Does my TFSA room start on my PR date or when I arrived?
When you became a tax resident, which for most newcomers is the day they arrived to live here, not their PR date. Someone who arrived on a work permit in 2021 has $39,500 of TFSA room in 2026, even if PR came years later.
You have $39,500 of TFSA room.
You
TFSA
$39,500 room this year
Your room started in 2021, the year you became a tax resident: $39,500 in all through 2026.
Not $109,000: that counts every year since 2009, and years before you were a resident add nothing.
FHSA
An FHSA has no room until you open one, even with nothing in it. Opening one starts $8,000 a year.
RRSP
Your RRSP limit is on your latest Notice of Assessment, under “RRSP deduction limit”. Type it, or what you earned each year since you arrived, to see what’s left.
CRA’s account shows TFSA room as of 1 January and adds last year’s transactions only in the spring, so from January to about April it can show more room than you have.
Contribution Room estimates your contribution room from the rules the Canada Revenue Agency publishes and what you enter. It is not tax, legal or financial advice. Your CRA account and Notice of Assessment are the official record: check them before you contribute, and ask a tax professional about residency or anything unusual. Contribution Room is not affiliated with the CRA.
US citizens and green-card holders: a TFSA is generally not tax-free in the US; ask a cross-border tax professional first.
CRA says your residency for income tax is different from your immigration status. What counts is residential ties: a home here, a spouse or children here, a job here. Most people who move here to live have them from the day they arrive.
So a person who landed in 2021 on a work permit and became a permanent resident later has had room since 2021. Counting from the PR date instead leaves room unused; counting from 2009 ($109,000) over-counts it.
If you are not sure when you became a resident, CRA’s form NR74 asks it formally, and a tax professional can help. Contribution Room asks for the year; it does not decide your residency.
Sources
Checked against the CRA’s pages on 2026-10-18. The CRA’s records are the official ones.