Common Law Documents

[mwhite]

Im an Aussie and applying for Common Law with my bf of 2 years.
What documents do I need as a part of my application?
Do I need a Notary Declaration?

Any help would be grateful :'(

 

[Rob_TO]

Every situation is a little bit different, but the main ones we included in our common-law app were:
- Proof of living together. In our case it was just mail showing same address. A stronger proof is shared lease agreement.
- Proof of financial dependency. We showed a shared credit card account, life insurance with each other as beneficiary, and her being added to my employer benefits plan at work as common-law spouse. Also can change status online with Revenue Canada to common-law with effective date, and print off the page that shows this.
- Witness statements. These should be from friends or family that can give personal accounts of how they know both of you, and testify you are a real couple. We just included 1 letter (from my mom)
- Pictures. Show photos with the 2 of you together meeting friends, family, and travelling.

The only notarized forms we included were from the country-specific docs that needed to be translated to english. Some people get the testimonials certified also, but this is optional.

 

[mwhite]

Regards to same mail I do not have my name on his household bills or mortage.
The only thing I would have is my bank statement in name till we open joint bank account.
Also would add this to my application when I sent it in for processing?

Thanks for your reply

 

[NicJohn]

The only proof of living together i used for my application was mail addressed to me at my partners place. As he owns his place, there is no lease and we did not want to put me on the title (for immigration sake).
We had friends and family and our neighbour do stat declarations of their knowledge of our relationsip.

We also had the form IMM5409 Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union completed and notorized. This makes the relationship "offical" in the eyes of the law.. Ive heard you dont need this, but on the other hand, I have heard of people being asked for this down the track.. If your going to a notary - get this done as well...

 

[amikety]

We also had the form IMM5409 Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union completed and notorized. This makes the relationship "offical" in the eyes of the law.. Ive heard you dont need this, but on the other hand, I have heard of people being asked for this down the track.. If your going to a notary - get this done as well...

Definitely include this. It seems they will ask for it and then wait on you to send it in, delaying the process.

 

[Rob_TO]

Regards to same mail I do not have my name on his household bills or mortage.
The only thing I would have is my bank statement in name till we open joint bank account.

That's ok. Any mail addressed to you that shows you both live at the same address, should be ok. If you can get the joint bank account before and include it in your app, would be much better.

If you don't already have it, also buy some cheap spousal term life insurance with each other listed as beneficiary. It is super cheap and you can cancel right after the processing is finished if you want.

We also had the form IMM5409 Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union completed and notorized. This makes the relationship "offical" in the eyes of the law.. Ive heard you dont need this, but on the other hand, I have heard of people being asked for this down the track.. If your going to a notary - get this done as well...

We never included this since it is not actually a required document, and were never asked for it during the process. However i have also heard of some couples being asked for it at a later date by the VO (even though its not required).

If you are going to a notary/lawyer to get docs certified, best to wait until all docs are gathered and do them all at once so you can get bulk pricing!

 

[Yaak]

If submitting letters from family and friends vouching for the authenticity of the relationship should those letters be notarized? (Applying outland from the US). Thanks

 

[NicJohn]

It does help if they are.

I sent some notorized and some not..

 

[Rob_TO]

If submitting letters from family and friends vouching for the authenticity of the relationship should those letters be notarized? (Applying outland from the US). Thanks

There is no real right or wrong answer, as from US those are not actually mandatory documents. [Edit: was reading wrong country form... from US 2 certified letters are needed! So this advice is only good for countries that are not mandatory ]

In our case, we just used one family letter from my mom vouching for our relationship. She has a respected position (University Professor) and we printed the letter on her official letterhead... so we figured also getting it notarized wasn't needed.

In general I would say make sure ALL your letters have the persons FULL name, address and phone number. Not that the VO will ever call them, but simply making it possible for them to contact your references adds validity to the letter and that it was not just made up by you.

Remember a notary can only confirm the person sitting in front of him is the same person who's name is on the letter. A notary can't confirm if they are really your friend, or if they actually wrote the letter. So personally if I was a VO i wouldn't put too much emphasis on if a letter was notarized or not.

So it definitely won't hurt to do and can only add to an application (who knows if some VOs are picky about this and like notarized docs better) so if it's no big deal to you then I would say get them notarized. But if you have multiple letters and that will get super expensive, I wouldn't worry either if you can't.

