Sepasi-Ashtiani v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2025 FC 1031 : Parent Sponsorship Refusal Set Aside Where Officer Assessed Minimum Income Using the Wrong Three Taxation Years

The Federal Court reviewed IRCC’s refusal of Maryam Sepasi-Ashtiani’s application to sponsor her mother for permanent residence. The officer found that the applicant did not meet the minimum necessary income requirement because her income was insufficient in 2018. The Court granted judicial review because IRCC used the taxation years 2018, 2019, and 2020 instead of the three taxation years immediately preceding the application’s December 28, 2022 lock-in date.

Key Principle

For a parent or grandparent sponsorship application, the sponsor’s income must be assessed for each of the three consecutive taxation years immediately preceding the date the complete application was filed. An incomplete application is not treated as a filed application for this purpose. Where IRCC later accepts the application as complete and assigns a new lock-in date, the officer must calculate the applicable income years from that date and cannot rely on an earlier set of taxation years associated with the initial incomplete submission.

Background

The applicant, a Canadian citizen, initially submitted an application to sponsor her mother on November 10, 2021.

IRCC considered the application incomplete. After receiving additional information, IRCC treated it as complete and recorded a lock-in date of December 28, 2022.

The officer assessed the applicant’s income for 2018, 2019, and 2020. The applicant met the applicable income requirement for 2019 and 2020 but not for 2018. The sponsorship application was therefore refused.

Both parties agreed before the Court that the correct taxation years were 2019, 2020, and 2021 because those were the three years immediately preceding the December 28, 2022 lock-in date.

The Minister nevertheless argued that the refusal should stand because the applicant had not submitted her 2021 income information.

 Court Findings

• Application Was Not Filed Until It Was Complete
The Court held that an incomplete sponsorship application is not considered a filed application for the purpose of calculating the minimum necessary income requirement. The relevant filing date was the December 28, 2022 lock-in date, when IRCC accepted the application as complete.

• Officer Assessed the Wrong Taxation Years
The Court found that the officer incorrectly assessed the applicant’s income using the 2018, 2019, and 2020 taxation years. Under the Regulations, the correct years were 2019, 2020, and 2021 because they immediately preceded the application’s lock-in date.

• Missing 2021 Income Information Did Not Cure the Error
Although the applicant had not personally submitted her 2021 income information, she had authorized IRCC to obtain her tax records directly from the Canada Revenue Agency. The Court held that this did not justify assessing the wrong taxation years.

• Error Could Have Affected the Outcome
The Court noted that the officer had the authority to request additional financial information and had already sought further documents regarding other taxation years. Since a correct assessment could have produced a different result, the error was material and rendered the decision unreasonable.

Outcome

The Federal Court granted an extension of time, allowed the application for judicial review, set aside the sponsorship refusal, and returned the matter to a different IRCC officer for redetermination. No question was certified.

Case Citation:

Sepasi-Ashtiani v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration), 2025 FC 1031 (CanLII)