For Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada, knowing how to calculate MNI is important if you plan on sponsoring a family member who wishes to immigrate to Canada. this could be your spouse, child(ren), parent and grandparent.
Being adequately knowledgeable on how to calculate MNI would help reduce the stress of signing up for a sponsorship program and end up not being eligible because of your MNI
What is MNI?
MNI is an acronym for Minimum Necessary Income. It is one of the requirements to qualify for some family sponsorship programs.
That means that if a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada wishes to bring a family member to live in Canada and cater for their need, such sponsor has to meet the Minimum necessary Income for their family unit size to show that he or she is financially up to the task.
How Important is MNI?
Every Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada hoping to sponsor a family member to Canada must meet or exceed the MNI criteria or risk being deemed ineligible.
However, for sponsors living in Quebec are exempted from this as the province of Quebec has a different format on how to calculate MNI.
If you are a resident in Quebec, you are to calculate the basic income that is required to comfortably cater for your family and the family of the person you intend to sponsor regardless of their coming to Canada or not.
Who is eligible to be a Sponsor?
In order for you to be deemed eligible to sponsor your family to Canada, you must meet the following requirement
- You must be !8 years old or older
- You must be a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada
- You must reside in Canada whether or not you are a permanent resident or citizen
- If you are outside Canada, you must show that you plan to reside in Canada once the person you wish to sponsor becomes a permanent resident
- You must be able to provide for the basic needs of the person you wish to sponsor
- You must prove that you are not receiving social assistance except it’s for a disability
How to Calculate Family size unit
In order to know how to calculate MNI, you must know how to calculate family size unit. Family members already being sponsored in Canada are added to the incoming ones when calculating family unit size. When calculating a family unit, you include the following set of people;
- oneself
- your
- partner or spouse
- Dependent children
- Partner’s dependent children
- Others you have sponsored in the past and you are still financially responsible for
- Your parents or grandparent you wish to sponsor
- Spouses and dependent children of your parent or grandparent
- Dependent children and spouses of your parent or grandparent who will not be coming to Canada
- The number of persons you are applying to sponsor
How to calculate MNI
Minimum Necessary Income is usually updated annually. Here’s the most recent update
- 2 persons – $32,270
- 3 persons – $39,672
- 4 persons – $48,167
- 5 persons – $54,630
- 6 persons – $61,613
- 7 persons – $68,595
For each additional individual after more than 7 persons, there will be an added fee of $6,985.
How to calculate MNI for residents of Quebec
- 1 person – $24,602
- 2 persons – $33,209
- 3 persons – $41,001
- 4 persons – $47,156
- 5 persons – $52,482
For each additional individual after 5 persons, there will be an added fee of $5326.
Potential sponsors must provide their Notice of Assessment from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in order to prove that they meet the MNI requirement. This is the only way to prove that you meet the requirement.
