Immigration · Family sponsorship
Family sponsorship income calculator.
Find the Minimum Necessary Income IRCC requires to sponsor a parent or grandparent — and the one thing most people get wrong about it.
Spousal, common-law partner and dependent child sponsorship have NO minimum income requirement at all. The income test below applies only to sponsoring a parent or grandparent, where it is the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) plus 30%, assessed for each of the 3 tax years immediately before you apply.
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Choose who you are sponsoring and press Check requirement.
Why the income requirement is so often misunderstood
IRCC's family class sponsorship covers several relationships, and only one of them carries an income test. Spouses, common-law partners, conjugal partners and dependent children have no minimum income requirement — a sponsor's undertaking for these relationships is about signing a commitment to support the person, not clearing an income bar (though the sponsor must not be receiving social assistance for a reason other than disability, and must not be in default on a previous sponsorship or support-payment obligation).
Parent and grandparent sponsorship is different. The sponsor (and any co-signer) must meet the Minimum Necessary Income — the Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) published by Statistics Canada, plus 30% — for each of the 3 consecutive tax years immediately before the application is received. The table below is the most recently published one, assessed against the 2022, 2023 and 2024 tax years.
Sources, last verified 24 September 2026: IRCC — income requirements to sponsor parents and grandparents (Minimum Necessary Income table, page last modified 2025-07-28), IRCC Guide 5772 — Application to Sponsor Parents and Grandparents ("No income requirement applies to spousal sponsorship").
This table applies to residents of every province and territory except Quebec, which sets its own financial undertaking rules for sponsors. It also does not cover the Parents and Grandparents Program's separate, currently-paused invitation process — check canada.ca for whether a new intake is open before relying on this figure for a live application.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a minimum income to sponsor my spouse?
No. Spousal, common-law and conjugal partner sponsorship has no minimum income test. You do need to sign an undertaking of support and meet other eligibility conditions, but income is not one of them.
How is the income requirement calculated for parents and grandparents?
It is Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-Off (LICO) for your family size, plus 30%. You must meet it for each of the 3 tax years immediately before you apply, evidenced by a Notice of Assessment for each year.
Can I use a co-signer to help meet the income requirement?
Yes. A co-signer must also meet the income requirement for the same 3 tax years and takes on joint responsibility for the sponsorship undertaking with the sponsor.
Estimate only
This tool looks up IRCC's most recently published Minimum Necessary Income table. It does not check whether a Parents and Grandparents Program intake is currently open, does not calculate your actual household income, and does not apply Quebec's separate financial undertaking rules. Confirm current figures and intake status on canada.ca before applying.