NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE OF COHABITATION

[schao113]

Hi everyone, these forums have been helpful for me as I am sponsoring my US partner through inland common law route and it has been a long and tough journey. We just received a letter from IRCC today that we did not provide "sufficient evidence of cohabitation". Advice would be greatly appreciated as we are terrified of being rejected.

In hindsight, we should have planned better to have more formal evidence of our cohabitation. Some facts...

• My partner moved here in Oct 2018 while awaiting his Working Holiday Visa. He is listed on our rental lease. We have been leasing together since then.
• He received his visa in April 2019
• We submitted our PR application in February 2020
• He has not worked in Canada so he does not have tax forms. He uses his US credit card as it has no foreign transaction fees so he has never opened a bank account. He wasn't working here so he didn't get a SIN until this year when we were filing his Canadian tax return (after submitting PR app). I generally handle all the bills and he pays me for rent and utilities through cheques. He is a co-user on our Bell bill but Bell says they cannot provide bills with two account holders listed. His US cell phone plan allows for Canada-US calling and texting so he never got a Canadian phone plan. No car insurance or drivers license as I only have a G1 as of April 2018 and he sold his car when he moved here since we use public transit/bike.
• We are both listed on our tenant insurance but we didn't have to get that until Nov 2019. The IRCC seems to want more proof that we were cohabitating in Feb 2019 - which makes sense.
• The period between Oct 2018 and Feb 2019 (1 year before we submitted our PR app) is when we have the least "official" evidence as he was settling into Canada. In retrospect we should have made more effort to establish official documents.

We will explain all this to the IRCC. We are thinking of providing the following documents:

• Additional letters from coworkers and family/friends attesting to our cohabitation since Oct 2018
• Receipts of purchases such as Uber rides and Amazon purchase from Feb 2019 and prior
• Photos with date and location stamps (many of which were in our apartment)
• Bank statements of him making purchases in Toronto, such as our groceries
• Screenshots of conversations between us referencing our home together
• Photos of his cheques deposited into my bank account

I'm not sure if these types of documents will suffice. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.

 

[armoured]

At the stage you are at, you need to provide with whatever you have. Unfortunately no-one can say whether they will find this sufficient. The lease is your strongest documentary point. Second perhaps in this are receipts of things paid for by him delivered to your address.

Did you provide copies of the cheques to you from him? If not, definitely get those or other proof of money from him to you. Focus first and foremost on that initial period prior to Feb 2019.

The content of some letters refers to joint household / commingling of eg. assets etc. Provide / focus on things that are clearly joint usage - eg furniture - to avoid impression this is just apartment sharing.

 

[scylla]

Hi everyone, these forums have been helpful for me as I am sponsoring my US partner through inland common law route and it has been a long and tough journey. We just received a letter from IRCC today that we did not provide "sufficient evidence of cohabitation". Advice would be greatly appreciated as we are terrified of being rejected.

In hindsight, we should have planned better to have more formal evidence of our cohabitation. Some facts...

• My partner moved here in Oct 2018 while awaiting his Working Holiday Visa. He is listed on our rental lease. We have been leasing together since then.
• He received his visa in April 2019
• We submitted our PR application in February 2020
• He has not worked in Canada so he does not have tax forms. He uses his US credit card as it has no foreign transaction fees so he has never opened a bank account. He wasn't working here so he didn't get a SIN until this year when we were filing his Canadian tax return (after submitting PR app). I generally handle all the bills and he pays me for rent and utilities through cheques. He is a co-user on our Bell bill but Bell says they cannot provide bills with two account holders listed. His US cell phone plan allows for Canada-US calling and texting so he never got a Canadian phone plan. No car insurance or drivers license as I only have a G1 as of April 2018 and he sold his car when he moved here since we use public transit/bike.
• We are both listed on our tenant insurance but we didn't have to get that until Nov 2019. The IRCC seems to want more proof that we were cohabitating in Feb 2019 - which makes sense.
• The period between Oct 2018 and Feb 2019 (1 year before we submitted our PR app) is when we have the least "official" evidence as he was settling into Canada. In retrospect we should have made more effort to establish official documents.

