Are work permit and work visa residents allowed to open TFSAs?

My wife and I are planning to open TFAS accounts so that we can begin investing in either ETFs or TD E-Series funds.

We went to a TD branch on Friday to open an account but we were told she is unable to have a TFSA account as she is not a Canadian Resident.

I argued that they are incorrect because ICICI Canada has already opened a TFSA account in her name. I also showed the TD rep that was helping us the CRA website that a resident with a valid SIN card may open the account (http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/tfsa-celi/lgbl-eng.html).

We were told then that any SIN card which starts with a 9 (used for temporary residents) cannot be used to open a TFSA account.

Have any of you come across this problem? If so how did you resolve it?

My plan currently is to obtain the information regarding her contribution room from CRA and show proof that if there is contribution room then she must be able to open an account.

I hope Questrade will not have this issue because our goal is either open up an account with TD for eSeries ETFs or Questrade for Vanguard ETFs.