NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE OF COHABITATION

[schao113]

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.

Hi there, I submitted proof of joint insurance and other documents from months in between Feb 2019-Feb 2020 in my initial application, which wasn't enough. I am focusing around the Feb 2019 time frame now as that was the one year mark that we have less evidence for. I will resubmit some documents such as a medical bill in March 2019. Any advice on how else I can show CONTINUOUS cohabitation given our limitations? We unfortunately just didn't have to get things like joint insurance until Nov 2019 which I've already provided the IRCC. We will get whatever we can that covers a wide range of time and all our letters will state we have been cohabitating consecutively since Oct 2018. Thank you!

 

[schao113]

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

Thank you, we will include receipt of packages shipped to this address!

 

[schao113]

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.

Sorry to hear you had to do it twice! We are mentally preparing for the same at this point. In hindsight we should have known better.

 

[OverIt]

Hi there, I submitted proof of joint insurance and other documents from months in between Feb 2019-Feb 2020 in my initial application, which wasn't enough. I am focusing around the Feb 2019 time frame now as that was the one year mark that we have less evidence for. I will resubmit some documents such as a medical bill in March 2019. Any advice on how else I can show CONTINUOUS cohabitation given our limitations? We unfortunately just didn't have to get things like joint insurance until Nov 2019 which I've already provided the IRCC. We will get whatever we can that covers a wide range of time and all our letters will state we have been cohabitating consecutively since Oct 2018. Thank you!

If you lived/live in a condo/apartment, try to get the record of your comings and goings, for both you and your partner. For example, some buildings give you a fob key so they have a record of every time you and your partner have used that key to enter and leave the building.

You can also resubmit your lease or residential information sheet (if you have one) but this time, get your building management to put a stamp on it.

Get more hand signed letters from friends, families, neighbours attesting to the fact that you have lived together without breaks from oct 2018 to feb 2020.

 

[canuck78]

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.

You said he wasn't working in Canada but was he working remotely? Do you have records that you updated your common law status to CRA in Oct 2019? Not sure if CRA would provide that.

 

[schao113]

Hi everyone, thanks again for all your helpful tips and responses - it is much appreciated. We submitted additional documents re: proof of cohabitation to the IRCC in December. Will we receive a response one way or another? Or will no news be good news? I assume that if the proof we provided is not enough, that they would send us another letter to say so.

 

[takitfree]

Hi everyone, thanks again for all your helpful tips and responses - it is much appreciated. We submitted additional documents to the IRCC in December. Will we receive a response one way or another? Or will no news be good news?

I don’t think “no news is good news.” If wait till February and then follow up with them at the one year mark.

 

[Joeydocs]

Hi everyone, thanks again for all your helpful tips and responses - it is much appreciated. We submitted additional documents re: proof of cohabitation to the IRCC in December. Will we receive a response one way or another? Or will no news be good news? I assume that if the proof we provided is not enough, that they would send us another letter to say so.

When you received the request did they give a 30 day window to respond? If so I believe you will hear back very soon.

 

[schao113]

When you received the request did they give a 30 day window to respond? If so I believe you will hear back very soon.

We were given 90 days (until February 25 2021) to submit the new documents.

 

[Alexh]

Hello,


Did you get the PR successfully? Did IRCC find it sufficient enough?

We were given 90 days (until February 25 2021) to submit the new documents.

 

[schao113]

Hello,


Did you get the PR successfully? Did IRCC find it sufficient enough?

Hello! Yes, the IRCC found it sufficient! We are very grateful. My partner now has PR. We are just waiting for the PR card to be processed.

 

[Alexh]

That’s awesome I’m so happy for you guys!

I’m in a similar boat and was wondering what all you guys ended submitting to IRcc.

Hello! Yes, the IRCC found it sufficient! We are very grateful. My partner now has PR. We are just waiting for the PR card to be processed.

 

[schao113]

That’s awesome I’m so happy for you guys!

I’m in a similar boat and was wondering what all you guys ended submitting to IRcc.

Sorry to hear! We ended up submitting 14 documents (everything we could possibly find to be safe).
- A copy of our resident information/move in forms for our condo building
- Bank copies of rent cheques from my partner, deposited by me
- A copy of one month's worth of credit card transactions from my partner's bank showing purchases made in Canada
- 3 letters: one from my HR department at work, one from my partner's manager, one from a friend
- Various receipts showing purchases we made with our address, e.g. Amazon, Uber, hotel, Ikea
- My partner's insurance enrollment form for my work. It was from Aug 2019 (which doesn't prove cohabitation from one year prior to our application submission date) but the form stated the date we began cohabitation
- Screenshots of our Facebook messenger conversations that reference our home together and our move in process
- A transcript from Bell, showing me ordering internet and adding my partner as a co-user (Bell bills only show the main account holder)
- My transaction record from when I ordered a new health card

In addition, we submitted a letter of explanation outlining what documents we couldn't provide while detailing the documents we were able to provide.

Note: the upload limit on the web form is 3MB. I spent some time compressing all our documents to be able to submit so many!

Good luck!!

 

[Alexh]

Sorry to hear! We ended up submitting 14 documents (everything we could possibly find to be safe).
- A copy of our resident information/move in forms for our condo building
- Bank copies of rent cheques from my partner, deposited by me
- A copy of one month's worth of credit card transactions from my partner's bank showing purchases made in Canada
- 3 letters: one from my HR department at work, one from my partner's manager, one from a friend
- Various receipts showing purchases we made with our address, e.g. Amazon, Uber, hotel, Ikea
- My partner's insurance enrollment form for my work. It was from Aug 2019 (which doesn't prove cohabitation from one year prior to our application submission date) but the form stated the date we began cohabitation
- Screenshots of our Facebook messenger conversations that reference our home together and our move in process
- A transcript from Bell, showing me ordering internet and adding my partner as a co-user (Bell bills only show the main account holder)
- My transaction record from when I ordered a new health card

In addition, we submitted a letter of explanation outlining what documents we couldn't provide while detailing the documents we were able to provide.

Note: the upload limit on the web form is 3MB. I spent some time compressing all our documents to be able to submit so many!

Good luck!!

Thanks for the reply and the helpful post

 

[sharmgop]

Guys, I have a received a letter that the officer is not convinced with the proofs I provided, and is demanding for more, he also wrote the failure to disabuse his concern will result in refusal. I need help guys
Please guide me on what to provide