Out of status inland application PLEASE HELP!

[Tom9225]

Hi, my spouse and I are about to submit our pr application but there's a few concerns.

She's been out of status for 4 years, we've been together for 2 years (may 2020) ,we got married a month ago (small marriage with 4 friends mostly for financial reasons and her parents not being in canada) we just moved in together, here are the documents we have.

Texts, phone calls for the past 2 years (over 100 screenshots)

Picture we've taken for the past two years (over 100 screenshots)

Movie tickets for the last two years

Only my name is on the lease agreement but landlord is willing to write a letter acknowledging that we live together.

I.d shows both our addresses

We recently just opened a joint account with about 3500 inside

Letter from her parents and friends acknowledging our relationship.

Screenshots of video calls.

Would this be sufficient or should we get a lawyer to help us put due to her being out of status?

Please let me know if there's anything we can add to make our application solid.

Thank you

 

[canuck78]

Hi, my spouse and I are about to submit our pr application but there's a few concerns.

She's been out of status for 4 years, we've been together for 2 years (may 2020) ,we got married a month ago (small marriage with 4 friends mostly for financial reasons and her parents not being in canada) we just moved in together, here are the documents we have.

Texts, phone calls for the past 2 years (over 100 screenshots)

Picture we've taken for the past two years (over 100 screenshots)

Movie tickets for the last two years

Only my name is on the lease agreement but landlord is willing to write a letter acknowledging that we live together.

I.d shows both our addresses

We recently just opened a joint account with about 3500 inside

Letter from her parents and friends acknowledging our relationship.

Screenshots of video calls.

Would this be sufficient or should we get a lawyer to help us put due to her being out of status?

Please let me know if there's anything we can add to make our application solid.

Thank you

You should ask your landlord if it would be possible to write up a new lease with both of you on the lease. Proof of movie tickets is not necessary. You must stick to the specific amount of proof indicated in the application process. Would explain why you had no family at the wedding and why you had such a small number of people. You mention letters from her family and friends but you should have letters from your family and friends as well. Given that she was out of status there will be more scrutiny when it comes to your application. What was her status when she entered Canada? Did she arrive as a tourist or as a student, worker, etc.? How long did she spend in Canada legally? Does she have a valid passport? Do you have more than 3.5k? If not, I would encourage you to save more. There is no specific salary requirement but you must show that you can support yourselves without government help.

 

[Tom9225]

You should ask your landlord if it would be possible to write up a new lease with both of you on the lease. Proof of movie tickets is not necessary. You must stick to the specific amount of proof indicated in the application process. Would explain why you had no family at the wedding and why you had such a small number of people. You mention letters from her family and friends but you should have letters from your family and friends as well. Given that she was out of status there will be more scrutiny when it comes to your application. What was her status when she entered Canada? Did she arrive as a tourist or as a student, worker, etc.? How long did she spend in Canada legally? Does she have a valid passport? Do you have more than 3.5k? If not, I would encourage you to save more. There is no specific salary requirement but you must show that you can support yourselves without government help.

Thanks for your quick response, she arrived in canada as a student and just didn't renew her status, we recently found out about 3 months ago, yes I can ask my landlord to draw up a new lease, we also plan on moving to a bigger space in about 3 months, should we just wait till we move? As for why we didn't have many guests at the wedding, it was a simple court marriage, we plan on having a bigger one next year summer with most of friends and families invited, will this be a sufficient explanation? She also has a valid passport. My family is also not in canada but they can provide letters.

Also we have more than 3500 saved, that's just the money in our joint account, do you think we need a lawyer or can we get this done successfully by ourselves without having to pay lawyer fees?

 

[Ponga]

Hi, my spouse and I are about to submit our pr application but there's a few concerns.

She's been out of status for 4 years, we've been together for 2 years (may 2020) ,we got married a month ago (small marriage with 4 friends mostly for financial reasons and her parents not being in canada) we just moved in together, here are the documents we have.

