I have been a PR living in Canada for 2 years. Here are the facts of my case. I applied under the Conjugal category, my partner and I have a child together who is also a PR and resides with me in Canada. I declared her as a non accompanying common law partner on my PR application because she was in process of finishing school in my home country. Did I apy under the correct category and do you anticipate any issues? Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Conjugal- Chances of approval
- Thread starter drerhys
- Start date
You applied under the wrong category. You should retract /withdraw and apply for spousal on common law basis. If you were common law before and have remained in a relationship since (even if physically apart) you can still claim common law. (Does your partner have a visa/from visa waiver country?)
Hopefully having declared her as common law before and having a child together should make it a straightforward case. You will still need to show that you resided together (in past) for 12 months continuous, I believe, and that you have maintained relationship since.
Conjugal is for very specific and limited circumstances: where there are legal and immigration barriers to getting married and/or establishing common law. Eg one partner in a country where (for example) cross-religious marriage not allowed and no possibility for that partner to come to Canada (eg visa denied).
Ok thanks. I was confused because I read that if my spouse is currently outside of Canada I could only apply under the Conjugal category.
That's not correct. You can certainly apply as common law if your partner is outside of Canada.
You should have applied as common law. You are not conjugal.
When did you submit the application?
The application was submitted a week ago. How should I proceed ? How do I retract it and will they send the application package back to me?
The application was submitted a week ago. How should I proceed ? How do I retract it and will they send the application package back to me
Honestly don't know - you'd have to look at the forms and how they are interconnected in detail to make sure.
It sounds like you may have rushed your application a bit if you did not notice the differences and requirements in documentation - you might take a few days and check very carefully. As noted for a common law application you will have to provide good solid documentation that you resided together a year - if you haven't done so, then just swapping out the one form is not going to be sufficient.
I'm not sure that will work. You may wait months only for it to end in refusal.
As part of a common law application, you have to submit evidence to prove a full year of cohabitation (e.g. joint leases, joint utilities, etc.). Did you do that?
Safest option is to withdraw the conjugal application and submit a new common law application.
I was the only one working at the time and she was attending University so we didn't have shared bills or anything like that and we lived at my parents house so rental agreements. We have a child together so I submitted our childs birth certificate along with the Statutory declaration common law document that was used for my PR application. Will I need additional documents? For my PR app they accepted they didn't request any additional docs.
Yes - you will need additional documents. This is not enough to be approved as common law.
I would recommend that you withdraw your application. You have applied under the wrong class and haven't included enough evidence to be approved.