common law co-habiting question

[sooki189]

hello everyone, just a question about the common law process and proving out co habitation, i have been living with my partner for 14 months, but the first 4 months we were jsut subletting and have no landlord who will write us a letter or a joint lease etc, so very hard to proove, the last 8 months we have been living together and although only my name is on the lease our landlord will write us a notarized letter, however this would still leave us four months short, if my partner was to come back and live with me in the uk for four months could we count this if we had proof etc etc? and on another note, if we got married before i have to leave the country would we not need to prove the 12 months as we would apply in the married catergory not the common law,

if anyone has any ideas or help it would be greatly appriciated, i am beginning to think we should get married to make the whole process easier... we are very much in love and have been a couple for two years...its just not something we were interested in, but its seems it might make it easier for us to proof our legitimate relationship

 

[Panamai]

Do you have friends or family who could write up that you've been living together in their statutory declarations? Do you have mail or anything with your common address on it? My partner has a mortgage and he wasn't able to add me to it yet, so we don't have any landlord statements either. I'm hoping that our driver's licences, my magazine subscriptions, mail, and our statutory declarations will be enough.

 

[Panamai]

We also did a 'statutory declaration of common-law status' and had it signed by the commissioner of oaths at city hall stating that we had lived together since December 2013.

 

[sooki189]

we have lots of friends and family who would declare for us for the four month period thats proving tricky, we also have a one month visit to england at that point where we stayed at my parents and friends houses, we could get a letter from our subletter but im not entirely sure he was supposed to be subletting!

 

[surleplateau]

Can the non-Canadian request a visitor status/visa extension so that you can gather up solid documentary evidence of 12-continuous-months of cohabitation? Many couples do this, even explaining in the visa extension request that they want to become common-law, and it gets approved.

If you lack good documentary evidence of 12 continuous months of cohabitation, then having a marriage certificate would be your only other option for applying for PR under family class (spouse/partner) sponsorship (not conjugal in your case, since you could easily get married while you are visiting your partner in Canada).

Please see: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?q=347&t=14

How can my common-law partner and I prove we have been together for 12 months?

Items that can be used as proof of a common-law relationship include:

a statutory declaration of a common-law union,
statements for shared bank accounts,
shared credit cards,
proof of shared ownership of residential property,
shared residential leases,
shared rental receipts,
bills for shared utilities accounts, such as
electricity,
gas or
telephone,
proof of shared management of household expenses,
evidence of shared purchases (especially of household items),
mail addressed to either or both of you at the same address,
important documents for both of you showing the same address, such as
identification documents,
driver’s licences and
insurance policies and
any other documents that show you have been living together.

You do not need to include all these items to prove your relationship is real. Citizenship and Immigration Canada may consider other proof as well

Photos, telephone bills and letters will not be returned. Do not send videos or CD-ROMs. Documents such as marriage certificates and passports will be returned. However, you should send certified photocopies, not originals.

 

[sooki189]

can i extend an iec working holiday visa or would it just be extended to a visitor visa? and could the canadian resident (my partner) come back to the uk with me to build up the last few months (i have family issues at home)

 

[Ponga]

can i extend an iec working holiday visa or would it just be extended to a visitor visa? and could the canadian resident (my partner) come back to the uk with me to build up the last few months (i have family issues at home)

IEC work permits cannot be extended, so you would need to apply to change your stay as a visitor.

If your partner is admissible to the UK, s/he can certainly travel with you to continue cohabiting there.

Also, to answer your earlier question:
Getting married would eliminate the need to prove previous cohabiting, but IMHO, it's not the right reason to get married...especially since you're only 4 months away from having the proof that you need.

You will have a conditional PR (unless you have a child together before submitting your application). Condition 51 simply means that you must continue to live together for 2 more years after becoming a PR, which isn't even a concern [generally] for a genuine couple.

Good luck!