We will explain all this to the IRCC. We are thinking of providing the following documents:

• Additional letters from coworkers and family/friends attesting to our cohabitation since Oct 2018
• Receipts of purchases such as Uber rides and Amazon purchase from Feb 2019 and prior
• Photos with date and location stamps (many of which were in our apartment)
• Bank statements of him making purchases in Toronto, such as our groceries
• Screenshots of conversations between us referencing our home together
• Photos of his cheques deposited into my bank account

I'm not sure if these types of documents will suffice. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much in advance.

Can you get an affidavit (or at a minimum a letter) from your landlord confirming that you have been cohabitating together since 2018? Did you add him to your workplace insurance (if you have any) as a beneficiary or dependent or anything like that pre-Feb 2019? Any medical or dental visits where he may have received a bill that are in the Feb 2019 or earlier period? Also, I am assuming you listed him as your common law partner in your 2019 tax return when you filed it?

 

[schao113]

At the stage you are at, you need to provide with whatever you have. Unfortunately no-one can say whether they will find this sufficient. The lease is your strongest documentary point. Second perhaps in this are receipts of things paid for by him delivered to your address.

Did you provide copies of the cheques to you from him? If not, definitely get those or other proof of money from him to you. Focus first and foremost on that initial period prior to Feb 2019.

The content of some letters refers to joint household / commingling of eg. assets etc. Provide / focus on things that are clearly joint usage - eg furniture - to avoid impression this is just apartment sharing.

Thank you for your response and for the advice! We will definitely provide whatever we can get, including receipts of the cheques he wrote me. When I submit these pieces of evidence, should I resubmit the lease and other relevant documents that were already included in the initial application? For example, he did a chest xray in March 2019 that has our address on the receipt. It was submitted in the initial package as part of his medical test. Should I resubmit it as proof of address explicitly?

 

[schao113]

Can you get an affidavit (or at a minimum a letter) from your landlord confirming that you have been cohabitating together since 2018? Did you add him to your workplace insurance (if you have any) as a beneficiary or dependent or anything like that pre-Feb 2019? Any medical or dental visits where he may have received a bill that are in the Feb 2019 or earlier period? Also, I am assuming you listed him as your common law partner in your 2019 tax return when you filed it?

Thank you so much for your response! Our landlord from Oct 2018 sold his unit after a year but we moved into another unit right below (still both listed on the lease). I did reach out to my initial landlord to ask him for a letter but am waiting for a response.

I added him to my work insurance as a beneficiary on Nov 2019. It doesn't cover the Oct 2018 - Feb 2019 period unfortunately. He did a chest xray for a visa in March 2019 and the receipt had our address on it. Once again, doesn't cover the Feb 2019 and prior period. Huge oversight on our part. In hindsight, I don't know why we thought our lease and other documents post Feb 2019 would be enough. Should I resubmit these documents (e.g. chest xray receipt and insurance benefits) even though it was part of my initial application?

 

[scylla]

Thank you so much for your response! Our landlord from Oct 2018 sold his unit after a year but we moved into another unit right below (still both listed on the lease). I did reach out to my initial landlord to ask him for a letter but am waiting for a response.

I added him to my work insurance as a beneficiary on Nov 2019. It doesn't cover the Oct 2018 - Feb 2019 period unfortunately. He did a chest xray for a visa in March 2019 and the receipt had our address on it. Once again, doesn't cover the Feb 2019 and prior period. Huge oversight on our part. In hindsight, I don't know why we thought our lease and other documents post Feb 2019 would be enough. Should I resubmit these documents (e.g. chest xray receipt and insurance benefits) even though it was part of my initial application?

I'm not sure it makes sense to send evidence a second time. I would focus on providing anything new you may have to support the period in question. Agree that the magic date is Feb 2019. You want evidence that dates back to this date or earlier.

 

[schao113]

I'm not sure it makes sense to send evidence a second time. I would focus on providing anything new you may have to support the period in question. Agree that the magic date is Feb 2019. You want evidence that dates back to this date or earlier.

