Depending on the sponsorship program under which you are applying, and where you live in Canada, a citizen or permanent resident can only be deemed eligible to sponsor one or more family members to Canada if you meet the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) for your family unit size. The family unit size includes those they currently support in Canada as well as those they intend to sponsor.

Sponsors must provide their Notice of Assessment from the Canada Revenue Agency to prove they meet the minimum income requirement.

If applying to the parent and grandparent sponsorship program, the sponsor must prove that they have exceeded the low income cut-off for three consecutive years and sign an undertaking that promises to repay any and all social assistance received by their family members.

Sponsors living anywhere in Canada except the province of Quebec must meet or exceed the minimum income requirements depending on the size of their family.

The MNI is updated annually, and applies to all relevant sponsorship programs for sponsors living in Canada but outside of the province of Quebec.

In sponsorship applications, sponsors and their potential co-signers, if any, are required to demonstrate adequate financial capacity to support all individuals for whom they will be responsible, including themselves. This entails proving their ability to meet the income requirements for each of the three tax years preceding the date they received an invitation to apply, not the date they submitted an interest to sponsor.

For the 2024 intake, comprising applicants who submitted an interest to sponsor form in 2020, they must provide evidence of meeting the income requirements for 2023, 2022, and 2021.

The minimum income standard in Quebec varies from its federal counterpart, as applicants must calculate the basic income needed for the sponsor’s own family’s basic needs, as well as the needs of the sponsored individual(s) and their family members, even if they are not accompanying the sponsored persons.

The low income cut-off will be determined by the size of both your family unit in Canada and that of the individuals you wish to sponsor to Canada. To calculate the size of your family unit, you must count:

• Yourself
• Your spouse or common-law partner

and

• The number of persons you are applying to sponsor
• The number of dependent family members of that person, whether or not they are accompanying them
• The number of persons currently covered by valid undertakings that you have signed or co-signed in the past
• The number of persons currently covered by valid undertakings that your co-signed has signed or co-signed in the past

• Your dependent children, if any

How Do You Calculate the Minimum Necessary Income?

To calculate the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI), you need to determine your total family size and then ensure that your income meets or exceeds the required threshold for sponsorship. This typically involves verifying your income for the three tax years preceding the date you received an invitation to apply. For accurate calculations, we invite you to check the Tax table for the current year.