On top of the oodles of love, dozens of appointments, bazillions of pictures, stress and sleepless nights, what are the things you need to do now in terms of paper work, registrations, and RESP’s once baby is born?

In Ontario, Service Ontario has a bundle arrangement where you can get all the things you need in one place.

1. Birth Registration
2. Birth Certificate
3. Apply for Social Insurance # for baby
4. Sign up for Canada (Ontario) Child Benefits
5. Start the process of opening a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) for baby!

All of this costs about $80-$100, depending on which options you choose.

You can also select from a number of providers to get information about RESP’s. However you will need to wait until the SIN # comes (in about 20 days in the mail) before you can proceed to set up your RESP.

If you are in Ontario, you can check Service Ontario’s website for New Babys

Getting Baby’s First Passport

We also registered for the baby’s first passport and completed the passport application to Service Canada once we received the long-form birth certificate from Service Ontario. You do need to send in your original documents for the passport application, so be sure you are using a trackable and insured package. You need to have passport photos done of your infant, and get a guarantor to sign one of the photos. We did it all right away so we wouldn’t have to worry about it later if we decide to travel at some point with baby in the next 5 years.

For more posts like this check out the Finance and Investing section of our blog.