Social Insurance Number
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A Social Insurance Number (SIN) is a number issued in Canada to administer various government programs. The SIN was created in 1964 to serve as a client account number in the administration of the Canada Pension Plan and Canada's varied employment insurance programs. In 1967, Revenue Canada (now the Canada Revenue Agency) started using the SIN for tax reporting purposes. SINs are issued by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (previously Human Resources Development Canada).
The SIN is a nine digit number, formatted as three groups of three digits (e.g., 123-456-789).
Social Insurance Numbers that begin with the number "9" are issued to temporary residents who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents (e.g., foreign students, individuals on work visas). The holders of such numbers must have an employment authorization in order to work in Canada.
There are specific legislated purposes for which a SIN must be provided. Unless an organization can demonstrate that the reason they are asking for a person's SIN is specifically allowed by law, or that no alternative identifiers would suffice to complete the transaction, they cannot deny or refuse a product or service on the grounds of a refusal to provide a SIN.
Analysis
Social Insurance Numbers can be validated through a simple check digit process.
046 454 286 <--- A fictitious, but valid SIN 121 212 121 <--- Multiply each top number by the number below it.
The result is:
086 858 276
Notice that, in the second-to-last column, 8 multiplied by 2 is equal to 16. In the case of a two-digit number, simply add the digits together (1 + 6) and insert the result (in this case, 7).
Then, add all of the digits together:
0+8+6+8+5+8+2+7+6=50
If the SIN is valid, this number will be evenly divisible by 10.
Geography
The first digit of a SIN indicates the province in which it was registered:
1 - New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island 2 - Quebec 3 - Quebec 4 - Ontario (Including overseas forces) 5 - Ontario 6 - Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Nunavut 7 - British Columbia, Yukon 8 - Not used 9 - Temporary SINs only 0 - Not used
External link
- Social Insurance Number FAQ Page (http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/en/gateways/topics/sxn-gxr.shtml)
- Social Insurance Number Authentication (http://www.hackcanada.com/canadian/other/sin.html)