 

[Kiri]

For Common Law you need to prove a marriage like relationship and that you have resided together for at least 1 year in that relationship.

This includes proof of living together, financial co-dependance, emotional co-dependance, family/friend knowledge, etc.

Examples I used:


Hard Evidence:

Occupant letter from landlord from first landlord where I was added in the beginning.
New lease for new apartment we went to with both of our names.
Joint bank account in Canada.
Life insurance policy on him with myself listed as 100% beneficiary.
Cable bill in both names.
Hydro bill in both names.
Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union
17 letters of support from friends and family. (NOTE: When applying Common Law 2 of your letters have to be notarized! - I chose my grandmother's letter, a long time friend, and his mother as notarized letters)

Soft Evidence:

Mail in both our names
Photos - of us together.. others are what we took of each other during those events, or with each other's pets or with each others family or friends or with a picture of us with gifts we got for each other.
Phone logs for voice from May 2011 to present, Text from November 2011 to present, Skype receipts.
Skype receipts for the past year to show I've purchased it to use for communicating if we could not via phone (I used this before I got a Canada/US calling plan)
Bank statement printouts for proof of purchases of Grocery stores or Walmart, etc from my account and his, and our joint account (for shared household expenses during my time here)
[bAround 40 ]Bank statement printouts for proof of purchases (GIFT EVIDENCE)[/b]
Receipts from his mom from the veterinarian where she paid to have my cat fixed, and also a receipt where she paid around $2000 worth of dental work for me.
Bank statements from his mom to prove purchases of travel insurance for me, plane ticket purchases, gifts, etc. (Shows family ties)
Concert ticket where we went to see Within Temptation in September with my friends from Canada that I've known longer than him.
Bank Statement to show purchase of Segwun Steamboat tickets for 2 dates.
Bank Statements to show purchases of movie tickets (2 adults.. or 3 if we brought his brother), etc.
Facebook printout of wall and album with comments from friends/family.
Letter from both of us stating how our relationship has been, what we're looking toward the future, etc. Couple pages each.
Printed time-line roughly outlining our relationship month by month.
Email from grandma where she says things about our relationship to me personally, about how happy she is, etc.
Wire transfer email confirmation of $800something money transfer from my bank account to his.
10 Emails between us ... most of it's blacked out because I don't want to expose personal stuff... so that's why there are only 10 salvageable that could be shared.
Reciepts for purchase both of our subscription for the past year to World of Warcraft, the game where we met and play together.
Holiday cards from friends and family with both of our names on them.
Ecards to each other.


Probably more things but this is long winded hahaha... I listed details of what the point of the item was because in my package I included that. Like the concert ticket was not just us, but was also friends (friends who actually wrote letters of support and have photos with) so it shows consistency between the different types of evidence.

Good luck!

 

[Rob_TO]

(NOTE: When applying Common Law 2 of your letters have to be notarized!

Ahh yes indeed! Looking at the US-specific country form it does say "If you are a common-law or conjugal partner, provide evidence that your relationship is genuine and continuing and has existed for at least 12 months prior to your application. Also provide details of the history of your relationship and at least two statutory declarations from individuals with personal
knowledge of your relationship supporting your claim that the relationship is genuine and continuing"

In our case our country-specific guide had nothing like this requiring declarations, so we only included the one. I guess this answers the question quite clearly that minimum 2 need to be certified/notarized in this case.

 

[Kiri]

Ahh yes indeed! Looking at the US-specific country form it does say "If you are a common-law or conjugal partner, provide evidence that your relationship is genuine and continuing and has existed for at least 12 months prior to your application. Also provide details of the history of your relationship and at least two statutory declarations from individuals with personal
knowledge of your relationship supporting your claim that the relationship is genuine and continuing"

In our case our country-specific guide had nothing like this requiring declarations, so we only included the one. I guess this answers the question quite clearly that minimum 2 need to be certified/notarized in this case.

Yes, and I'm unsure about Australian, but it's just a smart idea just in case. And if you add more than necessary it just reaffirms you're trying to go 'the extra mile'.. that's why we did 3-4.

 

[Yaak]

Thank you, NicJohn, Rob_TO, and Kiri for the feedback. (I obviously need to go back and re-read the requirements). We are just getting to the point of deciding who amongst our friends and family to ask for letters. We are fortunate to have a pretty large pool of literate folks who know us well enough to write convincing testimonials.