Most newcomer checklists are a list. The useful version is a dependency graph, because almost nothing here is independent — each item unlocks the next, and doing them in the wrong order means waiting.
This is the order, with what each one blocks.
Week one
1. Social Insurance Number. Free, same-day at a Service Canada office, and it gates everything. No SIN, no legal employment and no interest-bearing account. Anyone charging you for a SIN is running a scam; it costs nothing.
2. A permanent-ish address. Not because you must settle, but because your address is on the bank account, the licence, the credit file and the tax return, and changing it later means changing it in six places. A friend's address you can use for three months beats a rush decision on a lease.
3. A bank account. Needs the SIN and the address. This is the one with a recurring price attached — see below.
4. A phone number. Canadian number, needed for two-factor authentication on everything above. Do this before you need it at a counter.
Weeks two to six
5. Payroll setup. Your employer needs the SIN and the account. Getting the account done in week one is what makes the first pay cheque land on time rather than a cycle late.
6. Provincial health coverage. Waiting periods vary by province and some are three months. Apply the day you are eligible, not the day you are ill.
7. A credit product — any credit product. Your credit history did not travel with you. It is genuinely zero, not low, and it takes months to build, so start it early even if you do not need to borrow. A secured card counts. See building Canadian credit from zero.
8. Driver's licence exchange. Some countries have reciprocal agreements and some do not. Where they do, it is a form. Where they do not, it is a road test with a months-long queue — which is a reason to check in week two rather than month six.
The two recurring costs nobody flags
Everything above is a one-time task. These two are bills that start quietly and run for years.
### Your bank account has a price
Canada's Big Five all charge $16.95 a month for comparable unlimited chequing — $203.40 a year — waived if you keep $4,000 sitting in the account. In your first year you almost certainly need that $4,000 for something else, so the waiver is theoretical and the fee is real.
Paying a monthly chequing fee in Canada is optional. Simplii, Tangerine and EQ Bank all charge nothing, with no balance requirement and the same CDIC protection.
Simplii Financial is a referral link and we are paid for it. Open a No Fee Chequing or High Interest Savings account through it, deposit $100 within six months and keep $100 in for 30 days: you get $50, we get $125. Simplii sets those terms and can change them. Simplii is CIBC's direct brand — a Big Five bank without the branch or the fee — and it is not the only no-fee option. If Tangerine or EQ suits you better, use it. The full breakdown is in what a chequing account costs you in your first year.
### Sending money home has a price you cannot see
If you send money home — and most people reading this do — the transfer fee is not what it costs you. The larger cost is the margin built into the exchange rate, and it is charged every month for as long as you send.
Measure it before you settle into a habit: send $1,000, note what arrives, compare against the mid-market rate. The ninety-second method is the whole procedure, with live rates.
Remitly is a paid referral: $10 off your first transfer of $50+, and $35 to us. We are not claiming it is cheapest — on your corridor it may not be, and no service always is. Run the comparison first, including against our link.
What most people get wrong
- Leaving the bank account until "settled". It blocks payroll. Do it in week one at a no-fee institution, and move later if you want a branch.
- Ignoring credit until they need it. By then it is too late; the file needs months of history. Start it while you do not need it.
- Treating remittance as a fixed cost. It is a rate you chose once by accident and have paid ever since.
- Assuming the newcomer package is permanent. Big Five newcomer offers usually waive fees for six or twelve months and then start billing. Put the end date in your calendar the day you sign.
Sources
Big Five chequing fees and the $4,000 waiver are as reported September 2026 by NerdWallet Canada and corroborating Canadian banking comparisons. SIN, health coverage and licence-exchange procedures vary by province and change; the government page for your province is the authority, and this article deliberately gives the dependency order rather than figures that rot.
Not financial or immigration advice. Two paid links are disclosed above; every referral on this site and what we receive from each is listed on one page.