IAD.08a Addendum - MNI
October 2006
APPELLANTS' GUIDE
TO ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (ADR) CONFERENCE RE:
SPONSORSHIP APPEALS
ADDENDUM – Sponsor’s Minimum Necessary Income (MNI)
What kind of documents should I provide as disclosure before the ADR Conference?
In this kind of case, the reason for refusal of your sponsorship is that the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) officer decided that you (and any of your co-signors to the undertaking) did not have the minimum necessary income required by the Regulations to sponsor your family member to Canada. It is your responsibility to show that the refusal is not legal or that there are humanitarian and compassionate reasons for allowing the appeal for your family member to come to Canada.
Legal Reasons
To show that the refusal is not legal, you must show that the CIC officer was wrong in deciding that you did not have enough income to sponsor your family member. You must show that in the 12 months before you sponsored your family member, your income and your co-signor’s income (if you had a co-signor) was equal to or more than the required minimum necessary income (MNI) amount. At a hearing or an ADR Conference, you should try to show:
- the number of people in your family unit (that includes you, your dependants, the family member(s) you are sponsoring and their dependants);
- the MNI amount needed for that family unit size;
- the income of you and the co-signor for the 12-month period before the date of your sponsorship undertaking; and
- any other information that may help decide this issue
Humanitarian and Compassionate Reasons (H & C)
Even if you did not have enough income to meet the sponsorship requirements in the 12 months before you sponsored your family member, you may still win your appeal by showing that there are humanitarian and compassionate reasons for allowing your relative to come to Canada. At a hearing or an ADR Conference, you should try to show:
- the MNI amount needed for your family unit size;
- the income of you and the co-signor for the 12-month period before the date of the appeal hearing or ADR Conference;
- how close you were to meeting the MNI amount for the 12-month period before the date of the hearing or ADR Conference;
- the kind of relationship you have with your sponsored family member;
- whether you have other relatives in Canada and, if so, the kind of relationship you have with them;
- whether you can visit your family member in his or her country;
- the kind of support your family member can provide to you;
- the circumstances of your family member in his or her country;
- the best interests of any child who is directly affected by the refusal of the sponsorship application;
- whether there are negative reasons why you may not deserve special consideration; and
- any other information that may help your appeal.
You should come prepared to deal with all of the reasons the CIC officer gave for refusing your sponsorship application.
Documents to Provide
Since your appeal is about the financial requirements that you must meet as a sponsor, you should provide your latest notice of assessment of your income tax from the Canada Revenue Agency, as well as any more information that is relevant to your financial situation. This may include T-4 slips, tax assessments, pay stubs, letters from employers etc. If you have a business, you may wish to provide tax assessments for the business and audited financial statements of the business.
For humanitarian and compassionate consideration, to show the relationship you have with your family member and the importance of the sponsorship, you may wish to provide such things as letters, phone bills, receipts for money transfers and/or plane tickets. Some people also provide letters from family, friends, and/or employers.
To prepare for an ADR Conference, you should also fill out the financial evaluation form (IMM1283) that is part of the sponsorship application for CIC. In the ADR process, you must provide this information as soon as possible, and the documents must be received by the Immigration Appeal Division (IAD) and the Minister’s counsel no later than 40 days after you have received the letter from IAD that asks you to provide these documents – otherwise, the appeal may be taken out of the ADR process and then scheduled through the regular hearing process.
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