What counts as income for sponsoring my parents and grandparents?

To find out if you have enough income to be eligible, we use

• your Total Income on line 150 of your Notice of Assessment (NOA) from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and
• subtract any income that must be excluded
  • provincial payments for an instruction or training program
  • social assistance from a province
  • payments from the Government of Canada under a resettlement assistance program
  • regular Employment Insurance earnings (for 2018 and 2019 tax years)
  • Old Age Security payments

We use this number for 2020, 2019 and 2018 tax years.

We’ll accept your application without your NOA for the 2020 tax year if you don’t have it by the time you apply, but you must submit it as soon as you have it.

Income that does count toward your total income (as long as it’s reported on your NOA):

• Employment Insurance special benefits, such as maternity and parental benefits
• any Employment Insurance earnings for the 2020 tax year
• Canada Emergency Response Benefit
• other temporary COVID-19-related benefits
  • as long as they are not part of provincial social assistance programs
• paid parental leave
• RSP/RRSP withdrawals

How to get your NOAs

If you don’t have paper copies of your NOAs, you can view and print your tax returns using the CRA’s My Account online service. But, the easiest way to prove your income is to give us permission to get your NOAs directly from the CRA.