It was announced on September 25, 2010 in New Delhi that Canada and India have completed negotiations for the signing of a Social Security Agreement between the two countries. After the agreement is signed, it must be ratified by the governments of both countries. That may be as early as 2011.

As was stated in a previous post by DanielBl, to qualify for the Old Age Pension in Canada, you must be a resident in Canada for at least 10 years. One of the purposes of an International Social Security Agreement is to provide credit for the years that an immigrant has lived or worked in his previous country of residence. Canada has signed almost 50 such agreements with countries around the world. When this agreement is ratified, your father may qualify for a partial Old Age Pension, ( formally referred to as Old Age Security ) and may qualify for the Guaranteed Income Supplement. To qualify for the GIS, the resident must also be in receipt of the OAS. The purpose of the GIS is to supplement the income of the OAS when the recipient has little or no income from other sources. Currently, if a resident has income less than $13,200 from other sources such as CPP (Canada Pension Plan ), employment income, private pension income including income from an RRSP, investment income, etc.and is in receipt of OAS, they will qualify for the GIS. It works on a sliding scale. Therefore, the more income from other sources, the less you qualify for GIS. In order to qualify for a full OAS, you must have lived in Canada after age 18 for 40 years.

Because the Canada -- India Social Security Agreement has not passed, I am unable to comment on it. However, I suggest that you contact Service Canada and speak to a representative in person. They probably cannot provide you with much information but maintain this contact and continue to follow the development of this agreement. Once this agreement has been passed and ratified by both governments, then begin immediately to pursue your father's application for OAS.

Good Luck and have a GREAT DAY

First of all thanks for ur help bros, and useful links..........

My sister sponsored us and she is citizen with none of the situations given below, our sponsorship is active too, we immigrated from India.

my dad does not have any RRSPs but I had a question in my assignment....and I got the answer.....thanks for the help.

I still wish to know if my father is eligible for any assistance or govt program for old people.

Yes, I believe he'd get stuck with a 1% "overcontribution" tax per month of any amount that exceeded by $2000.00, 18% of his earned income for that year. You can stick anything you want in an RRSP but the limit is still defined by how much income you earn.

Immigrants should call Service Canada at the number contained in the link because of the eligibility complications that may occur due to foreign country agreements.

http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/isp/pub/oas/oas.shtml#one

idonknow

Who sponsored you and your father to Canada? What is the status of that sponsor, e.g. deceased, bankrupt, been sentenced to prison for more than 6 months or has been convicted of an offense related to the sponsoring individual. Is the sponsorship still active or has it been terminated? From which country did you and your father immigrate?

The answers to these questions are very important because Canada may have an international Social Security Agreement with your previous country of residence. If so, then your father most likely will qualify for the Old Age Security Pension and quite possibly the Guaranteed Income Supplement, depending on his total income.

Please post your answers to these questions on this website or send me a private message. Once I have your answers to these questions, I can inform you of your father's position.

Also, if your father has "contribution room" to make an RRSP contribution and has the required funds to do so, GO FOR IT, The amount will be tax deductible up to the amount of "contribution room" available. It matters not where the money comes from to make the contribution. It can be from lottery winnings, getting lucky at the racetrack, from an all-night poker party or finding money lying on the street.

I will be looking forward to your reply.

P.S. As a note of caution. Make sure that your father's total income is sufficiently high enough to absorb the deduction claimed for the RRSP If by claiming the RRSP deduction it reduces the TAXABLE INCOME to a negative amount, then the RRSP deduction will be of little or no value because your father will not get the full benefit of the deduction, but when the RRSP is collapsed ( no later than December 31 of the year your father turns 71 ) the proceeds will be treated as income. In other words, your father would get none or little benefit for the contribution going into the RRSP but all monies coming out of the RRSP would be taxable as income subject to any rollover provisions such as the purchase of an annuity or a rollover to a RRIF (Registered Retirement Income Fund ).

You have to be in the country for a minimum of 10 years to qualify for old age security. You also have to be at least 65 years old.

The contribution limits for RRSP's and RSP's as well as the CRA definition of what constitutes Earned iIcome is summarized in the charts within the link below.

http://www.taxtips.ca/rrsp/rrspcontributionlimits.htm

I've to repost the following as I'm still waiting for reply..

My father is 64 now, will turn 65 soon, we came to canada just 4-5 yrs ago.

my dad used to work in security b4 but now he is at home with no job. Is my dad eligible for any assistance from govt or benefit for old age?

we r not citizen yet, how can he apply for any old age benefit or assistance if he is eligible for it.

plus one more question

If some1 has RRSP room for $5000 and if he contributes some of the money from his lottery winnings to his RRSP

a) Is he allowed to do so, or contribution has to be made from earned income only?

b) Is he allowed to claim deduction for such contribution?

HELP PLEASE,
IDONKNOW.