Recently, All Points Relocation Canada has experienced transferees getting rejected in their applications for Social Insurance Numbers at Service Canada. Before these recent experiences, getting turned away for a Social Insurance Number, when presented with the correct documentation, simply did not happen.

Not one reason

And, unfortunately there is not just one reason for the rejections.

More than once All Points Relocation Canada was told by the Service Canada agent that the record of the work permit could not be found in the database so the SI# could not be generated. In one case, the agent speculated that the work permit record probably had been entered into the database incorrectly by Border Services.

In other cases, Services Canada blamed a computer system failure. In yet another case, the work permit reference number did not show clearly.

It has been well known for years that such a delay between computer systems does exist in the United States.  When one enters the US, he/she completes the I-94 card and it gets stapled into their passport by immigration officials. The number on that card gets entered into the Homeland Security database. It generally takes 2 weeks to link that number to the passport. It is not possible to apply for the Social Security Number until those two weeks have transpired, or delays could even increase.

But that has not been the case in Canada. Are we starting to see a similar delay in Canada, or are we truly dealing with human error on the part of immigration at the airport?

What to do if you are not successful in obtaining a Social Insurance Number at Service Canada?

This is a good question. After all, this is quite serious, as assignees are unable to go onto payroll until they obtain their Social Insurance Number.

If there is truly a delay in Service Canada’s database being updated from the immigration officials’ database, one can ask that the transferee receive priority status for the next visit, where they can return and attempt again.  In one case, a helpful Service Canada clerk completed a form requesting an urgent resolution to the problem. We do not know if this request was effective.

Service Canada will also give you the option to create a paper SI# request which would take 2-3 weeks for a response. We have seen one transferee call immigration officials to update their record and they were denied, so the paper request sometimes may be the only choice in some cases.

This is still not happening to a majority of cases, but All Points Relocation Canada will be watching closely and distinguishing a pattern to the rejections and reporting any findings.  All Points Relocation Canada recently reported challenges for assignees obtaining OHIP, so this new wrinkle comes as an even greater annoyance for assignees.