Hi dear,Hi! My husband is with the CRA, and I asked him to answer this for you. Sorry if it gets a little complicated. It's taxes.
To file taxes in Canada you must be a resident in Canada OR a non-resident who has Canadian-sourced income.
You become a resident of Canada when you sever your residential ties with your former country and establish residential ties with your new country. For most people it is the day they arrive. Therefore, if you are here, and you plan to stay forever, you file taxes starting with the year you entered even you if you have no SIN #. Even if you don't have a SIN the CRA will give you a temporary tax number (it'll come with the return).
Honestly, the CRA only cares if you have income to report.
Thanks a lot for your reply.
He did not work as he did not have a work permit but yes, he moved to stay. I thought when applying for citizenship, you need a certain number of tax return filed so that's why I thought to do it now even without income. So we are waiting for the SIN because now we have to apply by mail only. Otherwise, my understanding is that it has to be done by paper without SIN.