Minimum Necessary Income for Family Sponsorship

Find out if you are eligible to sponsor your loved one!

Table of Contents

• What is the "Minimum Necessary Income" or MNI?
• MNI for Parents and Grandparents Program Sponsorship
• MNI for Family Sponsorship in Quebec

What is the "Minimum Necessary Income" or MNI?

In order to qualify for some family sponsorship programs, sponsors are required to have a minimum level of income to support themselves, members of their family unit, as well as those they wish to sponsor. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada uses "Minimum Necessary Income" or MNI thresholds to assess the sponsor's ability to financially support their family members. Family sponsorship applicants will only be considered eligible to sponsor their family members if they can meet the NMI requirements for their family size.

Who is included in family size unit?

The size of the family unit is established based on who is currently being supported by the sponsor in Canada and those they are planning to sponsor. To calculate a family unit, you would include:

• yourself
• your spouse or partner
• your dependent children
• your spouse’s or partner’s dependent children
• any other person you previously sponsored in the past and for whom you’re still financially responsible 
• the parents and grandparents you want to sponsor
• your parents and grandparents spouse, partner and dependent children

You must also include dependent children, spouse, partner and separated spouses who will not be coming to Canada with your parents or grandparents.

MNI for Parents and Grandparents Program Sponsorship

For parent and grandparent sponsorship, the sponsor in Canada will only be eligible if they exceed the MNI for three consecutive taxation years (except in the province of Quebec). This requirement ensures that sponsors who bring their parents and grandparents to Canada are ready for the financial responsibility that often comes with caring for elderly family members.

Sponsors under the 2024 Parent And Grandparent Sponsorship must meet the Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) requirements outlined by IRCC. 

The figures below represent the MNI for individuals in 2024, living in Canada and outside the Province of Quebec:

MNI for Family Sponsorship in Quebec

Sponsors living in the province of Quebec must meet different income requirements. Sponsors are presumed capable of fulfilling the requirement if, over the past 12 months and and for the duration of their undertaking, they have gross income from Canadian sources equal to the total of the income appearing in Table 1 and Table 2 below. The income in both tables is indexed each year.

Amounts are in effect from January 1 to December 31, 2024.

Table 2 below refers solely to the persons being sponsored. Principal applicants should add the relevant figure from Table 1 above to the relevant figure in the right-side column of Table 2 to arrive at the total minimum income required.