I'm a citizen of Canada living in Halifax and my girlfriend is a US citizen in Texas . We're quite serious and are actively talking about a plan to move her up to live with me in two years. One of the challenges of course is immigration and we are exploring all potential avenues to allow her to stay with me long term.
The primary thing we're exploring is conjugal status. From what I understand, we could potentially qualify for a conjugal sponsorship if we are able to prove that we have been in a conjugal relationship for a year or longer. The hope is that conjugal status would allow her to live with me for a year full time which would then qualify us for common law.
I have read the requirements for conjugal status on the official government of Canada website and it sounds like my girlfriend and I are well on our way to qualifying. We are already offering financial assistance to one another such as myself assisting her paying off her credit card debt and her offering to fly me out to Texas for a few months to house and feed me during a period of unemployment (I do contract work). We spent two months in January and February together when she came to stay with me for a while and we're making plans to see each other frequently throughout the year: as much as visiting law will allow us. She is selling many of her personal belongings to pay off her debt quickly so it won't be an obstacle for us and I am changing my investment strategies to save for a future with her. We spend hours video calling each other every day and are seeing each other again in Toronto this April.
I read in another thread in this section that another guy had a similar situation and people were saying he won't be approved for conjugal because there's nothing stopping him from getting married or becoming common law. I don't understand this latter bit because I thought the maximum amount of time a foreign national could stay in the country was six months. How can somebody qualify for common law with this stipulation if they HAVE to live together for a full year?
Note: we're exploring this instead of simply getting married because we both mutually share a disbelief in the sanctity of institutional marriage and as I read on the official government of canada website, while it's true Conjugal sponsorship is made primarily for couples who are not legally able to marry, There have been exceptions for couples who have personal objections to the institution of marriage, such as the Wegner v Canada case in 2021.
Mainly I'm just confused about how achieving common law status before conjugal sponsorship is possible when at the moment we're only legally allowed to stay in each other's countries 6 months each year.
The primary thing we're exploring is conjugal status. From what I understand, we could potentially qualify for a conjugal sponsorship if we are able to prove that we have been in a conjugal relationship for a year or longer. The hope is that conjugal status would allow her to live with me for a year full time which would then qualify us for common law.
I have read the requirements for conjugal status on the official government of Canada website and it sounds like my girlfriend and I are well on our way to qualifying. We are already offering financial assistance to one another such as myself assisting her paying off her credit card debt and her offering to fly me out to Texas for a few months to house and feed me during a period of unemployment (I do contract work). We spent two months in January and February together when she came to stay with me for a while and we're making plans to see each other frequently throughout the year: as much as visiting law will allow us. She is selling many of her personal belongings to pay off her debt quickly so it won't be an obstacle for us and I am changing my investment strategies to save for a future with her. We spend hours video calling each other every day and are seeing each other again in Toronto this April.
I read in another thread in this section that another guy had a similar situation and people were saying he won't be approved for conjugal because there's nothing stopping him from getting married or becoming common law. I don't understand this latter bit because I thought the maximum amount of time a foreign national could stay in the country was six months. How can somebody qualify for common law with this stipulation if they HAVE to live together for a full year?
Note: we're exploring this instead of simply getting married because we both mutually share a disbelief in the sanctity of institutional marriage and as I read on the official government of canada website, while it's true Conjugal sponsorship is made primarily for couples who are not legally able to marry, There have been exceptions for couples who have personal objections to the institution of marriage, such as the Wegner v Canada case in 2021.
Mainly I'm just confused about how achieving common law status before conjugal sponsorship is possible when at the moment we're only legally allowed to stay in each other's countries 6 months each year.