Procedural Fairness Request - Common Law Status

[OmniHeat]

Does anybody have any experience receiving a procedural fairness letter request? It's freaking me out.



I have a common law partner, and we lived continuously for two years (end of 2014 - end of 2016), in Canada. Officer says he's convinced we lived together for that period.

Issue, according to him, is that he's not convinced that we were in a common law relationship by the time we filled the statutory declaration and by the time I applied.

We never had a break in the relationship, however. It so happens that both of us are temporary residents, and can't just live wherever and do whatever we want. We lived apart for a while, although constantly traveling to meet, while she continued her studies. She's been living on a study permit, and our plan involved waiting for get to finish her degree. On the other hand, I was in a work permit, and found a job in another city.

We lived together during her entire summer break, for instance, and also while making the statutory declaration. We always kept contact, and even traveled together.

Additionally, we would be living together when I applied for permanent residency, but the issue is that her study permit was going to expire, and we did not want her to overstay on that. She was not able to renew her permit for an unrelated reason.

Had anybody ever gone through this problem? What's the usual outcome of a procedural fairness letter? I think the officer is being unreasonable. We are not misrepresenting our intentions.

Also, I've been declaring to CRA that I'm in common law union, even for this year. They know about my tax declaration. If they say they are not convinced that I'm in common law union, it means they should also be convinced that I'm committing tax fraud then, no? Then why are they not acknowledging it?

 

[zardoz]

Does anybody have any experience receiving a procedural fairness letter request? It's freaking me out.



I have a common law partner, and we lived continuously for two years (end of 2014 - end of 2016), in Canada. Officer says he's convinced we lived together for that period.

Issue, according to him, is that he's not convinced that we were in a common law relationship by the time we filled the statutory declaration and by the time I applied.

We never had a break in the relationship, however. It so happens that both of us are temporary residents, and can't just live wherever and do whatever we want. We lived apart for a while, although constantly traveling to meet, while she continued her studies. She's been living on a study permit, and our plan involved waiting for get to finish her degree. On the other hand, I was in a work permit, and found a job in another city.

We lived together during her entire summer break, for instance, and also while making the statutory declaration. We always kept contact, and even traveled together.

Additionally, we would be living together when I applied for permanent residency, but the issue is that her study permit was going to expire, and we did not want her to overstay on that. She was not able to renew her permit for an unrelated reason.

Had anybody ever gone through this problem? What's the usual outcome of a procedural fairness letter? I think the officer is being unreasonable. We are not misrepresenting our intentions.

Also, I've been declaring to CRA that I'm in common law union, even for this year. They know about my tax declaration. If they say they are not convinced that I'm in common law union, it means they should also be convinced that I'm committing tax fraud then, no? Then why are they not acknowledging it?

If you had not actually been cohabiting, in a conjugal relationship, at the same physical address for a minimum of 12 contiguous months before making the declaration, you were NOT common-law. CRA and IRCC are different parts of government and won't communicate without permission.

 

[OmniHeat]

If you had not actually been cohabiting, in a conjugal relationship, at the same physical address for a minimum of 12 contiguous months before making the declaration, you were NOT common-law. CRA and IRCC are different parts of government and won't communicate without permission.

I had been living for 12 contiguous months before making the declaration.

And I need to disagree about one thing. CIC is pretty straightforward to what constitutes common law union:

A person who has been living with another person in a conjugal relationship for at least one year.

It's something that happens automatically. The statutory is more about providing evidence.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Does anybody have any experience receiving a procedural fairness letter request? It's freaking me out.



I have a common law partner, and we lived continuously for two years (end of 2014 - end of 2016), in Canada. Officer says he's convinced we lived together for that period.

Issue, according to him, is that he's not convinced that we were in a common law relationship by the time we filled the statutory declaration and by the time I applied.

We never had a break in the relationship, however. It so happens that both of us are temporary residents, and can't just live wherever and do whatever we want. We lived apart for a while, although constantly traveling to meet, while she continued her studies. She's been living on a study permit, and our plan involved waiting for get to finish her degree. On the other hand, I was in a work permit, and found a job in another city.

We lived together during her entire summer break, for instance, and also while making the statutory declaration. We always kept contact, and even traveled together.

Additionally, we would be living together when I applied for permanent residency, but the issue is that her study permit was going to expire, and we did not want her to overstay on that. She was not able to renew her permit for an unrelated reason.

Had anybody ever gone through this problem? What's the usual outcome of a procedural fairness letter? I think the officer is being unreasonable. We are not misrepresenting our intentions.

Also, I've been declaring to CRA that I'm in common law union, even for this year. They know about my tax declaration. If they say they are not convinced that I'm in common law union, it means they should also be convinced that I'm committing tax fraud then, no? Then why are they not acknowledging it?

What common-law proofs did you submit? What proofs did you submit to show that the relationship is ongoing?

IRCC won't care if you are committing tax fraud. Not their department.

 

[zardoz]

I had been living for 12 contiguous months before making the declaration.

And I need to disagree about one thing. CIC is pretty straightforward to what constitutes common law union:

It's something that happens automatically. The statutory is more about providing evidence.

Maybe I should have said "before making the declaration, you were NOT common-law at the time of declaration".

 

[OmniHeat]

What common-law proofs did you submit? What proofs did you submit to show that the relationship is ongoing?

IRCC won't care if you are committing tax fraud. Not their department.

I sent tax assessment notice, joint account information, correspondence, pictures.
The issue I guess is that I was not able to show so much information supporting that the relationship was ongoing, after we stopped living together. for a while.

 

[OmniHeat]

Maybe I should have said "before making the declaration, you were NOT common-law at the time of declaration".

I was assuming that a couple can still be considered to be in common-law union, even if they are currently living separate, as long as they met the minimum amount of 12 months at some point. Is my assumption wrong?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I sent tax assessment notice, joint account information, correspondence, pictures.
The issue I guess is that I was not able to show so much information supporting that the relationship was ongoing, after we stopped living together. for a while.

You need to focus on proving the relationship has been ongoing since you stopped living together on order to overcome the procedural fairness letter.