Stine said:
We will apply under common-law in September this year, which is when our 12 months of living together will be completed. So I still have lots of time to complete the forms, however, I do want to be prepared and gather useful information today. I am the organized type of person that panics when there are too many unknown factors ;D
Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can take fingerprints in Québec? Can I just show up at any police station and they will do it for me?
I lived in the US for a while and need to apply for a police certificate with the FBI.
Thanks!
Ok so you have a while to sort everything, very organised, it took me a while to get everything together. You are right, It is best to know everything before it happens.
I don't know if you know these details but they may come in handy.
For the proof of the 12 months common-law relationship, living together,
I highly recommend you send 12 months worth of joint bank statements if you have them.
If you don't, separate letters with your name and address on each for the 12 months. I did common-law also, (we have lived together for 5 years), I gave loads of info like lease etc, loads of proof like photos, holidays, my Quebec driving licence showing the addresses we have lived in Quebec, some bank statements, other things with our address and that still wasn't enough. In the end she wanted 3 joint bank statements about 4 months apart showing the 12 month period. Honestly though if you have it, send a joint bank statement for all of the 12 months; you only need the 1st page of each. They are not checking them for finance reasons, it doesn't matter what money is in them, it is just to check that you lived together for 12 months. The process will be simpler if you do. If you don't have a joint bank account, I advise you get one as soon as possible and use other evidence for the months where you didn't have a joint bank account.
For Medical and Police Check, for places where you have lived (person sponsored) more than 6 months. If you plan to do the Medical and Police Check and send it with the application, THEY MUST BE DONE WITHIN 3 MONTHS OF SENDING THE APPLICATION.
Also if your application takes more than 12 months to complete. Your medical and police checks expire after 12 months when they were issued and you MUST redo them, costing you both TIME and MONEY. The problem, do them at the start and they could expire before the Permanent Resident is given. Do they them later and it can hold up your application.
Every-time something is sent from you to CPC Vegreville - they go into a post room where they sit for a few weeks to a couple of months (I don't want to give an exact timeline). The least amount of times you need to send something to them, it helps keep the time down for processing the application and the medical and police check not to expire.
I do have a solution for you though if you don't want to send the medical and police check at the start. I have the fax number and I know how to get it to the person processing your file, they get the fax the same day you send it, rather than it sitting in a mail room. I think one of the reasons they sit in a mail room for a while is for security reasons (explosives etc). As you can imagine, someone denied a visa to live or stay in Canada....
The finger prints, I am not sure about but I know a lot of different places do them, you can check this place out if you are in Montreal, Laval or Quebec City. (For the UK police check, I didn't have to do them).
http://www.redsealnotary.com/public-canada/quebec/quebec-city.html