Dependents as accompanying family member

[zoiiz]

Me and my same-sex partner can’t legally get married in our home country. We have physically lived together April 2020-Sep 2021 before I got to Canada for school.

Asked OINP if I could include her as common law and they replied I could include dependents in my application.

My ground that we are still common law is “After the one year period of cohabitation has been established, the partners may live apart for periods of time while still maintaining a common-law relationship. For example, a couple may have been separated due to illness or death of a family member, adverse country conditions (e.g. war, political unrest), or employment or education-related reasons, and therefore are not cohabiting at the time an application is submitted. Despite the break in cohabitation, a common-law relationship exists if the couple has cohabited continuously in a conjugal relationship in the past for at least one year and intend to do so again as soon as possible. There should be evidence demonstrating that both parties are continuing the relationship.” And "common-law partners who have been in a conjugal relationship for at least one year but unable to live together or appear in public together because of legal restructions in their home country ... may still qualify and should be included on the application."

Would this work? And what are the risks? Can the principal be approved and the dependent be rejected or is there only one decision to be made for all included in the application?

thank you so very much for your time!

 

[scylla]

Me and my same-sex partner can’t legally get married in our home country. We have physically lived together April 2020-Sep 2021 before I got to Canada for school.

Asked OINP if I could include her as common law and they replied I could include dependents in my application.

My ground that we are still common law is “After the one year period of cohabitation has been established, the partners may live apart for periods of time while still maintaining a common-law relationship. For example, a couple may have been separated due to illness or death of a family member, adverse country conditions (e.g. war, political unrest), or employment or education-related reasons, and therefore are not cohabiting at the time an application is submitted. Despite the break in cohabitation, a common-law relationship exists if the couple has cohabited continuously in a conjugal relationship in the past for at least one year and intend to do so again as soon as possible. There should be evidence demonstrating that both parties are continuing the relationship.” And "common-law partners who have been in a conjugal relationship for at least one year but unable to live together or appear in public together because of legal restructions in their home country ... may still qualify and should be included on the application."

Would this work? And what are the risks? Can the principal be approved and the dependent be rejected or is there only one decision to be made for all included in the application?

thank you so very much for your time!

Did you list her as your common law partner in the study permit application?

Do you have evidence to prove the period of cohabitation such as a joint lease, joint bank accounts, joint utilities, etc?

 

[Naturgrl]

Since you are common law, you would have included your partner as such and not as single. If you did that then for OINP you prove common law - bank accounts, leases, loans, etc.

 

[zoiiz]

Did you list her as your common law partner in the study permit application?

Do you have evidence to prove the period of cohabitation such as a joint lease, joint bank accounts, joint utilities, etc?

Hey thanks for the comment!

I didn’t list her before.

for evidence of cohabitation we have photos, messages, same delivery online shopping address, same flight and train tickets(travels). For evidence of our relationship we also have financial transactions, social media postings, she being the beneficiary of my life insurance.

 

[zoiiz]

Since you are common law, you would have included your partner as such and not as single. If you did that then for OINP you prove common law - bank accounts, leases, loans, etc.

Hi thanks for the comment!

we don’t have as much as we’d like, but we do have photos, messages, social media postings, financial transactions,my partner being beneficiary of my life insurance. Not the most ideal but maybe this can be sufficient to support a genuine relationship?

 

[scylla]

Hey thanks for the comment!

I didn’t list her before.

for evidence of cohabitation we have photos, messages, same delivery online shopping address, same flight and train tickets(travels). For evidence of our relationship we also have financial transactions, social media postings, she being the beneficiary of my life insurance.

Quite a bit of this evidence unfortunately doesn't count as cohabitation evidence. It just shows you are in a relationship. You need evidence that proves you lived at a joint address for at least one full year. The online shopping address shows this. But that isn't enough. What else do you have? The rest of the above is just relationship evidnece (not cohabitation evidence). Do you have any joint leases or joint property ownership for this period? Do you have bank accounts or tax filings that show the same address? Do your employment or school records show the same address? You need evidence that proves the whole cohabitation period - in other words you'd need to have evidnece that covers a full year. Right now this sounds like it may be your biggest barrier.