July 28, 2025, and onwards, many individuals (sponsors) have been invited to submit their
parents/grandparents’ sponsorship application for PR. The Minimum Necessary Income (MNI) is
one of the requirements that a sponsor or their cosigner must meet for three consecutive years
before submitting the sponsorship application.
To meet this requirement, the sponsor needs to calculate the family size. This family size is
calculated yearly. To calculate your family size, you must include yourself, your spouse (who
also can be your co-signer), your children under the age of 22, and your parents/grandparents.
Now, let’s understand it in detail.
Scenario One: You are sponsoring your two parents and your spouse is your co-signer, and
your application submission year is 2025. Then you will calculate yourself, your spouse and
both parents for the three previous years (2022,2023,2024).
Scenario Two: You are submitting your parents’ sponsorship application in 2025, and you had a
child in 2024. Your spouse is your co-signer. Then you will count yourself, your spouse and both
parents for the years 2022 and 2023. But for the year 2024, you will also count your child in the
family size.
Scenario Three: You have a 22 years old son. You are sponsoring your parents in 2025, and
your spouse is a co-signer in your application. You will count yourself, your spouse and both
parents for family size. You will not count your 22-year-old son as a non-dependent child.
Scenario Four: You are sponsoring your mother, and your father is not coming with her. Your
spouse is your co-signer. In this situation, you will count yourself, your spouse, your mother, and
your father, even if he is not accompanying. Similarly, if your parent has a child who is less than
22 years old and is not accompanying the parents, they also need to be included in the family
size.
Scenario Five: You are sponsoring your parents in 2025. You have been separated from your
spouse since 2024. For the family size, count yourself, your spouse and both parents. Even the
you are separated from your spouse, you’re both still legally married.
Scenario Six: You are sponsoring one of your parents, who has been separated from their
partner. In such a situation, you will count yourself and both of your parents, even if they have
been separated. The only situation in which you will not count the parent who has been
separated is if both parents have been legally divorced or one of them has been in a
common-law relationship with someone else.
Harmandeep Kaur (RCIC-IRB)