Texts, phone calls for the past 2 years (over 100 screenshots)

Picture we've taken for the past two years (over 100 screenshots)

Movie tickets for the last two years

Only my name is on the lease agreement but landlord is willing to write a letter acknowledging that we live together.

I.d shows both our addresses

We recently just opened a joint account with about 3500 inside

Letter from her parents and friends acknowledging our relationship.

Screenshots of video calls.

Would this be sufficient or should we get a lawyer to help us put due to her being out of status?

Please let me know if there's anything we can add to make our application solid.

Thank you

You do not need a lawyer; people without status are approved all the time, BUT...it's never an absolute guarantee that a person without status will not be removed, however CBSA seems to still be following their own Administrative Pubic Policy, allowing those in your spouse's position to remain while awaiting a positive PR decision. Don't panic, just be mindful.

Be sure to include the Open Work Permit (OWP) WITH the application, if she will want/need to work ASAP. Because she is out of status, she will not be eligible for the OWP until she receives stage 1 approval (AIP, or Approval in Principle) which could be ~8 months +/- based on recent threads here. IMPORTANT: Write in red ink across the top of the OWP application: "Process after AIP". If IRCC were to process this first, she would not qualify because she is out of status.

Focus on quality, rather than quantity. Don't send multiple pictures from the same event; don't send text/email messages from the same day...and so on.

Take a deep breath...send the application package...and celebrate taking the first step to her becoming a legal PR of Canada! Don't delay this until after you move to a larger place. She's been out of status for 4 years, so get the application in ASAP!

Good luck!

 

[Tom9225]

You do not need a lawyer; people without status are approved all the time, BUT...it's never an absolute guarantee that a person without status will not be removed, however CBSA seems to still be following their own Administrative Pubic Policy, allowing those in your sife's position to remain while awaiting a postive PR decision. Don't panic, just be mindful.

Be sure to include the Open Work Permit (OWP) WITH the application, if she will want/need to work ASAP. Because she is out of status, she will not be eligible for the OWP until she receives stage 1 approval (AIP, or Approval in Principle) which could be ~8 months +/- based on recent threads here. IMPORTANT: Write in red ink across the top of the OWP application: "Process after AIP". If IRCC were to process this first, she would not qualify because she is out of status.

Focus on quality, rather than quantity. Don't send multiple pictures from the same event; don't send text/email messages from the same day...and so on.

Take a deep breath...send the application package...and celebrate taking the first step to her becoming a legal PR of Canada! Don't delay this until after you move to a larger place. She's been out of status for 4 years, so get the application in ASAP!

Good luck!

Thank you so much for your response!!!
We'll get started on the application and submit along with open work permit.

 

[canuck78]

Thanks for your quick response, she arrived in canada as a student and just didn't renew her status, we recently found out about 3 months ago, yes I can ask my landlord to draw up a new lease, we also plan on moving to a bigger space in about 3 months, should we just wait till we move? As for why we didn't have many guests at the wedding, it was a simple court marriage, we plan on having a bigger one next year summer with most of friends and families invited, will this be a sufficient explanation? She also has a valid passport. My family is also not in canada but they can provide letters.

Also we have more than 3500 saved, that's just the money in our joint account, do you think we need a lawyer or can we get this done successfully by ourselves without having to pay lawyer fees?

Would be best to have her on a joint lease as soon as possible. Did she continue studying or working when she ran out of status? Having a court marriage to apply to sponsor someone while planning on having a true wedding another time is not looked at very favourably. Did you have any sort of celebration with more friends even if it was a simple bbq with more friends after the court ceremony?. Having such a small wedding with your spouse being out of status, not living together until after marriage, etc. doesn’t look great. Have you met each other’s parents or families in general?

