Hello,
My wife and I recently arrived in Canada (July 6th) and are working on our application. We were legally married in South Korea--she's a Korean citizen and I'm Canadian.
One section we're a little worried about in our application is in the "Proof of Relationship" section. One question asks "Are you and your spouse currently living together?"--and the answer is yes, we are. However, we are currently living with my parents while we get our footing in Canada. From some of the threads I've read here, CIC seems pretty strict when it comes to the Proof of Cohabitation section.
We are unable to provide/submit a lot of the evidence it asks us for, such as proof of joint ownership of a home (living with parents), rental agreement with both our names (again, living with parents), joint utility accounts in our name (parents pay for them), etc.
That being said, we can definitely provide some of the evidence the form asks for.
1) We recently opened a joint bank account together and I'm going to call my credit card company and ask them to add my wife's name to my card.
2) We are both going to get new cell phone plans and they'll have our names and the same address (my parents' address) on each bill.
3) We are also thinking of getting my wife to apply for her Ontario driver's license as Korea has a license exchange program with Ontario. Getting her Ontario license has its own problems though such as getting her license and documents notarized by the Korean embassy. But this is doable.
4) Also I'll get my parents to write a detailed letter stating that my wife and I have lived at their address since arriving in Canada, and that we are planning to live with them for the foreseeable future. I also had a friend write a letter when he came to visit which stated our relationship was genuine and that we were living at my parents place.
5) We also have some receipts from when we mailed things from Korea to my parents' house (the receipts have my parents address on them). Not sure if this would be good evidence or not.
This seems to be the best we can do for the evidence listed on the form. The form says to choose at least two items, which I believe we can do. However, I worry that our evidence isn't the strongest. Is there anything I missed that would help our case here? What else can we submit?
There's also a note that says if we didn't check at least two boxes above, to write a detailed explanation. Would it be worthwhile to submit a written explanation clarifying why we don't have a lot of evidence and stating our plans for the future?
My wife and I recently arrived in Canada (July 6th) and are working on our application. We were legally married in South Korea--she's a Korean citizen and I'm Canadian.
One section we're a little worried about in our application is in the "Proof of Relationship" section. One question asks "Are you and your spouse currently living together?"--and the answer is yes, we are. However, we are currently living with my parents while we get our footing in Canada. From some of the threads I've read here, CIC seems pretty strict when it comes to the Proof of Cohabitation section.
We are unable to provide/submit a lot of the evidence it asks us for, such as proof of joint ownership of a home (living with parents), rental agreement with both our names (again, living with parents), joint utility accounts in our name (parents pay for them), etc.
That being said, we can definitely provide some of the evidence the form asks for.
1) We recently opened a joint bank account together and I'm going to call my credit card company and ask them to add my wife's name to my card.
2) We are both going to get new cell phone plans and they'll have our names and the same address (my parents' address) on each bill.
3) We are also thinking of getting my wife to apply for her Ontario driver's license as Korea has a license exchange program with Ontario. Getting her Ontario license has its own problems though such as getting her license and documents notarized by the Korean embassy. But this is doable.
4) Also I'll get my parents to write a detailed letter stating that my wife and I have lived at their address since arriving in Canada, and that we are planning to live with them for the foreseeable future. I also had a friend write a letter when he came to visit which stated our relationship was genuine and that we were living at my parents place.
5) We also have some receipts from when we mailed things from Korea to my parents' house (the receipts have my parents address on them). Not sure if this would be good evidence or not.
This seems to be the best we can do for the evidence listed on the form. The form says to choose at least two items, which I believe we can do. However, I worry that our evidence isn't the strongest. Is there anything I missed that would help our case here? What else can we submit?
There's also a note that says if we didn't check at least two boxes above, to write a detailed explanation. Would it be worthwhile to submit a written explanation clarifying why we don't have a lot of evidence and stating our plans for the future?