Procedural Fairness Letter - Lack of supporting evidence of common-law

[hunterrrr]

Hello Canada Visa Forum,

Within our family class application - common law, we declared we have been cohabitating since September in 2018. From what we submitted they are saying we only demonstrated this from June 2020 till when the application was received which is less than a year.

I have begun compiling evidence of our cohabitation from September 2018, including Tenancy agreement with our names on it, letter from landlord, letter from both roommates, invoices and receipts (gym, amazon, concert tickets) that have both our names and our address, bank statements showing transfer of rent, T4's with that address (for both of us), payslips with that address (for both of us) , screenshots of whatsapp group chats with landlord and roommates, facebook messages from myself (applicant) to friends and family informing them of my new address from throughout that period..

My questions are,

- is it possible to provide too many letters from friends & family / facebook messages / emails / invoices...?

- if what I provide does not satisfy them will I get another opportunity to provide evidence or will it be a refusal?

Thanks so much...

 

[scylla]

Hello Canada Visa Forum,

Within our family class application - common law, we declared we have been cohabitating since September in 2018. From what we submitted they are saying we only demonstrated this from June 2020 till when the application was received which is less than a year.

I have begun compiling evidence of our cohabitation from September 2018, including Tenancy agreement with our names on it, letter from landlord, letter from both roommates, invoices and receipts (gym, amazon, concert tickets) that have both our names and our address, bank statements showing transfer of rent, T4's with that address (for both of us), payslips with that address (for both of us) , screenshots of whatsapp group chats with landlord and roommates, facebook messages from myself (applicant) to friends and family informing them of my new address from throughout that period..

My questions are,

- is it possible to provide too many letters from friends & family / facebook messages / emails / invoices...?

- if what I provide does not satisfy them will I get another opportunity to provide evidence or will it be a refusal?

Thanks so much...

- I don't think there's such a thing as too many family / facebook messages / emails. But at the same time, don't go overboard. Focus on evidence that proves actual cohabitation (this would be stuff like the tenancy agreement, bank statements showing the same address, the T4s, Notice of Assessments that list each other and state your are common law, etc.).

- IRCC will make a decision based on the strength of the evidence you provide. This is the one chance.

 

[hunterrrr]

- I don't think there's such a thing as too many family / facebook messages / emails. But at the same time, don't go overboard. Focus on evidence that proves actual cohabitation (this would be stuff like the tenancy agreement, bank statements showing the same address, the T4s, Notice of Assessments that list each other and state your are common law, etc.).

- IRCC will make a decision based on the strength of the evidence you provide. This is the one chance.

Thanks a lot Scylla,

I will not squander this chance.

 

[scylla]

Thanks a lot Scylla,

I will not squander this chance.

It's critical that you focus on evidence that shows that you had at least one year of cohabitation at the time your application was received. So let's say the application was received by IRCC Oct 2020, then you want to very strongly focus on evidence that dates back to at least October 2019 (if not longer). I'm assuming you filed your taxes as common law for 2019 and 2020. Includes your notice of assessments. This is strong evidence.

 

[canuck78]

Thanks a lot Scylla,

I will not squander this chance.

The fact that you lived with roommates complicates the situation. We run into examples on the forum where people don’t want the time living with roommates counting as living together and other wanting to count it as living together. Just to clarify you were renting one bedroom together there wan’t a separate bedroom for each of you in the home. As @scylla already specified concrete information is what really counts. Letters from family, friends, landlords, etc. are not that reliable so are not considered very good evidence. Bills (with name address and date), leases, other mail, tax filings stating you are married or common law, proof that you added a partner as common to your insurance plan at work, etc. are what really count.

 

[armoured]

Within our family class application - common law, we declared we have been cohabitating since September in 2018. From what we submitted they are saying we only demonstrated this from June 2020 till when the application was received which is less than a year.

I have begun compiling evidence of our cohabitation from September 2018, including Tenancy agreement with our names on it, letter from landlord, letter from both roommates, invoices and receipts (gym, amazon, concert tickets) that have both our names and our address, bank statements showing transfer of rent, T4's with that address (for both of us), payslips with that address (for both of us) , screenshots of whatsapp group chats with landlord and roommates, facebook messages from myself (applicant) to friends and family informing them of my new address from throughout that period..

