CIC is confusing! Help with common law or conjucal visa?

[sarahdactyl]

Hello!

Recently, I had a potential employer apply for a LMO to help me obtain a work visa and it was denied with suggestion to fix my potential wages from $1700/mo to $22.12/hr and re-apply. This company cannot afford that and has thus given up hope on me.

I've been in Canada since October of 2011 with one touch back in the USA in May of 2012 to reset my 6 month visitor stay. During that time, I've developed a relationship and we are now considering other options for me to stay in Canada. We have been living together since November of 2011 and are not sure if we should go the common law route or the conjugal route.

From what I understand, the conjugal route means that you cannot live together for immigration reasons, which is partly true on my part since I cannot obtain a work visa and have to return to the USA every 6 months. But, we are living together for the 6 months I am here.

This is all really confusing and all I want to do is stay in Canada with my boyfriend and hopefully find another job at some point. Please help!

 

[firstchoice]

You cannot apply as a conjugal partner, this does not count as an immigration barrier. If you were refused entry that would be an immigration barrier. To be sponsored you can apply for a visitor extension before your current one expires so that you can stay together for a year in Canada, or you can live together for a year in a different location e.g. after 6 months your partner can come to live with you. The only other alternative is to marry.

 

[scylla]

Agreed. Conjugal won't work for you because you don't face significant barriers to common law or marriage.

So the short answer is that you either need to get married or live together for a year first to qualify to be sponsored by your boyfriend.

 

[sarahdactyl]

Thanks for the responses!

So if we apply for common law and live together for a year, do the past 7 months count as part of that and we could apply this upcoming November?

When I reset my visitor stay, I only went home to the US for one week. In order to get through the Canadian border without being questioned to death, I told them I was visiting friends and returning to the US in 2 weeks.

Also, if we do end up applying for common law, should I apply from Canada or do I have to go back to the US?

 

[RobsLuv]

The key to common-law is being able to prove that you have cohabitated for one year. Breaks in that year are permissible for vacations or whatever, but you need to be able to show that you have actually lived together dating back to the date you say your common-law qualification period started. Some good proofs are a lease/rental/property ownership agreement with both names, both names on utility bills, drivers' licences, etc., with the same address, joint bank statements, official paperwork, etc. If you can't prove you've actually cohabitated, you'll have a difficult time qualifying as common-law partners. When you marry, the legal marriage makes you eligible to be sponsored. You don't have to have lived together - in fact, you don't have to be living together during the process either - to be eligible. So marrying can make it easier if you don't have good proofs of common-law qualification.

Once you're qualified (being from the US) you should apply outland. That doesn't mean you have to be in the US during processing. You can stay in Canada as long as your temporary status stays valid. US citizens who are allowed entry to Canada are authorized to stay for up to six months - but it doesn't sound like you got any documentation from CIC at the border showing your entry date, so you can't prove when you came in. If you applied inland, your application would be sent for special handling that could delay the processing for a couple of years! Not only that, but inland doesn't even start processing until almost a year after you submit it, and you're stuck in Canada without the ability to work or anything that whole time. Outland processing frees you up to be able to leave the country without jeapordizing your application (basically with inland, if you leave Canada and can't get back in, your ap is forfeited). With outland, you should be finalized in less time than it takes for the inland ap just to get to first stage assessment.

Once you're qualified and get your outland ap in process, check the information about Visitor Records on the US2Canada website to find out how you get documented temporary status so you can stay in Canada while the ap is processing, and be able to apply to extend your temporary status from within Canada so you're not risking being refused re-entry by going to the border every time.

 

[sarahdactyl]

Wow! Okay, I am just now learning about this temporary resident visa... I feel so screwed over by my potential employer and so hurt over the fact that I might have to be apart from my boyfriend.

We don't have any real evidence of our relationship as I don't have a visitor visa to prove entry, I have stayed away from putting my name on anything because I was waiting for the work visa to pull through. The only evidence we have is pictures, and I do have a bank account here showing that I transfer a partial mortgage payment to him.

Would you suggest that I return to the states and get a temporary resident visa and start over?

Thanks again!

 

[sakaka]

Hello guys
I hope I could find answer for my inquires
I am in a relationship with my Canadian boy friend (m2m) 9 months ago through internet, he sent an invitation some months ago to go to hem to make marriage then to response me to stay with hem, I applied for the visa but it is refused and we made a complain in Montreal but it is refused again because they I don’t have a proof that I will return.
We haven’t met in person yet, but we are talking everyday at least one hour through Skype, we send to each other hundreds of emails during 9 months, everyday 3 or 4 emails.
Do you think we will be eligible if we applied as conjugal partner ??

 

[parker24]

Wow! Okay, I am just now learning about this temporary resident visa... I feel so screwed over by my potential employer and so hurt over the fact that I might have to be apart from my boyfriend.

We don't have any real evidence of our relationship as I don't have a visitor visa to prove entry, I have stayed away from putting my name on anything because I was waiting for the work visa to pull through. The only evidence we have is pictures, and I do have a bank account here showing that I transfer a partial mortgage payment to him.

Would you suggest that I return to the states and get a temporary resident visa and start over?

Thanks again!

That, or your boyfriend visit you. Like it was said, you need to be living together continuously for a year, doesn't really matter where. I hope it works out for you! It is confusing, I agree!!! Good luck!

 

[scylla]

Hello guys
I hope I could find answer for my inquires
I am in a relationship with my Canadian boy friend (m2m) 9 months ago through internet, he sent an invitation some months ago to go to hem to make marriage then to response me to stay with hem, I applied for the visa but it is refused and we made a complain in Montreal but it is refused again because they I don't have a proof that I will return.
We haven't met in person yet, but we are talking everyday at least one hour through Skype, we send to each other hundreds of emails during 9 months, everyday 3 or 4 emails.
Do you think we will be eligible if we applied as conjugal partner ??

No - I don't think you'd qualify for conjugal.

Is there any reason your boyfriend can't come to your country any marry you? If he can, then you don't qualify for conjugal.

And even if he can't marry you for some reason, you still aren't in a conjugal relationship. To have a conjugal relationship, you definitely would have needed to have met each other (and then visited each other several times after than). You would also need to prove that you have a "marriage like relationship" (i.e. joint accounts, joint property, naming each other in wills/insurance documents, proof of travel together, etc.). Emails are not enough to prove conjugal - you need a lot more.

 

[sakaka]

No - I don't think you'd qualify for conjugal.

Is there any reason your boyfriend can't come to your country any marry you? If he can, then you don't qualify for conjugal.

And even if he can't marry you for some reason, you still aren't in a conjugal relationship. To have a conjugal relationship, you definitely would have needed to have met each other (and then visited each other several times after than). You would also need to prove that you have a "marriage like relationship" (i.e. joint accounts, joint property, naming each other in wills/insurance documents, proof of travel together, etc.). Emails are not enough to prove conjugal - you need a lot more.

I am living in Saudi Arabia and he can't visit me, he can't have a visa to come to me, ad anyway, same sex relations is forbidden here
I tried to get visa to go to hem but I couldn't, and I have the prove for that.
we are almost all the time together through Skype.
if we applied like this, do you think the application will be refused?