Getting a Canadian Social Insurance Number

Getting your Canadian Social Insurance Number (a.k.a. SIN) is a crucial step to complete to work in Canada.

This applies to you if:

a) You are not a Canadian citizen

b)You are a Canadian citizen living abroad who has never applied for their Social Insurance Number

Important: If you are not a Canadian citizen and have had a temporary Social Insurance Number before (i.e. you worked at Ouareau last year), you must apply again each year.

There are three main ways of obtaining your SIN

1) In person at the Montreal Trudeau Airport (Recommended)

You can apply for your Social Insurance Number within the Montreal Trudeau airport. Service Canada employees are on-site at the MIFI (Ministry of Immigration, Frenchisation and Integration) booths located after immigration.
*Based on the information we have at the moment, the booths are opening at 7:30 AM and  remain open until 2-3 PM Monday to Friday. 

If you land in Montreal and this option is available to you, we ask that you get your SIN number there. For those of you arriving outside of those hours, you can use option 2 (or 3 as a last resort).

2) Online

Service Canada offers an online application process.
To apply online for your SIN, you will need to provide:

  • A clear photo of your passport

  • A clear photo of your work permit 

  • The camp’s mailing address: Camp Ouareau, P.O. Box 1090, Saint-Donat, QC, J0T 2C0

Note: You can only obtain your SIN after you have your Work Permit; which means that you can only apply AFTER your arrival in Canada.

3) In person at a Service Canada office

If you are unable to get your SIN at the airport because they are closed and the online process doesn’t work out for some reason, we have a Service Canada office about a 30 minute drive from camp that we can take you to as a last resort.