Hi fellow expats,

I'm having a clear out and am wondering how long people kept their PR and citizenship documentation? I still have a copy of my PR application and supporting docs and my citizenship application (including residence questionnaire) and supporting docs. I obtained PR in 2008 (landed 2009) and became a Canadian citizen in 2014. Logically I would think I can get rid of all of it now except keep:

• COPR/IMM5292 (I know it's needed in the future)
• citizenship certificate (and I have my Canadian passport too).

Thoughts?

Also, while we're on the subject of document retention, how long do you keep paystubs, old bills, financial statements and insurance policies? I've Googled a lot but there's no definitive answer and the advice is at times conflicting.

Thanks!
Adele

I got rid of the application stuff some time ago, but that was because I didn't want to be reminded of the correspondence regarding CIC's mistakes that cost me 3 years and double fees.

As you can see I didn't forget about it, after all although at least I don't have the temptation to re-read.

You might find the landing docs useful for OAS purposes in establishing actual residency in Canada, although I daresay there are alternatives.

that point, for the reason 'onus of proof of the 40 years or however long you resided in Canada

When my wife & I applied for OAS as well as CPP pension, we provide a statement of years of CPP contributions going back to day one we started work, a full drivers license abstract going back over 40 years showing each & every address we lived at, copies of all passports (yes we kept every passport), copies of marriage certificates & of course birth certificates.

Maybe an overkill on our part

The OAS & CPP pension people can & do get very picky about the proof of documentation.

WOW

I didn't provide anything like that when I applied in 1999 for my CPP to be paid early, starting in early 2000

If I remember correctly, all I did was provide my employer's name and address, and the years I'd worked there (over 30), plus I think a couple of references.

Then the OAS followed automatically some years later ......... they contacted ME and told me to "fill in the enclosed forms".

As is obvious from the above posting, I can't say anything about retention of Canadian documentation


However, regarding financial ................... the usual recommendations from our financial advisor is to keep items between 3 and 7 years .......

financial statements ............... 7 years

credit card bills and record of payment ................. 3-5 years (depending on YOUR preference)

Insurance policies .................. until they expire and you can claim on them or surrender them. Then you might even want to keep them as record that you did have them.

Pay stubs ................ you could probably throw them out after 3 years , although I must admit that I have all mine going back to 1969 in a file rawer downstairs. OH does go on at me to get rid of them

When we applied some years after you & likely more difficult on the basis we had spent periods outside Canada in other countries after first landing in Canada, before returning back & in reaching CPP/OAS application date.

At the time of application we went to the service Canada office, spoke to a OAS/CPP rep who advised us of what we had to supply

When we got it all together, we went back to that same office, they looked through the application, copied & certified all documents, then sent them off to the Toronto/Scarborough office in Ontario.

That was us, maybe different situation for different people.

I see from what is in the media that many immigrants applying for OAS/CPP have been refused on the basis of being unable to supply supporting documents, which go way over & above that required of someone born in Canada.

All I can say is that if you are an immigrant, that on reaching the age of CPP/OAS eligibility, that you have as much proof of your life lived in Canada, right down to a complete historical drivers license abstract and/or as well as a years of CPP contributions + keep your old passports

I had intended to keep the COPR but with all the moves I have done, it along with all the other PR stuff was lost, I would think there is a way to get a copy or confirmation of it, but so far nobody has ever asked for it, so I have nevr gotten around to looking into it.

Don't even have the original passport I landed with, but the US Gov't lost it when I renewed, they were supposed to send it back voided, but they never did, shame too as its the only passport I ever had with stamps in it, Australia, Jamaica, Mexico and Canada, and the US, for whatever reason PHX immigration stamped the passport each and every return from Mexico.

In Quebec we have the QPP which is a mirror image of the CPP

I can request, at any time, a statement of contributions for both of us (wife and me) and these go back to 1966, the year the pension plan took effect

So we never had to bother saving any proof

I wonder if the feds would provide people with the same info for the CPP? I would imagine they would.

I came here in 1962, aged 19, and my wife came over a child

I'm pretty good with applications forms. I did, after all, spend over 30 years dealing with them.

I went through my OAS 'survivor' forms (saved PDF/Foxit whatever it was) really carefully but it's the certifying that concerns me.

I got everything together (more than everything ) but the official guidance refers to a very specific wording to be used when certifying documents.

There's a long list of certain professions that may be used but Service Canada offices also do it.

I already had a something certified by my doctor last year and despite me writing down the wording to be used he merrily went his own way and wrote what he decided would be good enough.

This is more important...they say to apply up to 11 months before time. Imagine if you get close and they decide something's not right and then it's another 11 months.

So off I went to Service Canada. My god that place runs painfully slow.

I took a printed sheet showing the wording to be used, thinking they'd have a stamp for it but wanting to be safe.

They did have a stamp but not the wording advised.

Hopefully that as it's Service Canada the processing people will accept it instead of carry out their threat to send it all back.

But so many things don't fill me with confidence. I even highlighted where in my passport the page with the entry stamp was, so that could be copied. She missed it.

Then she was going to send off the copies to the OAS office despite there being nothing there to link them to and the fact that twice by this stage I said I would be taking the copies with me and sending them off with the forms.

This is the short version of a rant.

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences

It's no problem to keep tax returns and T4s for a long time, it's the other stuff I'm hoping to whittle down as we are moving and space will be at a real premium. The main thing I was hoping to get rid of at this point was older paystubs. 2013 onwards they are all electronic, but I have the paper copies of the ones from when I started work in Canada in 2009 up to the end of 2012. Maybe I'll keep the last one from each year?

A lot of other documentation (statements, bills etc.) I have electronically, at least for the past few years.

Thanks again,
Adele

We arrived in 1968, OH began work immediately, I started work in Jne 1969.

You are correct, CPP provided us with a statement of contributions when we applied to them.

our commonsense approach to this was...

a) Request a CPP statement of contribution every 5 years (QPP for Quebec)

b) keep the last 7 years worth of CRA tax return assessments, anything older, shred it

c) keep all expired passports as well as the citizenship card/certificate

d) if you are a frequent traveler working outside of Canada or leave for extended periods (some ping pongers do this) longer than 6 months, keep a summary record inside one of the old passports, because the requirement by OAS/CPP applicants is to give the dates when you were away from Canada. Exclude vacations.

e) at the time of OAS/CPP application get a detailed drivers license record from the provincial licensing ministry, it will detail all the addresses & dates where you lived & when a license was renewed. If you've lived in more than one province, then get one from each province

f) Banking records, insurance policies, investment records, RRSP/TFSA statements, credit card statements are of no use. Keep only what you need, otherwise the financial institution can provide details on an as needed basis.

As for keeping years of pay stubs... to each their own I suppose

I would like to have a few from my working life.

I always remember my first week's wage £10.49 less 57p for NI, so £9.92 net pay. Little brown envelope.

I also remember taking home £16 or £17 because for a time payment in cash was rounded down and when you got a rounded up payment it seemed a bonus

I can remember salary of £6k in 1984 when I borrowed £15k to buy my house.

It would be nice to have a nice sample, just for nostalgia purposes.

I just keep all of my old passports, paystubs, birth certificate, citizenship certificate, and any and all government documentation in a filing bin that looks like this sorted into sections, then I don't need to worry if I need any of it.

Surely you only need to keep passport after you turned 18. I've got all of mine but my first one was turned into a page in an old scrap book - I only went to Florida on it in 1992 and 1993.