Hi folks. Can anyone tell me whether you need your own Canadian residential address in order to apply for a Social Insurance Number? We are flying into Vancouver this Saturday to activate our permanent residence and to look around a few areas before returning back to the UK until our home is sold. While we're in Canada I was going to use the opportunity to go to a Service Canada and apply for a Social Insurance Number but I just wondered whether that's something you can only do if you're settled? I have a friend near Vancouver and I am using her address as the place where my PR card is getting sent, so maybe I could use that address if I need one for the social insurance number application?

You can use any address - they don't verify or look for proof of address. We used the address of the hotel we were staying in, for example.