Net Personal Income

[dream99]

In 'sponsorship evaluation' question #3 'the net personal income for the 12 month period preceding the date of your application,' I was in Japan working from May 2010-August 2011 and will be sending out the application in Octoer 2011.
Which means I am currently unemployed.

How should I do this? Just add all my paychecks from May 2010-August 2011 and write the total? By the way...that IS our Net personal income right....? 

[dream99]

I will be going back to Canada in a few days so that's why I only worked until the end of August 2011. And I want to send in the application as soon as possible which I'm guessing will be the first half of October 2011. Very unlikely I will have a job by then and even if I did I wouldn't even receive my first pay check.

What should I do?

[Stumpedmom]

Did you file income taxes in either Canada as world income??  If you have your option C that will help you.  If you filed in Japan, then send in that information.

As long as you have documentation of income, and a letter explaining that you just moved back and are looking for work, as long as you can show that you can support you and your spouse, you will be fine.  There is no financial requirement for spousal sponsorship as long as you are not in an undischarged bankruptcy, on welfare, or owe child support in Canada...

[kuku]

for spousal sponsorships you can write N/A if you did not work or currently working in Canada !!

Source : CIC call center representative

[dream99]

Thanks for your responses! This will sound stupid but I don't know if I filed any taxes or any of that stuff... all I know is I got pay stubs from May 2010-August 2011 that I can prove but will obviously be in Japanese.

Are you guys saying I don't need to fill in Net personal income because I was working in a country outside Canada for the 12 month preceding?

[kuku]

And as  Stumpedmom's post said

- There is no financial requirement to sponsor spouse as long as you are not on any financial assistance or welfare !!

- If you filed taxes here -- you can get option C print from CRA which will prove that you are not on any government benefit..
- if you did not file taxes in Canada -- you wont be able to get option c --in that case explain on a separate sheet of paper why you do not have option c and include you tax return from the country where you worked during last tax year..
you can also attach pay stubs from your home country ( just to prove that you were working in past not absolutely unemployed since long time)

[Stumpedmom]

for spousal sponsorships you can write N/A if you did not work or currently working in Canada !!

Source : CIC call center representative

I would take ANYTHING from the call centre with a grain of salt....you will get 4 different answers from talking to 4 different reps...I would definitely recommend filling the information in, and supplying all your paystubs from that time.  As much as you do not have to meet financial requirements, CIC still wants to see that you have had income, not been on welfare.  In this case too much info is much better than not enough and having the whole application returned for missing information....

[kuku]

 @ dream 99

thats what a CIC representative told me on phone .... because Spousal sponsorship is exempt from the income requirement you can write N/A in net personal income box if you did not work here...

[kuku]

I agree with Stumpedmom..

more you can show is better.. they should be assured that you will be able to support yourself and your wife...

and about net income stuff-- I have followed CIC advice and wrote N/A as I did not work here and was not working when I mailed in my application.... but I have included my USA tax return from last year, with pay stubs and enough bank balance both in Canadian Bank and USA Bank just to prove that I will be able to support my family !!!

[dream99]

I didnt get my tax returns in Japan all I got is my pay stubs to prove. And for the option C, I worked in Canada until February 2009 because I came to Japan in March 2010. So should I get an option c for the year of 2009?

[kuku]

they need last year's option C...that would be 2010... still you can at least attach whatever you have...
thats ok if you dont have tax return from Japan..Just include your pay stubs...but make sure you write an explanation for every single thing you are not providing them..otherwise your application will be returned...

[Stumpedmom]

And don't write N/A in that field as you do have income in the past 12 months, just not actively right now....

[dream99]

OK Starting to get it

So including all pay stubs while in Japan, adding them all up would be the net income right? And since they are in Japanese can I write on the actual pay stubs to translate things like this is my hourly wage, this is my total income, this is my amount of hours worked, etc. etc.?

[Stumpedmom]

Yep you got it....

[CharlieD10]

Net income means after taxes, btw.  Just thought I'd throw that in there.