In this post you will understand the Canadian Spousal Sponsorship income requirement
In matters of Sponsorship, a Canadian Permanent Resident or Citizen who intends to sponsor a loved one has certain financial obligations that, as a sponsor, you should consider.
The financial requirement is needed to prove that you can support your loved one in Canada for the period of the Undertaking.
The Undertaking is your financial commitment to be responsible for your sponsored loved one’s basic needs as well as financially for any social assistance that they may receive while you are responsible for them.
Spousal sponsorship
Financial resources can also be pooled to meet the requirement if you have a co-signer on the application. This means that you and your co-signer share in the financial obligation and therefore can pool your assets/incomes together to meet the financial requirement.
Only your Spouse or Common Paw Partner can be a Co-Signer on your application therefore this only applies when sponsoring other Members of the Family Class like dependent children, parents or grandparents.
You should also know that only financial assets that originate from Canada and therefore foreign assets or income will not count towards meeting income requirements; this is known as the Income Rule.
Exceptions to the income rule when it comes to Sponsorship are as follows:
- You commute from Canada to work in the United States of America and declare this income on your Canadian tax return
- You live in Canada and declare income from foreign sources on your Canadian tax returns
In these above cases, you may use foreign income to help meet your financial requirements.
You will also need to consider your Minimum Necessary Income: Low-Income Cut Off (LICO). This is the minimum amount of income you must be making, depending on your family size, in order to qualify as a sponsor for certain Members of the Family Class.
The ability to meet this LICO requirement is mandatory unless you are sponsoring your:
- Spouse, common law partner, conjugal partner; or
- Dependent child who does not have dependent children of their own
You are exempt from this requirement if you meet the above criteria. However, your finances may still be assessed or considered in order to determine whether or not you will be able to fulfill your Undertaking agreement.
