glad you got it, many things have changed over the past 10 years, at that time anybody could also open a bank account, now almost impossible for an expat to do that, btw I do have a TIN that was given to me 14 years ago, was just commenting on the post as many people keep repeating the same messages and there is no end into it as currently is very difficult to get a TIN, I did visit the 3 tax offices that I mentioned as I have plenty of free time and was curious as to why so many posters keep running in circles with their comments and questions, thus decided to investigate and reported my findings, I do know/understand that other provinces may have different requirements but these 3 told me the same thing