Conjugal Partner Sponsorship

[driley1487]

Hi there everyone,

I recently applied for Permanent Residence under Conjugal Partner Sponsorship and I am yet to receive any confirmation that our papers have been received. Granted it's only been a month. Here's a little background into our application.

My girlfriend and I (she's Canadian) currently reside it Doha, Qatar and she know wants to move back home. I want to make the move with her (I'm a British Citizen). We sent a massive folder full of everything, photos, testimonial letters, job guarentees for her etc. My fees have already been paid and I already have both a Qatari and British Police Certificate in my possession.

The reason we are applying under the Conjugal Partner programme is that it's forbidden for unmarried couples to live together, have joint bank accounts etc in Qatar as it's a Muslim country. In all it's a bit of a different circumstance that we find ourselves in.

We applied via the mail and I just wanted to know how we can find out that our application is in their hands? I've tried the online portal but as I've had no acknowledgment as of yet I can't provide all the numbers they are asking for?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

David

 

[scylla]

Very high chance of refusal since there are no real immigration barriers to you getting married or becoming common law. You may not be able to live together in Doha, but there are any number of other places in the world where you can.

Edit - to answer your question, it will be around 8 weeks before you'll be able to confirm that your application has been received.

 

[driley1487]

Very high chance of refusal since there are no real immigration barriers to you getting married or becoming common law. You may not be able to live together in Doha, but there are any number of other places in the world where you can.

I understand what you're saying but we don't want to leave here without confirmed work.

My Girlfriend has a letter from her current work (she works for them here but they are a Canadian company) stating that she can go straight back to work for the company upon returning.

I, on the other hand, won't be able to work in Canada without obtaining the correct paper work.

What way round this do we have then?

 

[driley1487]

Very high chance of refusal since there are no real immigration barriers to you getting married or becoming common law. You may not be able to live together in Doha, but there are any number of other places in the world where you can.

Edit - to answer your question, it will be around 8 weeks before you'll be able to confirm that your application has been received.

In short my girlfriend wants to return home where her family are and where we can build a life together. A move I want to make with her.

We don't want to rush marriage for the sake of the application.

We are both only 30 but if she wants to leave and I want to join her in order to build our futures together what else can we do?

 

[kcward7]

In short my girlfriend wants to return home where her family are and where we can build a life together. A move I want to make with her.

We don't want to rush marriage for the sake of this.

We are both only 30 but if she wants to leave and I want to join her in order to buul

Your options are to marry and apply that way or establish common law and apply that way. As already noted, you do not qualify for conjugal.

 

[scylla]

I understand what you're saying but we don't want to leave here without confirmed work.

My Girlfriend has a letter from her current work (she works for them here but they are a Canadian company) stating that she can go straight back to work for the company upon returning.

I, on the other hand, won't be able to work in Canada without obtaining the correct paper work.

What way round this do we have then?

From CIC's perspective you have many ways around this.

None of this will be regarded as a real immigration barrier by CIC unfortunately. You can easily come to Canada as a visitor and live here for a year to become common law. Sure - you won't be able to work here as a visitor. But that's not an immigration barrier to you becoming common law. Or you could get married. Many of us here have faced similar situations and have had to make sometimes tough choices on how to move forward that have involved employment sacrifices, etc. From that perspective your situation really isn't that unique.

Conjugal is for situations where it is literally impossible to get married or become common law. An example would be a couple where the applicant is from the Philippines and was previously married (divorce is next to impossible there - so barrier to marriage) - and the Canadian is not legally allowed to visit the country for more than a few months. The applicant has also been refused a TRV to come to Canada. So no options for common law. This is the sort of scenario that typically falls under conjugal.

You should definitely have a plan b in place and understand there's a very high chance your application is going to be refused.

 

[scylla]

In short my girlfriend wants to return home where her family are and where we can build a life together. A move I want to make with her.

We don't want to rush marriage for the sake of the application.

We are both only 30 but if she wants to leave and I want to join her in order to build our futures together what else can we do?

If you are 30 right now, you should look into the IEC / Working Holiday Visa program as a back up plan. There are way more applicants than spots available - but you may get lucky.

There's really nothing in your profile that makes you guys candidates for conjugal. No barriers to marriage. No barriers to living together in Canada to become common law. Please start looking into your plan b.

