Common Law , Conjugal Partner or other comparable alternatives?

[Mpalma]

Dear fórum members,

My situation: I am a Chilean, 41 years old, an Engineer and I have been in a relationship with a Canadian for 10 years. For various reasons our relationship has stayed long-distance, seeing each other 3 to 4 times each year (on our vacations) in Chile, Canada or other countries where we chose to vacation together until recently. Meeting in different destinations is how we managed to keep our relationship alive, we were able to meet each other’s families and we corresponded constantly.

Three years ago we decided that one of us had to make a permanent move so we could live together. Unfortunately due to the Covid 19 restrictions, we could only make it happen 5 months ago when i was finally able to enter Canada as a visitor. Currently we live together in Canada but i am still under the visitor status.

We have been looking for possibilities to change my status to be able to work and continue living in Canada together.

My partner offered to be my Sponsor and the options we found are Common Law and Conjugal Partner, but we do not qualify for neither of them based on the official requirements.

Common Law requires us to have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months. For Conjugal Partner it is required that i apply from outside Canada which is not my case.

Do any of you have any advice as to how i could build a strong case for the Common Law option without having to wait another 7 months and overstay my visitor visa?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated even other alternatives that i did not mention!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

[scylla]

Dear fórum members,

My situation: I am a Chilean, 41 years old, an Engineer and I have been in a relationship with a Canadian for 10 years. For various reasons our relationship has stayed long-distance, seeing each other 3 to 4 times each year (on our vacations) in Chile, Canada or other countries where we chose to vacation together until recently. Meeting in different destinations is how we managed to keep our relationship alive, we were able to meet each other’s families and we corresponded constantly.

Three years ago we decided that one of us had to make a permanent move so we could live together. Unfortunately due to the Covid 19 restrictions, we could only make it happen 5 months ago when i was finally able to enter Canada as a visitor. Currently we live together in Canada but i am still under the visitor status.

We have been looking for possibilities to change my status to be able to work and continue living in Canada together.

My partner offered to be my Sponsor and the options we found are Common Law and Conjugal Partner, but we do not qualify for neither of them based on the official requirements.

Common Law requires us to have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months. For Conjugal Partner it is required that i apply from outside Canada which is not my case.

Do any of you have any advice as to how i could build a strong case for the Common Law option without having to wait another 7 months and overstay my visitor visa?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated even other alternatives that i did not mention!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

You cannot apply for common law until you have lived together continuously for at least one full year. There is no way to build a case to be accepted before you have the full 12 months. The application will be refused. You don't need to overstay to get to the 12 months. You would simply apply to extend your visitor status in Canada so that you can reach the 12 months of continuous cohabitation and then submit the PR application.

You are right about conjugal. You don't qualify to apply under this stream.

The alternative is to get married. Then your partner can sponsor you immediately.

 

[Naturgrl]

Dear fórum members,

My situation: I am a Chilean, 41 years old, an Engineer and I have been in a relationship with a Canadian for 10 years. For various reasons our relationship has stayed long-distance, seeing each other 3 to 4 times each year (on our vacations) in Chile, Canada or other countries where we chose to vacation together until recently. Meeting in different destinations is how we managed to keep our relationship alive, we were able to meet each other’s families and we corresponded constantly.

Three years ago we decided that one of us had to make a permanent move so we could live together. Unfortunately due to the Covid 19 restrictions, we could only make it happen 5 months ago when i was finally able to enter Canada as a visitor. Currently we live together in Canada but i am still under the visitor status.

We have been looking for possibilities to change my status to be able to work and continue living in Canada together.

My partner offered to be my Sponsor and the options we found are Common Law and Conjugal Partner, but we do not qualify for neither of them based on the official requirements.

Common Law requires us to have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months. For Conjugal Partner it is required that i apply from outside Canada which is not my case.

Do any of you have any advice as to how i could build a strong case for the Common Law option without having to wait another 7 months and overstay my visitor visa?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated even other alternatives that i did not mention!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Common law is only an option once you have lived 12 months together continuously. So you wait or marry. Extend your visitor visa.

 

[Ponga]

Dear fórum members,

My situation: I am a Chilean, 41 years old, an Engineer and I have been in a relationship with a Canadian for 10 years. For various reasons our relationship has stayed long-distance, seeing each other 3 to 4 times each year (on our vacations) in Chile, Canada or other countries where we chose to vacation together until recently. Meeting in different destinations is how we managed to keep our relationship alive, we were able to meet each other’s families and we corresponded constantly.

Three years ago we decided that one of us had to make a permanent move so we could live together. Unfortunately due to the Covid 19 restrictions, we could only make it happen 5 months ago when i was finally able to enter Canada as a visitor. Currently we live together in Canada but i am still under the visitor status.

We have been looking for possibilities to change my status to be able to work and continue living in Canada together.

My partner offered to be my Sponsor and the options we found are Common Law and Conjugal Partner, but we do not qualify for neither of them based on the official requirements.

Common Law requires us to have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months. For Conjugal Partner it is required that i apply from outside Canada which is not my case.

Do any of you have any advice as to how i could build a strong case for the Common Law option without having to wait another 7 months and overstay my visitor visa?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated even other alternatives that i did not mention!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

You absolutely would not be successful with a conjugal partner sponsorship.

You are correct that in order to qualify as a common-law partner, you must reside together (anywhere) for at least one full year. You would then be eligible to apply at that time.

You cannot do anything to `push' the clock and there's no way to skirt the one year requirement, but...since you still have valid status, you could apply to extend your status citing that you are needing to establish the one year requirement to apply as a common law partner. These have been successful, but it depends on many factors, none of which would be surprising (making sure you will leave if you application is denied, for example). Unfortunately, you would not be eligible for an OWP (Open Work Permit) for at least another ~8-9 months (usually a couple of months after the Inland application package has been submitted) and only if you submit an Inland sponsorship application.

A person that is in Canada can (and a lot of people do) submit an Outland application [I know it seems like an oxymoron] because, historically, those had been processed faster than an Inland applicant. The caveat is that the OWP is not available to an Outland applicant....even if they are applying from inside Canada.

 

[YVR123]

Dear fórum members,

My situation: I am a Chilean, 41 years old, an Engineer and I have been in a relationship with a Canadian for 10 years. For various reasons our relationship has stayed long-distance, seeing each other 3 to 4 times each year (on our vacations) in Chile, Canada or other countries where we chose to vacation together until recently. Meeting in different destinations is how we managed to keep our relationship alive, we were able to meet each other’s families and we corresponded constantly.

Three years ago we decided that one of us had to make a permanent move so we could live together. Unfortunately due to the Covid 19 restrictions, we could only make it happen 5 months ago when i was finally able to enter Canada as a visitor. Currently we live together in Canada but i am still under the visitor status.

We have been looking for possibilities to change my status to be able to work and continue living in Canada together.

My partner offered to be my Sponsor and the options we found are Common Law and Conjugal Partner, but we do not qualify for neither of them based on the official requirements.

Common Law requires us to have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months. For Conjugal Partner it is required that i apply from outside Canada which is not my case.

Do any of you have any advice as to how i could build a strong case for the Common Law option without having to wait another 7 months and overstay my visitor visa?

Any advice would be greatly welcomed and appreciated even other alternatives that i did not mention!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

You didn' t mention the option of getting married. If you can get married, that would minimize the wait of another 7 months to become common law.