Hi Everyone,
I would really appreciate some advice on whether my partner and I qualify as common law partners. I have read dozens of posts on this excellent forum and as as the guidelines on the http://www.cic.gc.ca website but I could not find an answer to my specific query. I am essentially concerned about the following wording at the end of the definition:
(You are allowed short absences for business travel or family reasons, however.)
Our circumstances are:
I am a British citizen and my partner is a Canadian citizen. We have been living together in London since November 2007 and we plan to move out of our London apartment after 12 months in November this year. She will move back to Canada and I will travel there as a visitor and submit our application from Canada (but I beleive I can still request for this to be processed in the UK). So the 12 months cohabitating is not a problem. Also the proving our relationship is lasting, continuing and genuine is not an issue as our apartment in London is leased under both of our names, we have joint bank accounts, utility bills in both names, we've met each of our parents, have hundreds of photos, thousands of emails etc.
My concerns are around the following 2 points:
1) My partner is employed by a Canadian company, but her role was mostly based in the UK. However, she was required to regularly travel back to Canada, and sometimes for lengthy periods. By the end of our lease in November this year, she would have taken 4 trips back to Canada for business reasons, and 2 of them were for 6 weeks, and the other 2 were for 2 weeks.. Is this tool long to be considered "short" under the definition of Common Law? During 1 of the 6 week absenses I travelled to Canada to be with her for 2 weeks, so hopefully that will help.
2) When she travelled back to Canada for these business trips, she stayed in an Apartment that she owns and maintains. Does this violate the definition of Common Law? ie can you not have a second home that you sometimes live in? The reason for this is that she is a consultant working for a Canadian company but her jon is mostly (say 75%) based in the UK.
If anyone could shed some light onto our elligibility would be extremely grateful.
Have a great day!
Kind Regards,
Brad
I would really appreciate some advice on whether my partner and I qualify as common law partners. I have read dozens of posts on this excellent forum and as as the guidelines on the http://www.cic.gc.ca website but I could not find an answer to my specific query. I am essentially concerned about the following wording at the end of the definition:
(You are allowed short absences for business travel or family reasons, however.)
Our circumstances are:
I am a British citizen and my partner is a Canadian citizen. We have been living together in London since November 2007 and we plan to move out of our London apartment after 12 months in November this year. She will move back to Canada and I will travel there as a visitor and submit our application from Canada (but I beleive I can still request for this to be processed in the UK). So the 12 months cohabitating is not a problem. Also the proving our relationship is lasting, continuing and genuine is not an issue as our apartment in London is leased under both of our names, we have joint bank accounts, utility bills in both names, we've met each of our parents, have hundreds of photos, thousands of emails etc.
My concerns are around the following 2 points:
1) My partner is employed by a Canadian company, but her role was mostly based in the UK. However, she was required to regularly travel back to Canada, and sometimes for lengthy periods. By the end of our lease in November this year, she would have taken 4 trips back to Canada for business reasons, and 2 of them were for 6 weeks, and the other 2 were for 2 weeks.. Is this tool long to be considered "short" under the definition of Common Law? During 1 of the 6 week absenses I travelled to Canada to be with her for 2 weeks, so hopefully that will help.
2) When she travelled back to Canada for these business trips, she stayed in an Apartment that she owns and maintains. Does this violate the definition of Common Law? ie can you not have a second home that you sometimes live in? The reason for this is that she is a consultant working for a Canadian company but her jon is mostly (say 75%) based in the UK.
If anyone could shed some light onto our elligibility would be extremely grateful.
Have a great day!
Kind Regards,
Brad