Common-law vs single

[limeygg]

Hi all, merry christmas!

Here's a situation I would love to receive some advice on:

My boyfriend (Canadian citizen) and I have been living together for over a year. However, we don't have any official documents to prove it (no joint bank account, no utility bills (all on his name), no rental agreements since he owns his place and I don't have to pay rent). The only proof I have is that we live in the same address. I'm about to apply for my PR through EE but I'm not sure if I should put common-law or single. Is it mandatory for me to put common-law? Would it be a misrepresentation if I don't want to submit additional documents and just apply as single?

 

[jackdawn]

Hi all, merry christmas!

Here's a situation I would love to receive some advice on:

My boyfriend (Canadian citizen) and I have been living together for over a year. However, we don't have any official documents to prove it (no joint bank account, no utility bills (all on his name), no rental agreements since he owns his place and I don't have to pay rent). The only proof I have is that we live in the same address. I'm about to apply for my PR through EE but I'm not sure if I should put common-law or single. Is it mandatory for me to put common-law? Would it be a misrepresentation if I don't want to submit additional documents and just apply as single?

Not sure if it would be misrepresentation but since you are in a common law its always better to state the facts. Found this link not sure if it helps

https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=347&top=14

 

[limeygg]

Will something happen if I can't provide enough proof like having my application rejected?

 

[canuck78]

Will something happen if I can't provide enough proof like having my application rejected?

You have no choice you must declare being common law. You must also both change your status with CRA as well. You aren't sponsoring him so you won't need proof that you are common law. You aren't benefitting from your common law status.

 

[k.h.p.]

It would be misrepresentation if you don't declare it. You have to declare when the relationship started, and lying is a great way to be refused PR, and banned from Canada.

 

[limeygg]

Got it, thanks for all your help!

 

[k.h.p.]

You can choose to apply as single. Common law is a de facto relationship. Meaning you must establish it based on facts, in contrast to marriage which is a de jure relationship. Living together for one year does not automatically become a common law relationship.



It's up to you to decide if you have combined your affairs and you haven't combined anything besides your address.
If you don't declare yourself as common law then you can't count the year you have already spent together should your boyfriend want to sponsor you at a later date via that route. For example if your EE application gets refused. You'd have to wait another year to establish cohabitation. There is no legal requirement to declare your relationship as common law, that's your choice and the burden if proof is on you.

https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/operational-bulletins-manuals/permanent-residence/non-economic-classes/family-class-determining-spouse/assessing-common.html

There is an obligation, if the relationship exists and is a common-law relationship, to report it as such. Saying "you can't count the year in the future" is basically saying "if you don't declare an existing common-law relationship, you have to explain that the relationship started later."

Seeing as how they are in a relationship calling themselves "boyfriend and girlfriend," if they were to later claim that they were not common-law during a given year, despite having the same address and having a relationship that pre-dated living together, IRCC would put the onus on them to prove that despite being in a relationship and living together, they were not in a common-law relationship. That is much harder to do.

 

[k.h.p.]

Boyfriend and Girlfriend doesn't make you common law, you must have your affairs combined, i.e. basically live together like you were married. As a matter of fact, calling yourself "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" proves that it's not a common law relationship. Because that would be "de facto" marriage.
IRCC also won't make you prove that you were NOT in a common law relationship, because the requirement is to prove you are in one. If they are not claiming to be in a common law relation for this application, then they obviously can't claim that time in a future one. There is no automatic rule that makes your relationship common law at exactly 365 days. That's just the minimum required.

Take a look back through other posts in this forum. When an applicant applies later as a common-law of a landed PR, and has an address history that overlaps the earlier person's PR application for more than a year, IRCC sending a PFL in relation to an undeclared common-law relationship is indeed something that has happened.

Common-law is not a choice. Even for Canadians, if you live together, do things like each other's laundry, and are generally in a marriage-like relationship, after a year's cohabitation you are common-law married for the purposes of the law. Once you become common-law in the province in which you live, you are bound by the Family Law Act or similar in that province - so if you split up, your partner can claim division of assets, etc., even if you didn't opt into it.

If you're not a lawyer, you really shouldn't be giving dangerous legal advice.

 

[k.h.p.]

If you read it you'll notice it's exactly what I said. If you don't declare the common-law relationship now then you can't claim it later and if you do you'll receive the PFL. Living together 365 days does NOT automatically make you common-law, that's why a common law relationship has to be proven. Otherwise IRCC would just accept everyone who has had the same address for 1 year as common-law, without any other documentary proof required. But that is obviously not the case, because not everyone lives together in a marriage like relationship. OP doesn't have any shared bank accounts or bills etc. It's not that clear cut.

None of the advice given here is "legal advice", not even that by actual lawyers. It's just a forum. If you want legal advice, get a lawyer.

BTW: If you are in a common-law relationship you most likely can't claim division of assets, because "equalization of family property" only applies to married couples. Eg. in Ontario, or in BC.

