Guided intake

FHSA paperwork, before the room starts counting.

The first-time buyer test, what you intend to contribute, and who inherits it. Room only starts accruing once the account exists, so this is worth doing early.

Nothing is uploaded. Your browser builds the package and saves it to this device. About 15 minutes.

First-home eligibility

Three things decide whether you qualify: your age, your tax residency, and whether you have lived in a home you or your spouse owned recently. The last one is the question people get wrong.

Are you a resident of Canada for tax purposes?

Have you lived in a home you, your spouse or common-law partner owned at any point this calendar year or the four preceding calendar years?

This is the first-time buyer test. Someone who sold a home five years ago can qualify again.

When, and whose name was on the title?

Being on the title of a property you never lived in does not necessarily disqualify you — the detail decides it.

Do you have a spouse or common-law partner?

Their home ownership counts towards your test, and they may be able to open their own account.

Do you already have an FHSA open anywhere?

Year you opened it

Room accrues from the year the account was opened, not from when you became eligible.

Which institution?

Total contributed to any FHSA so far

Across every institution. This counts against the lifetime limit.

Where your answers go

Nowhere. No request is made to any server, including mine, so there is nothing of yours anywhere for me to lose. Your answers and documents are saved in this browser, on this device, and nowhere else.

So a refresh, closing the tab, or shutting the laptop is safe — come back to this page in the same browser and you will pick up where you left off, attachments and all.

Because it is saved on this device, use Delete my answers when you are finished — especially on a shared or work computer. Anything left untouched is deleted automatically after 30 days.

That is a deliberate design decision. If I stored this, I would become custodian of a pile of personal information under Alberta's privacy law. There is nothing to breach if nothing is held.

Read the privacy policy

Before you start

Stuck on a question?

Leave it blank and note it in the last step. Nothing here has to be perfect — it exists to save forty minutes of a meeting, not to replace one.

Ask me

FHSA paperwork, before the room starts counting.

About you

First-home eligibility

The plan

Beneficiary

Employment and finances

Declarations

Anything else

Your documents

Review and download

How to get it to me