 

[driley1487]

If you are 30 right now, you should look into the IEC / Working Holiday Visa program as a back up plan. There are way more applicants than spots available - but you may get lucky.

There's really nothing in your profile that makes you guys candidates for conjugal. No barriers to marriage. No barriers to living together in Canada to become common law. Please start looking into your plan b.

Thank you for your reply, I shall look into that.

I forgot to say that ordinarily we would have apply for Common Law as we have lived together for just over a year but in Qatar only I'm allowed to have my name on the lease hence applying for Conjugal.

This is something we also outlined in our application

 

[scylla]

Thank you for your reply, I shall look into that.

I forgot to say that ordinarily we would have apply for Common Law as we have lived together for just over a year but in Qatar only I'm allowed to have my name on the lease hence applying for Conjugal.

This is something we also outlined in our application

In that case you are common law by CIC's definition. You should have applied as common law and provided evidence (other than a lease) to prove you have one year of cohabitation. Hard to know what CIC will do with your application in that case since you applied under the wrong class.

 

[Rob_TO]

Thank you for your reply, I shall look into that.

I forgot to say that ordinarily we would have apply for Common Law as we have lived together for just over a year but in Qatar only I'm allowed to have my name on the lease hence applying for Conjugal.

This is something we also outlined in our application

You need to immediately contact IRCC to change your app from conjugal to common-law.

A conjugal app in your case has essentially zero chance of success. Allow it to continue and it's guaratneed to be rejected. You face zero immigration or legal barriers to getting married or becoming common-law. Basically any Canadian and British citizen will never be able to qualify under conjugal since any barriers to marriage or common-law will always be seen as personal choices for employment, job, etc which is irrelevant to IRCC.

Suggest you read all sections on conjugal here: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/migration/ircc/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf
5.25. Characteristics of conjugal relationships
5.26. Assessment of conjugal relationships
5.45. What is a conjugal partner?
5.46. Can conjugal partners be substitutes for fiancé(e)s?..
5.47. Assessment of conjugal partner relationships

IRCC can change status of apps at their discretion. Or they may ask you to re-submit a new common-law app.
See here from same link above:
5.51. Switching categories between spouses, common-law partners and conjugal partners

But in any case do not continue with your conjugal app as it's just throwing the processing fees away.

 

[driley1487]

You need to immediately contact IRCC to change your app from conjugal to common-law.

A conjugal app in your case has essentially zero chance of success. Allow it to continue and it's guaratneed to be rejected. You face zero immigration or legal barriers to getting married or becoming common-law. Basically any Canadian and British citizen will never be able to qualify under conjugal since any barriers to marriage or common-law will always be seen as personal choices for employment, job, etc which is irrelevant to IRCC.

Suggest you read all sections on conjugal here: https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/migration/ircc/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf
5.25. Characteristics of conjugal relationships
5.26. Assessment of conjugal relationships
5.45. What is a conjugal partner?
5.46. Can conjugal partners be substitutes for fiancé(e)s?..
5.47. Assessment of conjugal partner relationships

IRCC can change status of apps at their discretion. Or they may ask you to re-submit a new common-law app.
See here from same link above:
5.51. Switching categories between spouses, common-law partners and conjugal partners

But in any case do not continue with your conjugal app as it's just throwing the processing fees away.

Thanks for the advice but even if we have lived together for a year I have no way to prove it as it's technically illegal here. We live in a very Western part of town where it is discretional but I asked them to add my partner to the lease and they said they can't.

I'm not sure what proof I could provide iI'm being honest

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks for the advice but even if we have lived together for a year I have no way to prove it as it's technically illegal here. We live in a very Western part of town where it is discretional but I asked them to add my partner to the lease and they said they can't.

I'm not sure what proof I could provide iI'm being honest

You need to try, using whatever proofs you can. Can the owner simply sign a declaration that you lived together even if it's not on a lease? Getting declarations from friends/neighbors who know you both lived there? Did you both get mail to the address? Bills to address? Shared insurance plan? Shared bank account, credit card, phone plan? etc etc.

Or wait until you can get married, or live somewhere for 1 year and get more concrete evidence of it

Regardless, you need to withdraw your conjugal app since it has no chance to succeed.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

No chance of conjugal. You are already common-law and there are no legal/immigration barriers preventing you from marrying.