You don't get to choose whether or not you're common law. It's not an option if you are in a marriage-like relationship and have lived together for a period of time - one year for federal law purposes, variable for provincial law purposes.

Family property in a common-law relationship is indeed divisible in BC at least, which is not something you can opt in or out of if you happen to be common-law as it is an automatic status that happens, you don't get to choose it: https://familylaw.lss.bc.ca/common-questions/6#common-questions-109

 

[k.h.p.]

You're mixing up the problem - you think that proving the validity of the relationship and providing proof of common-law status to IRCC amounts to needing to also prove that you're in a common-law relationship in other places. This is incorrect.

Here's how a common-law relationship is established:

• Two people are in a relationship and they live together in a committed way
• A year elapses

That's it. You are now common-law for federal law purposes. You don't have to prove this to anyone. CRA allows you to declare yourself as common-law without proving it with leases, etc.

However, when you apply for immigration purposes, IRCC likes to see the relationship is real before awarding visas, which is why you need to have proof (shared lease, photos together, etc.) This is because an inadmissible spouse can mean you're inadmissible as well.

But the catch is that you have to declare a common-law relationship - even if you don't have a lot of proof of it. If you do not declare it and later applications to IRCC reveal that you were in a common-law relationship but didn't tell IRCC about it, and thus your spouse was not examined as a spouse, you have committed misrepresentation. This happens A LOT - just search for "barred from sponsoring" in the forum and you will see TONS of examples of spouses that didn't "know" they were common-law married and got in trouble at IRCC.

You don't have to register a common-law relationship to anyone, it exists as a function of the common law. If the relationship splits up, you can apply for division of family assets through the courts, where a judge will examine evidence of common-law relationship to determine if the assets should be divided.

If you apply to IRCC as single, after having lived for more than one year in a marriage-like relationship with someone, and IRCC later finds out - through address and relationship history forms - that you were common-law married to someone, telling IRCC "we didn't declare it because we didn't want to" isn't going to suffice as an answer.

 

[LKhan]

You're mixing up the problem - you think that proving the validity of the relationship and providing proof of common-law status to IRCC amounts to needing to also prove that you're in a common-law relationship in other places. This is incorrect.

Here's how a common-law relationship is established:

• Two people are in a relationship and they live together in a committed way
• A year elapses

That's it. You are now common-law for federal law purposes. You don't have to prove this to anyone. CRA allows you to declare yourself as common-law without proving it with leases, etc.

However, when you apply for immigration purposes, IRCC likes to see the relationship is real before awarding visas, which is why you need to have proof (shared lease, photos together, etc.) This is because an inadmissible spouse can mean you're inadmissible as well.

But the catch is that you have to declare a common-law relationship - even if you don't have a lot of proof of it. If you do not declare it and later applications to IRCC reveal that you were in a common-law relationship but didn't tell IRCC about it, and thus your spouse was not examined as a spouse, you have committed misrepresentation. This happens A LOT - just search for "barred from sponsoring" in the forum and you will see TONS of examples of spouses that didn't "know" they were common-law married and got in trouble at IRCC.

You don't have to register a common-law relationship to anyone, it exists as a function of the common law. If the relationship splits up, you can apply for division of family assets through the courts, where a judge will examine evidence of common-law relationship to determine if the assets should be divided.

If you apply to IRCC as single, after having lived for more than one year in a marriage-like relationship with someone, and IRCC later finds out - through address and relationship history forms - that you were common-law married to someone, telling IRCC "we didn't declare it because we didn't want to" isn't going to suffice as an answer.

Hi I'm hoping you could clarify something for me. In a case where the EE profile states marital status as single. Is it sufficient that the common-law status is declared AFTER the ITA is received?

 

[asa26]

You have no choice you must declare being common law. You must also both change your status with CRA as well. You aren't sponsoring him so you won't need proof that you are common law. You aren't benefitting from your common law status.

If I added my common law to my EE proile and got an ITA, does that automatically includes him on my PR application?

 

[maj3r1819]

@KHP, is a couple common law if they live together for less than a year (8-7 months), lives separately (still dating) but 4-6 months and then move back together after this time ?

 

[scylla]

@KHP, is a couple common law if they live together for less than a year (8-7 months), lives separately (still dating) but 4-6 months and then move back together after this time ?

No

 

[canadain student]

Help urgent
I got invited in recent stem draw, I believe I made a big mistake though, as I now realized that I have been living more than 12 months with my girlfriend, so my status is actually common-law. It's all on me not familiarizing with those terms in the beginning, but assuming to be officially single at that time. Is it now too late to change from single to common-law post-ITA? We are soon getting married, and the idea was to include her in the application after submitting it, when we get the marriage certificate. So, if I continue and submit my application as a single, and I later add her to the application, they will likely find out that we have shared an address since 2021, and I can't imagine this leading to anything good.
. Any advice, how should I proceed to still have a chance at the PR?
Also My score increases with her, currently as single 515 and with her is 520.
What should I do