Re: Newly landed immigrant.....Seniors comments please
There are no minimum income requirements to sponsor your spouse and your children but they are going to want to see that you have some way of supporting them. The big thing they don't want to see is you having to collect social assistance benefits in order to support them - so, if you don't have a job, they can refuse the application based on paragraph 39 of
the Act: "A foreign national is inadmissible for financial reasons if they are or will be unable or unwilling to support themself or any other person who is dependent on them, and have not satisfied an officer that adequate arrangements for care and support, other than those that involve social assistance, have been made."
From the
OP2 Processing Manual: "Sponsors of dependent children and of spouses, common-law partners or conjugal partners (unless they have dependent children who have dependent children of their own) do not have to meet financial requirements, but they do undertake to provide for the basic necessities of the sponsored applicants so that the applicants do not need social assistance. Applicants may be refused for financial reasons under A39 if they are unable or unwilling to support themselves and their dependent children and there are not adequate arrangements for their care and support. Officers should take into consideration the sponsor's financial situation and willingness to assist, as well as the financial situation or employment prospects of the applicant, if applicable."
The problem with this is that it gives the assessing IO all the discretion to determine whether an applicant will be "willing or able" to support themselves if their sponsor cannot support them - and that's very subjective. I know of one couple unfairly refused for this reason - they had been living together in a "neutral" country where she had a work permit. He (the Canadian citizen sponsor) was not able to work in that country, and she had been working for six years supporting the both of them. The assessing officer claimed that she would not be willing or able to support herself if she came to Canada, and since he wasn't in Canada with a job, the application was refused. Because she was non-visa-exempt and was never going to get into Canada without permanent status and they couldn't bear to be separated, they had to abandon their dream of coming back to his home country to have a better life. Last I heard they were in dire straights because she had lost her work permit and there was nowhere for them to go. Such a shame.
My advice: get a job before you apply. Don't give them that kind of power over yours and your family's life.
