Begin Co-Op employment while waiting for SIN

[prithvi_rm]

Hello,

As an international student, could one start a co-op or internship with an employer after applying for the SIN and waiting for it to be delivered?

Thanks!

 

[CripplingYogi194]

Hello,

As an international student, could one start a co-op or internship with an employer after applying for the SIN and waiting for it to be delivered?

Thanks!

You need your sin number when accepting the job offer

 

[UBC 2017]

As an international student, could one start a co-op or internship with an employer after applying for the SIN and waiting for it to be delivered?

How can you start co-op immediately , aren't you supposed to finish certain course load before that unless you are a student for a while and did not get your SIN?

 

[k.h.p.]

You need your sin number when accepting the job offer

No you don't. Legally, you only need to prove to your employer that you have applied for a SIN.

 

[k.h.p.]

How can you start co-op immediately , aren't you supposed to finish certain course load before that unless you are a student for a while and did not get your SIN?

I suspect you answered your own question by acknowledging that someone could wait until they were ready to apply for jobs to do the simple paperwork to get a SIN. Not sure why they'd wait so long, but hey.

 

[UBC 2017]

Agree totally, I have seen students coming straight from the airport to the local office to get their SIN

 

[prithvi_rm]

How can you start co-op immediately , aren't you supposed to finish certain course load before that unless you are a student for a while and did not get your SIN?

Thank you for your response. I come into the second category as I've been taking the classes remotely from outside Canada and planning to travel to Canada soon. I wanted to be ready for a scenario when an employer is ready to move forward in the co-op process and asks for my start date, should I have the SIN before the start date or I can start working on the receipt stating I've applied for SIN online and waiting to get it delivered.

 

[prithvi_rm]

No you don't. Legally, you only need to prove to your employer that you have applied for a SIN.

Thank you very much! Would you mind sharing the source? I've conflicting information and would love to get some solidity to my presumptions!

 

[prithvi_rm]

You need your sin number when accepting the job offer

Thank you for responding. Our friends here seem to have a different opinion though.

 

[Copingwithlife]

Thank you for responding. Our friends here seem to have a different opinion though.

https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/ei/ei-list/ei-employers-sin.html

Your key responsibilities
Request each new employee's SIN within three (3) days after the day on which their employment begins.

• Correctly identify employees with the help of pieces of identification before finalizing their employment documents.
• Ensure that employees have a valid SIN. This number is used to administer government benefits under the Income Tax Act, the Canada Pension Plan Act and the Employment Insurance Act.
• If a new employee does not have a SIN and is eligible to work in Canada, instruct the employee to apply for a SIN at a Service Canada office. If the employee's application and identity document(s) are in order, he or she will receive a SIN in one visit.
• You can confirm the SIN of a current or former employee by contacting Service Canada at 1-866-274-6627. If calling from outside Canada, dial 506-548-7961 (long distance charges apply). You will need to provide your business number issued by Canada Revenue Agency, along with necessary information to verify the identity of your company as well as the employee.

 

[k.h.p.]

Thank you very much! Would you mind sharing the source? I've conflicting information and would love to get some solidity to my presumptions!

From Service Canada:

Once you have submitted your application, legislation does not prevent you from working in insurable employment before you receive your SIN.

Many employers will be uncomfortable if you don't have one in hand, and you can also have it issued to you immediately if you go to a Service Canada office, but you are not legally required to have a SIN before you start working.

 

[k.h.p.]

The reason why you don't need to have one immediately upon starting employment is that the remittances to Revenue Canada for CPP/EI/Income Taxes that are tied to your SIN are not reported until year end; your employer just sends Revenue Canada all the money deducted up front and when they file T4s at the end of the year the accounting is done to assign it to each employee.

There's nothing in legislation that prevents deductions from being made and remitted to CRA without a SIN, it's just that employers don't like any extra paperwork that may go into fighting their accounting software or whatnot that will panic if it doesn't have a SIN on file for you.

 

[CripplingYogi194]

The reason why you don't need to have one immediately upon starting employment is that the remittances to Revenue Canada for CPP/EI/Income Taxes that are tied to your SIN are not reported until year end; your employer just sends Revenue Canada all the money deducted up front and when they file T4s at the end of the year the accounting is done to assign it to each employee.

There's nothing in legislation that prevents deductions from being made and remitted to CRA without a SIN, it's just that employers don't like any extra paperwork that may go into fighting their accounting software or whatnot that will panic if it doesn't have a SIN on file for you.

But some employers checks the SIN number to see if it is valid before giving someone a job offer

 

[k.h.p.]

But some employers checks the SIN number to see if it is valid before giving someone a job offer

To which they should accept "I have just applied for one" and a copy of a work permit or PR card along with the receipt from the application.

You shouldn't be providing a fake SIN number, but the paperwork from Service Canada literally says on it that you can provide proof of application for a SIN to your employer. If your employer is stupid enough not to be able to recognize that some people have to apply for SINs, I can't help you.

Seriously, this isn't that hard and we're scraping our brain cells for no reason. If you can apply for a SIN but haven't, apply before you get an interview. If you get asked for a SIN and haven't applied yet, tell your employer you will apply and send the receipt from the application. Boom.

 

[prithvi_rm]

The reason why you don't need to have one immediately upon starting employment is that the remittances to Revenue Canada for CPP/EI/Income Taxes that are tied to your SIN are not reported until year end; your employer just sends Revenue Canada all the money deducted up front and when they file T4s at the end of the year the accounting is done to assign it to each employee.

There's nothing in legislation that prevents deductions from being made and remitted to CRA without a SIN, it's just that employers don't like any extra paperwork that may go into fighting their accounting software or whatnot that will panic if it doesn't have a SIN on file for you.

I really appreciate the detailed answer! Thank you