Urgent!! Do I need to declare common law?

[River flow]

Context: I’ve started my CEC application a year ago, and just got Portal 1 two month ago. At the time, I put “Single” as my status.

However, my current partner and former roommate and I have been living under the same roof since Sep 2023. I’m waiting for eCoPR, and only now realized this might be a problem

I did not think twice about whether this would make me common law, because:

1. We did not enter romantic relationship or live conjugally together until much later (May 2024). We did not start sharing expenses until Sep 2024, when we got a joint account
2. I left the country for 24 days in Dec last year, living separately, which makes me believe it’s not been 365 consecutive days of living together

Concern: Despite this, I know how this might look in the eye of an IRCC agent, especially if I were to sponsor my partner later.

Note: I’m not planning to sponsor her anytime soon - it will be at least 2/3 years from now, maybe after we actually get serious and become married

Question: What should I do now?
- Do I need to submit the web form, and ask for clarification?
- Do I need to still add my partner to my application to avoid trouble down the line?

It feels like I’d be misrepresenting myself if I do the second option, though. As I truly do not think we qualify as common law

Thank you to anyone who might be able to provide a perspective or weigh in based on your experience

 

[canuck78]

Context: I’ve started my CEC application a year ago, and just got Portal 1 two month ago. At the time, I put “Single” as my status.

However, my current partner and former roommate and I have been living under the same roof since Sep 2023. I’m waiting for eCoPR, and only now realized this might be a problem

I did not think twice about whether this would make me common law, because:

1. We did not enter romantic relationship or live conjugally together until much later (May 2024). We did not start sharing expenses until Sep 2024, when we got a joint account
2. I left the country for 24 days in Dec last year, living separately, which makes me believe it’s not been 365 consecutive days of living together

Concern: Despite this, I know how this might look in the eye of an IRCC agent, especially if I were to sponsor my partner later.

Note: I’m not planning to sponsor her anytime soon - it will be at least 2/3 years from now, maybe after we actually get serious and become married

Question: What should I do now?
- Do I need to submit the web form, and ask for clarification?
- Do I need to still add my partner to my application to avoid trouble down the line?

It feels like I’d be misrepresenting myself if I do the second option, though. As I truly do not think we qualify as common law

Thank you to anyone who might be able to provide a perspective or weigh in based on your experience

If you were not dating until May 2024 including your partner as common law to would be misrepresentation and you would have to submit proof of living together in a marriage type relationship for 1 continuous year. Taking a 3 week without your partner during the 1 continuous year shouldn’t be an issue. What you need to be doing is keep any documentation proving when you started dating. If you plan on applying for common law in the future you should also keep documentation from the start of the 1 year period showing things like bother being on a lease, shared expenses, having same address on bills, correspondence between the two of you, pictures, etc.

 

[River flow]

If you were not dating until May 2024 including your partner as common law to would be misrepresentation and you would have to submit proof of living together in a marriage type relationship for 1 continuous year. Taking a 3 week without your partner during the 1 continuous year shouldn’t be an issue. What you need to be doing is keep any documentation proving when you started dating. If you plan on applying for common law in the future you should also keep documentation from the start of the 1 year period showing things like bother being on a lease, shared expenses, having same address on bills, correspondence between the two of you, pictures, etc.

Thank you! We plan to have that ready when we do want to apply. My question mostly is: because it might be hard to prove we are not dating (how do I go about that?), to avoid questions down the road, do I need to submit a web form with IRCC to address it clearly (aka, I’m not misrepresenting, and if they believe we should be counted as common law, I’m happy to add my partner as dependent and go through the procedure. I just dont know if I should

 

[armoured]

... to avoid questions down the road, do I need to submit a web form with IRCC to address it clearly (aka, I’m not misrepresenting, and if they believe we should be counted as common law, I’m happy to add my partner as dependent and go through the procedure. I just dont know if I should

Personally I would suggest doing exactly as you suggest above, 'FOR THE FILE' as they say. Submit with it some (whatever) evidence of when you began dating.

While I suspect IRCC is not sufficiently organized to formally evaluate it at this point - having submitted it can serve as evidence in future (when you sponsor) that you advised them, therefore not misrepresentation, and that even at the time (that is now) documented that it was not common law.

Worst comes to worst - can serve to demonstrate that any decision that you misrepresented is wrong.