Eased-up Sponsor Income Requirements
In October, the Canadian government expressed its intentions to evaluate and ease the income requirements for PGP and other family class immigration. This is mainly attributed to the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic on potential sponsors. As for now, the IRCC requires a sponsor’s income to be in line with the Minimum Necessary Income. Typically, sponsors income should be the MNI plus 30 percent as required by the immigration department.
So, how much should you be earning to sponsor your parents or grandparents to Canada? Well, you must first consider the size of your family, which includes everyone under your financial responsibility. They include:
- Yourself
- Your dependent children
- A common-law partner or spouse
- Your partner’s or spouse’s dependent children
- A person you might have sponsored in the past and is under your financial care
- Parents, grandparents, and their dependents you might want to sponsor
- Your parents or grandparents partner or spouse, even if they are not moving to Canada
- Your parents’ and grandparents’ dependent children who do not move to Canada
- Your parents or grandparents separated spouse
The Canadian government requires that the sponsors met the minimum income requirement for three continuous taxation years. This requirement cuts across people who wish to sponsor their parents and grandparents in Quebec. All the same, potential sponsors in Quebec will have to meet the province’s requirements.
Suffice to say, the IRCC is handling the PGP on a first-in, first-out basis. In other words, sponsors who submit their applications when the program reopens will be served after the existing applications of the PGP sponsorship applications. Future sponsors will be required to submit a copy of their status in Canada together with their form to make it easy for IRCC to identify duplicate applications.
