The government of Canada has re-opened the Parental Sponsorship category effective January 2, 2014. A limit of 5,000 applications will be accepted in 2014. In order to qualify to sponsor their parents for permanent residence in Canada, Canadian citizens or permanent residents must show that they meet a minimum income level for the three years prior to sponsoring, which income must be verified through Notice of Assessment income tax returns. The income requirements are based on total family size including the sponsor’s family and the sponsored parents and any dependent children the parents have. The following table sets out the new income requirements.
The Minimun Necessary Income requirement, which you must meet for each of the three years preceding the date of your application, is equal to the Low Income Cut-Offs (LICO) plus 30%.
Note that the sponsor can combine his or her income with that of their spouse or common-law partner in order to meet the necessary income requirement.
The government has not yet put into effect a proposal to limit the age of dependents to 18 years old, and for the time being dependent children up to the age of 21 who are unmarried can be attached to a parental sponsorship application as dependents. In this way a sponsor’s siblings can be sponsored to Canada together with their parents.
