Eligibility for the Family Allowance

To be eligible for the Family Allowance, you must meet the following conditions:

• You are responsible for the care and education of a child under the age of 18.
• The child lives with you or has been placed elsewhere by a youth centre and you pay the contribution required by the centre.
• You live in Québec (in accordance with the Québec Taxation Act).
• You or your spouse is in one of the following status categories:
  • Canadian citizen
  • permanent resident
  • temporary resident who has been living in Canada for the least 18 months
  • protected person.

You are not entitled to the Family Allowance if:

• you are the child's foster family
• you are exonerated from paying tax by Revenue Québec
• you are waiting for a protected person status (refugee claimant)
• your child is married or in a de facto (common law) union and the child's spouse was entitled to a transfer from one spouse to the other

Make an application if required

A streamlined procedure for newborns

In the case of a birth in Québec, no application is required in order to receive Family Allowance payments. The child is automatically signed up for the Family Allowance when the birth is declared to the Directeur de l'état civil.

Other situations

You must file an Application for Family Allowance if:

• you adopt a child
• you are an immigrant or become a resident of Québec
• your child arrives in or returns to Québec
• you live in Québec but your child was born outside Québec
• you obtain custody of a child
• you obtain shared custody of a child
• you retain custody of a child following the breakdown of your union and you were not previously receiving Family allowance in your name
• we ask you to apply for Family Allowance.

Use the My Account online service to check the status of your application or request whenever you want!

Access My Account online to check the status of your application or request and see the changes made to your file instantly.

Your first payment

We will send you your first Family Allowance payment within a maximum of 40 days following receipt of the declaration of your child's birth from the Directeur de l'état civil .

• We can pay the Family Allowance retroactively for a period of 11 months from the date an application is received if all of the eligibility requirements are met.
• To receive the Family Allowance payment, both parents must file their Québec income tax return, even if one or both of them do not have any income to declare. For more information on the income tax return, see Revenu Québec's Web site