The best bank when you
arrive in Canada

Your TFSA room does not
start in 2009

This is the costliest mistake newcomers make, and it is billed at 1% per month. TFSA contribution room only starts accumulating in the year you become a resident of Canada for tax purposes. Years spent abroad before that do not count, whatever your age.

Annual limits checked August 11, 2026. The $109,000 figure quoted everywhere applies to someone who turned 18 in 2009 and was already a Canadian resident. Our calculator adds the limits up year by year — start at your year of arrival, not 2009.

What your permit changes,
and what it doesn't

Counterintuitive starting point: your permit type does not decide your tax residency. Residential ties do — housing, spouse, dependants, bank accounts, driver's licence. A Working Holiday holder renting an apartment and working here is generally a resident for tax purposes from arrival; a short-term visitor is not.

The permit decides your right to work. Tax residency decides your access to registered accounts. Most of what circulates online conflates the two.

A TFSA assumes you are a resident for tax purposes, 18 or older, with a valid social insurance number. “Income-dependent” for the RRSP means: room only if you earned Canadian income the previous year. Checked August 11, 2026; permit conditions change, confirm yours with IRCC.

Two rows need explaining. The RRSP is empty in year one: your room is 18% of the previous year's earned income, and with no Canadian income in 2025 you have nothing in 2026. It opens up the following year — our tax refund estimator becomes useful then, not before.

The FHSA is a bad fit on a short permit. It exists to buy a first home in Canada; if you leave in twelve or twenty-four months, the money comes out through the taxable door. The FHSA calculator makes sense once your Canadian horizon runs past a few years.

What Wealthsimple does better,
and what it doesn't do

The big banks have a genuine argument for newcomers, and it deserves stating before anything else gets sold: their welcome packages waive monthly fees for 12 to 36 months and give access to a credit card with no Canadian credit history. That is exactly what you lack on arrival.

• $0 a month, with no end date. Not twelve free months followed by $12.95, but zero permanently, with no minimum balance.
• TFSA, RRSP, FHSA and investments in one app, without booking a branch appointment.
• Built-in free tax filing, which matters for a first Canadian return when you don't yet know what goes where.
• A 1–3% match on transfers of $25,000 or more — relevant if you arrive with savings from home.
• Service in French across the country, not only in Quebec.

• No credit card. So no credit history built there, and history is what you will be missing to rent an apartment or finance a car.
• No branches, no cash deposits. If you arrive with banknotes, you need a bank.
• No newcomer package with a dedicated advisor or bundled products.

Which bank, then. The schedules differ more than people expect once the free period ends: TD's newcomer offer in the open and RBC's three formulas untangled show what you get billed in month thirteen. And if you arrive with cash waiting to be invested, the rate decides: where to park the money you bring.

The newcomer bonus:
$300 is last year's number

The figure that circulates in forums and group chats is $300. In September 2026 the big banks are above it, and the money comes with conditions that are worth reading before the account, not after. What was on the table when this was checked:

Offers checked September 9, 2026. These are quarterly campaigns: TD's runs June 4 to October 1, Scotiabank's July 3 to October 29. The amount you see next month may differ; the mechanics do not. The bundle and up to wording means the headline number requires the savings account or the credit card as well.

Three things the headline number hides. The bonus is usually paid two to three months after the conditions are met, not at opening. The conditions assume a Canadian employer paying you by direct deposit, which rules out the first weeks on a Working Holiday. And the package it is attached to carries a monthly fee once the free period ends — the reason the two comparisons above exist.

Opening an account on a work permit

Every big bank opens a chequing account to a valid work permit holder, and the document list is short: passport, the work permit itself (IMM 1442), and a proof of Canadian address — a lease, a utility bill, or a letter from the employer. A SIN is not required for a chequing account; it becomes required for a savings account, because interest is reported to the CRA, for every registered account, and for Wealthsimple, which asks for it at signup.

• The window differs by bank. TD counts five years since arrival, Scotiabank the same, RBC 48 months for a worker and only 12 for a permanent resident. Arriving on a permit and later becoming a resident does not restart the clock.
• The credit card is where the permit matters. Banks routinely ask for a permit with at least twelve months left, and grant a lower limit — or a card secured by a deposit equal to the limit — on a short one. The limit is not the point; the reporting to the credit bureaus is.
• Closed permit, same access. Whether the permit names an employer or not changes nothing at the bank. It changes your tax residency only through the ties you build, as the table above explains.

International students

The five big banks all run a student plan at $0 a month on proof of enrolment and a study permit, and most of them add a credit card without Canadian history, with a limit from a few hundred dollars up to a few thousand depending on the bank. That card is worth more than the plan: a student who leaves after four years with a clean history has something a newly arrived worker does not.

Registered accounts follow the same rule as everyone else. A student who is a resident for tax purposes, 18 or older and holding a SIN can open a TFSA, with room starting the year of arrival; the RRSP stays at zero without Canadian income. Wealthsimple opens to a student on the same terms as anyone: SIN, Canadian address, and the referral code before the first deposit.

The order that saves you
doing it twice

1. Social insurance number first. Free, at Service Canada or online. Without it there is no declared pay and no registered account. A basic account can be opened before; the SIN gets added after.
2. An account to receive your pay. Your employer asks for institution and transit numbers in week one.
3. The referral code before the deposit. Order matters: the code applies at signup or within seven days, never after the deposit. Here is the exact place the code goes.
4. $100 from an external institution. A transfer between two Wealthsimple accounts triggers nothing. The $25 bonus usually lands within 24 hours; if nothing shows up, work through the five reasons a bonus never lands.
5. A credit card, even with a small limit. History is built on elapsed time, not on amounts. Six months lost at the start stay lost.
6. The TFSA last, after checking. Open it once you know your real room, not before.

What happens to your accounts
when you leave Canada

Half of Working Holiday holders go home, and almost no guide covers it. What happens then:

• The TFSA stays open. You can keep it and the growth stays untaxed in Canada. But any contribution made while you are a non-resident is penalized at 1% per month until withdrawn, and your room stops accumulating for those years.
• The RRSP stays open too. A withdrawal as a non-resident is subject to withholding tax at a rate that depends on the treaty between Canada and your country of residence.
• The FHSA assumes a Canadian purchase. Taken out any other way, the money becomes taxable — hence the caution above on a short permit.

One last point, small in dollars but real: the $25 bonus is paid into a non-registered account and can count as other income on your first Canadian return. For $25 that means a few dollars, and here is how to report it on your first return.

Frequently asked questions