.

As far as I know you can transfer between one approved RSP investment and another. Once it is out of a pension fund or approved RSP then contribution rules apply. You also have to be a Canadian tax payer to contribute.

There are. You're right. It's pension to pension, not income into pension. This is twelve years worth of UK company pension payments.

There are no exceptions?

What about starting up a company with my brother who is a PR here?

Crikey - I always advise to wait until you are settled here and know you are definitely staying before bringing over pension funds. I appreciate the sentiment about wanting to 'get going' on investments - but really - wait till you are settled here and know you are definitely staying !!!

Life could throw any number of wonderful or awful things your way in the next year

There are no exceptions. You can start a business by investing in it, but you cannot work for it with out a work permit or PR.

You still have to have legal residency, not as a visitor.

Well... considering I'm here already, love it. My brother's here. My Mum's moving over as soon as her house is sold (my brother can sponsor her). I have no real desire to go back to the UK.

I just want to avoid being in a rising market again and having my pension funds stuck in a low interest account. If I sign up for a new pension scheme in the UK, I have to pay fees and then fees again when I move it here.

I get that. But surely there must be a few other ways to get a SIN without having to be a permanent resident.

Get a work permit. Visitors cannot get a SIN.

Let me repeat myself...

I hope this does not sound rude, because it is not meant to be - but what is the hurry? The funds are sitting a low interest account in the UK at the moment, and if brought to Canada, will likely be sitting in a low-to-negative investment account here for a while - till the markets and the world decide what they are doing.

You are on a visitor visa - the TWP is grinding through the process, albeit slowly, and it sounds like you will want to apply for PR in due course. A few months here or there is not going to make a huge difference ....