 

[Tom9225]

Would be best to have her on a joint lease as soon as possible. Did she continue studying or working when she ran out of status? Having a court marriage to apply to sponsor someone while planning on having a true wedding another time is not looked at very favourably. Did you have any sort of celebration with more friends even if it was a simple bbq with more friends after the court ceremony?. Having such a small wedding with your spouse being out of status, not living together until after marriage, etc. doesn’t look great. Have you met each other’s parents or families in general?

Thank you for your response, yes we did have a little celebration amongst our friends with drinks and food. Yes we've met each others parents and they'll be providing letters also...do you think it's sufficient or is there anything else we can add? Unfortunately she did continue studying as she didn't know she was out of status, is this gonna decrease our chance of approval?

Also we've been sorta living together before marriage, just didn't have any of her documents attached to my address, she just changed them a few weeks ago

 

[Ponga]

Thank you for your response, yes we did have a little celebration amongst our friends with drinks and food. Yes we've met each others parents and they'll be providing letters also...do you think it's sufficient or is there anything else we can add? Unfortunately she did continue studying as she didn't know she was out of status, is this gonna decrease our chance of approval?

Also we've been sorta living together before marriage, just didn't have any of her documents attached to my address, she just changed them a few weeks ago

Can you elaborate/clarify this? How long were you living together before you were married?

 

[Tom9225]

Can you elaborate/clarify this? How long were you living together before you were married?

About 6 months, because she had a lease, we spent time in both of our places, so sometimes we stay at my place, sometimes hers but now that her lease is done, she's fully moved in with me, it's why we started changing her address and why we plan a getting a bigger place but since I've just been advised on here to get her on the lease asap, I'm thinking we should hold on from finding another place

 

[Ponga]

Ironically, if you had been truly living together for at least one full year, it might have made things a bit easier as you would have been deemed common law before you were married.

 

[Tom9225]

Ironically, if you had been truly living together for at least one full year, it might have made things a bit easier as you would have been deemed common law before you were married.

Yeah that was our mistake for not changing the addresses but now it's too late for us to go through the common law route, we don't wanna wait another year and risk her having to leave, do you think we have sufficient documentations? Or have you heard of people in similar situations getting approved?

 

[Ponga]

Make sure to be 100% open and honest about EVERYTHING, including disclosing if she ever worked without authorization in Canada. It's not ideal, but misrepresenting the fact on the `story' would be much worse and could be devastating to her application. It would also be a good idea for her to express remorse for being without legal status in the narrative that she will include with the application. Just tell the whole, complete story.

 

[Ponga]

Yeah that was our mistake for not changing the addresses but now it's too late for us to go through the common law route, we don't wanna wait another year and risk her having to leave, do you think we have sufficient documentations? Or have you heard of people in similar situations getting approved?

Wait...are you saying that you two did in fact live together for 12 months or longer? If so, you HAVE to disclose this in the application!

If you're now married, there's no way for you to `go through the common law route", but you would need to disclose that you were common law before getting married...even if you can't prove that you were. When she has to show her address history for the last 5 years in the application, IRCC may `figure it out' and if they do (without her disclosing the info) it would NOT be good.

 

[Tom9225]

Wait...are you saying that you two did in fact live together for 12 months or longer? If so, you HAVE to disclose this in the application!

If you're now married, there's no way for you to `go through the common law route", but you would need to disclose that you were common law before getting married...even if you can't prove that you were. When she has to show her address history for the last 5 years in the application, IRCC may `figure it out' and if they do (without her disclosing the info) it would NOT be good.

No no we didn't live together for 12 months, I'm saying we should've started 6 months ago then we'd have less time to wait for common law application..Apologies for the confusion

Now that we are married, what do you think our chances are, we basically have almost every document on the checklist aside from lease aggreement but i feel it's still not enough

 

[Ponga]

IMHO, send whatever you have, just to get the application submitted. If IRCC wants/needs more information (or proof of your genuine relationship) they will ask for it; they won't just deny the application without asking for more.

Right now, time is your enemy, because of her lack of status. You can't send more than you have, right? The sooner you get this submitted, the better you're both going to feel.