Whenever you think of taking your loving ones with you to Canada, you must think of the Minimum Necessary Income MNI for Family sponsorship before applying for the family sponsorship Program.
In Canada, you must fulfill the MNI standards to sponsor your family members. This is because you will be fully responsible for supporting yourself and your family members in Canada.
The common category for family sponsorship is for partners or spouses, children, and the Parents and Grandparents Program. The government verifies the spouse’s MNI for Family sponsorship to find out if he/she qualifying or not before proceeding to sponsor relatives or family members.
Family Sponsorship Program
The federal government offers this program.
Being a Canadian citizen or PR of Canada, you can sponsor your family, spouse, or relative to immigrate to the country.
To sponsor your family sponsorship, you have to apply for the program first and then have to prove that you can fulfill the basic needs of yourself and your family members, such as foodstuffs, shelter, and clothes. That you can financially support your sponsored family or relative so that your sponsored family member or relative won’t ask the government for help.
Once you sign the agreement with the government, you will be legally responsible for supporting your family or relative for a particular time duration. Usually, an agreement remains active for around 15 years. You will still be accountable if Your relative becomes granted Canadian citizenship, your relationship ends with your family or spouse (separation/ divorce), you lose your job or change it.
Eligibility Requirements for family sponsorship
Who will be eligible for family sponsorship is determined by different aspects? The sponsor will be eligible if:
- He is of at least 18 years of age.
- He must be a Canadian citizen.
- He shouldn’t be in lockup
- He must not be bankrupt.
- He must not be charged with a serious offence.
How does MNI vary?
The MNI may vary on the basis of different factors, such as the number of family members already present in Canada and the number of family members sponsors want to sponsor.
In addition to this, the income requirements may vary on the present location of the sponsor, whether he/ she lives in Canada or Quebec.
To know more details about MNI, MNI for Family sponsorship, and more, read the post until the end.
What is the MNI?
Most of the family sponsorship program uses MNI standards to analyze whether the sponsor is eligible for sponsorship or not. The minimum necessary income is annually revised and is for all sponsors who are willing to sponsor anyone.
The sponsors must fulfill the standards for MNI. They must Have enough income to support themselves, their family living with them in Canada, and the one they are willing to sponsor to be permitted for the family sponsorship programs.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada check the MNI standards to find out the ability of the sponsor to support their family financially. The applicant for a Family sponsorship will take into consideration only when he/she qualifies for the Minimum Necessary Income standard on the basis of family members.
What could be the Family size?
Sponsorship family unit size depends on the number of people currently supported by the sponsor in Canada as well as those they are willing to sponsor. A family unit may include:
You, the sponsor itself
Your life partner
Your dependent children
Those you supported in the past
your parents and grandparents
Your sibling, uncle, aunt
Your grandparent’s grandchildren
Minimum Necessary Income for Parents & Grandparents Sponsorship Program
PGP- The Parents & Grandparents Program is a program offered by the government through which Canadian Citizen sponsors their parents and grandparents for Canadian PR.
The sponsor who is willing to sponsor their parents and grandparents must fulfill the MNI requirements. HE/ she must exceed the MNI value for the 3 subsequent taxation years. This is only for Canada and not for the Quebec Province.
This is to make sure that the sponsor is capable of taking the financial responsibility of their parents and grandparents.
For the Parent & Grandparent Sponsorship program, the Minimum necessary income is shown in the below chart. Sponsors must fulfill the MNI requirements to sponsor their parents and grandparents.
The values in the MNI chart are LICO values, Low-Income Cut-Off plus 30% to it.
The MNI values in the chart are for Canadian residents except for the Quebec Province.
Data Chart
Before applying for the family sponsorship program, the sponsors must show their Assessment documents from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The documents should be of the last three taxation years ( Like should be of 2020, 2019, and 2018 ) to prove that they fulfill the MNI requirement.
Regarding this, IRCC declared that for the years 2020 and 2021, the government will analyze sponsor income for 2020, 2019, and 2018 fiscal years. Moreover, they have also reduced the income standard for the year 2020. The reason behind this is many individuals were highly affected due to COVID-19 and suffered a financial breakdown.
LICO data chat
Minimum Necessary Income for Family Sponsorship in Quebec
The MNI For Quebec is different from the Canadian MNI. The Sponsors residing in the Quebec province must fulfill the MNI income requirements. Sponsors can qualify for the family sponsorship program if their Canadian sources of income over the past 12 months equal the total income shown in Table 1 and Table 2.
The MNI income is revised every year.
The income amounts will be effective for the whole year of 2021.
Data table
Below is a table containing only information about the persons who are sponsored by someone.
To decide the required Minimum Necessary Income, candidates must go through both the tables and then add the relevant values from Table 1 above to the relevant figures in the right of Table 2.