Ok, agreed. Wouldn't want to undermine the officer or be repetitive. Just wasn't sure if the officer factored that medical receipt in because it was submitted as medical test results not as proof of cohabitation.

 

[armoured]

Thank you for your response and for the advice! We will definitely provide whatever we can get, including receipts of the cheques he wrote me. When I submit these pieces of evidence, should I resubmit the lease and other relevant documents that were already included in the initial application? For example, he did a chest xray in March 2019 that has our address on the receipt. It was submitted in the initial package as part of his medical test. Should I resubmit it as proof of address explicitly?

I don't think it makes sense to resubmit information like the lease again BUT it may help to include a short note reminding what was in the original package in list form - esp those that did hit the magic February date.

That said even if the xray doesn't hit that magic date, that's specific enough that perhaps the receipt would help (and close to the date). If the doctor also had him as a client before that, any other bill or record from the GP's office would help if dated Feb or refers to Feb as when he was enrolled. That's a judgment call though, not sure it would help. Personally I'd guess the officer didn't pay attention to the receipt, but only a guess.

Landlord: you say the landlord changed, but if the landlord (owner of the property) is a company, a letter from the company would still meet the test.

 

[armoured]

Small additional note: it can't hurt to write a short letter of explanation that because he wasn't working / resident, he kept his banking in the US, and you shared expenses by him writing you cheques - i.e. that this was just more convenient.

 

[mdmqbck]

In addition to everything that has been suggested:

• If you have it enabled, get a printout of Google Maps Timeline. Hopefully it will show that you were living at the same place.
• Search in both your emails for your address and save whatever comes out with the date and address, even online purchases or whatever.

Good luck!

 

[schao113]

Small additional note: it can't hurt to write a short letter of explanation that because he wasn't working / resident, he kept his banking in the US, and you shared expenses by him writing you cheques - i.e. that this was just more convenient.

Thank you so much! We will definitely include a letter explaining why we don't have certain documents and include a list of original documents as well an appendix for the new documents. We are going to get copies of his bank transactions showing his credit card usage in Canada too. None of this has his Canadian address explicitly but at this point, it's all we've got...

Re: landlord, our unit is owned by an individual who leases it out independently. I did however reach out to our building concierge/security who saw us between Oct 2018-Jan 2020 (he quit after that). Hoping he is willing to write a letter as well!

 

[schao113]

In addition to everything that has been suggested:

• If you have it enabled, get a printout of Google Maps Timeline. Hopefully it will show that you were living at the same place.
• Search in both your emails for your address and save whatever comes out with the date and address, even online purchases or whatever.

Good luck!

Thank you for these additional ideas! Grateful for this community

 

[OverIt]

Schao113, since you have submitted a common law application, you need to provide evidence that you and your partner have lived together CONTINUOUSLY from FEBRUARY 2019 to FEBRUARY 2020 (the date your application was received). This is the one year period that IRCC cares about.

You can go ahead and provide evidence prior to feb 2019 but anything you provide is really just a bonus. What you really need is strong evidence of continuous cohabitation from Feb 2019 to feb 2020. If your application was received Feb 3rd, 2020, you need evidence that proves continuous, uninterrupted cohabitation from feb 3rd, 2019 to feb 3rd, 2020. Hope this helps.

 

[OverIt]

Thank you so much! We will definitely include a letter explaining why we don't have certain documents and include a list of original documents as well an appendix for the new documents. We are going to get copies of his bank transactions showing his credit card usage in Canada too. None of this has his Canadian address explicitly but at this point, it's all we've got...

Re: landlord, our unit is owned by an individual who leases it out independently. I did however reach out to our building concierge/security who saw us between Oct 2018-Jan 2020 (he quit after that). Hoping he is willing to write a letter as well!

I submitted a common law application too. Except in my case, I had to do the whole process twice to get it right.


Type up a letter yourself and give it to the concierge. He can read it, edit it as he likes and sign it at the bottom. Try to make sure that any letters you provide are hand signed.

 

[Gritten]

I think with the inform provided from others that should be more than enough. But another suggestion I've seen others use, if you shop online using amazing and he has had items shipped to his name and both your address you can include the order history to add showing all the packages being shipped to your home