Mostly agree with points made by other posters above, so minor points:

-It's unclear what evidence you provided before of your joint cohabitation - did you provide much of this with your original submission? (At any rate do not be shy of repeating but look for the gaps in the first submission - as noted, from the start of your cohabitation).
-The 'both roommates' issue will likely be central in this (for reasons explained). It will be one thing to demonstrate that you factually resided at the same address and another that this was full joint cohabitation from a specific date.
-Does your relationship evidence stretch to before September 2018? It will not be convincing if your relationship started at the same time as moving in - then it will be much harder to show exactly when the 'common law joint residence' began.
-Hope that your tenancy agreement was specific to you and your partner as a couple, for a joint space, and somehow distinct from the other roommates. (I.e. if it's a lease agreement with four people named, it's just going to look like a large shared accommodation).
-Likewise for the chats, facebook messages, and other contemporaneous evidence - it is important that these are not just messages saying "here's my new address" but more specific and clear about the relationship / joint cohabitation (e.g. "yep it's official we're moving in together" incl eg hoary cliches about making honest folk of each other or pooling your cutlery or whatever that makes it clear the moving in is the conjugal full-time cohabitaiton arrangement).

 

[hunterrrr]

Mostly agree with points made by other posters above, so minor points:

-It's unclear what evidence you provided before of your joint cohabitation - did you provide much of this with your original submission? (At any rate do not be shy of repeating but look for the gaps in the first submission - as noted, from the start of your cohabitation).
-The 'both roommates' issue will likely be central in this (for reasons explained). It will be one thing to demonstrate that you factually resided at the same address and another that this was full joint cohabitation from a specific date.
-Does your relationship evidence stretch to before September 2018? It will not be convincing if your relationship started at the same time as moving in - then it will be much harder to show exactly when the 'common law joint residence' began.
-Hope that your tenancy agreement was specific to you and your partner as a couple, for a joint space, and somehow distinct from the other roommates. (I.e. if it's a lease agreement with four people named, it's just going to look like a large shared accommodation).
-Likewise for the chats, facebook messages, and other contemporaneous evidence - it is important that these are not just messages saying "here's my new address" but more specific and clear about the relationship / joint cohabitation (e.g. "yep it's official we're moving in together" incl eg hoary cliches about making honest folk of each other or pooling your cutlery or whatever that makes it clear the moving in is the conjugal full-time cohabitaiton arrangement).

Thank you armoured for your extra advice. Sorry for the late response, have been compiling and just submitted on the weekend.

As we have been together for 3 years now I was definitely lax on the evidence from earlier on in our relationship for the initial application and kind of took for granted that we were common-law (have not been lax in my response to PFL).

I appreciate you drawing attention to the fact that living together doesn't necessarily mean cohabiting in the common-law sense, and that messages referring to each other as partners are to be valued.

I ended up with a large amount of evidence. Subject to its success I will list more specifically what I provided so that people in my position in the coming years can potentially utilise it (not my evidence but a similar kind of evidence relevant to them).

The original submission had an abundance of evidence of us being romantically involved, I interpreted the PFL (hopefully correctly) to be more of an issue of meeting the legal definition of common-law and cohabitation. The 'both roommates' were another couple so I included in their letters the fact that they were also a couple and so it was 2 couples and not a large shared house situation. So the lease is in 4 separate names, hopefully this doesn't impact too negatively on the application.

We don't have an abundance of evidence before Sept 2018 apart from anecdotal, things moved pretty quickly with us.

Following Scylla's advice not only did I accumulate evidence from Sept 2018 onwards but upon arriving at 13months before the application was received I composed a detailed timeline of month by month movements with corresponding evidence to throughly demonstrate our cohabitation and shared lives up to application reception date.

Thanks again everyone and I'll check in again with my result.

May the officers be with you.

 

[hunterrrr]

Hello Thread!

Just updating you all, and thanking you all again.

I have received an invitation to pre arrival services and a ready for visa letter from my local officers.

These are both a lot more positive than the PFL I received 2 months ago.

It seems like they enjoyed my additional evidence and I cannot thank you all enough for your advice. You are all legends, your time spent helping people on this forum is time well spent.

Thank you for making a difference in my life.

Hunterrrrr

 

[armoured]

Congrats.