Common law or conjugal relationship

[canuck_in_uk]

I hope you never told a soul at the CBSA or CIC about your common-law status. If they find out about this, he will NEVER be able to sponsor you because he didn't declare your relationship during his PR application.

You do realize you are advocating misrepresentation with that statement.

 

[mikeymyke]

I dont think it would be hard for them to figure out they were living common law once they look at the applicant's 10 yr activity history and the sponsor's travel history

@ycam

CIC's definition of common law is that u and ur partner lived together for 1 continuous year with no breaks, NOT 1 year of a continuous relationship without living together for a year. I hope u can understand the difference. As for your friend who got his app accepted, either he was extremely lucky, committed misrepresentation, or maybe they really did live for a year but you misinterpreted his case.

Either way Im personally extremely appalled that you would not only ignore the advices of these highly experienced members here, but also even ignore CIC's own definition of common law, and still proceeding with an app thats surely doomed to fail. I hope your relationship can withstand this additional stress of wasting at least 8 months of time due to your own negligence.

Your app WILL be refused, and when it does I hope you will do it properly and heed these guys' advices. And please do not try to appeal the refusal, you will only compound the problem

 

[Aquakitty]

You do realize you are advocating misrepresentation with that statement.

No I'm not, I was being facetious.

I thought that was pretty obvious based on everyone's responses to this situation.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

No I'm not, I was being facetious.

I thought that was pretty obvious based on everyone's responses to this situation.

There is nothing in your post that sounds facetious or sarcastic. It comes across as exactly what you wrote.

 

[Eight]

I hope you never told a soul at the CBSA or CIC about your common-law status. If they find out about this, he will NEVER be able to sponsor you because he didn't declare your relationship during his PR application.

We never disclosed to CIC that we are in common law. In my TRV application, it is my friend who will invite me.

 

[ycam]

the problem is in our country which is the Philippines, we dont recognized common law relationship and we can't make it as an excuse. But every situation is different. I have a friend, se got petitioned by her parents, got pregnant and gave birth here in canada. after 2 years she applied for a common law for the father of her daughter. She got caught by the immigration officer, she told them the truth and they got approved.

what i'm trying to say is take the risk... we don't know whats going on in their minds and if we don't try, we won't be able to know the answer. you could try different ways but make sure to think harder and do what is best for both of you.

As for me, I'm still waiting for an aswer. I'm going back to Philippines in 2 weeks and pretty excited. I'm hoping to get a positive answer before my flight back to Canada.

 

[ycam]

@mickeymyke

I am just waiting for an answer.. if i got refuse then so be it. I got some options. If you can give me a better one, then let me know. But for my situation, the only solution is to get marry in other country. Which i'r rather go back home and stay for a year. I am only sharing to everyone the experienced of my friend and I asked her many times about it. And even if they live together for a year, the fact that she didn't declare him as a common law partner before she got her PR, proves that every decision and situation is different. Perhaps they can make considerations..

 

[ycam]

@mickeymyke

are you an immigration officer to tell me that i will get refused.. who do you think you are to tell me this? If you can't give a good advice/solutions, better not to tell me negative things. You are not helping at all..

 

[canuck_in_uk]

the problem is in our country which is the Philippines, we dont recognized common law relationship and we can't make it as an excuse. But every situation is different. I have a friend, se got petitioned by her parents, got pregnant and gave birth here in canada. after 2 years she applied for a common law for the father of her daughter. She got caught by the immigration officer, she told them the truth and they got approved.

Doubtful. If your friend's partner was approved, they were not actually common-law when she became a PR or she's not telling you the truth and they actually lied in the sponsorship application and were not caught.

CIC pretty much never overrules R117(9)(d), as it is actually immigration fraud. Canlii is full of refusals showing this.

are you an immigration officer to tell me that i will get refused.. who do you think you are to tell me this? If you can't give a good advice/solutions, better not to tell me negative things. You are not helping at all..

Understand that common-law is a legal status, just like marriage. Either you are married or you are not. Either you are common-law or you are not.

You are not common-law, therefore you do not meet the legal definition as required to be approved for PR. It would be the same if you applied as married; you aren't married, therefore you don't qualify.

 

[ycam]

she was petitioned by her mom, but before she came to Canada, she got pregnant. She gave birth here and applied for common law. At first, she didn't mentioned that the father of her baby was actually the one she is sponsoring. Then she made a letter (as adviced by her lawyer) and admitted to cic the whole truth. They got approved and is living here now in Canada.

*** it was when she gave birth that she went back home and live together for 7 months and after that, they filed for common law.

 

[ycam]

should i apply then for a conjugal? which is for sure I will not qualify as well.. Getting married is not an option too, maybe if i go in other country. I might get a visa but my girlfriend may get refused as she is still a student back home and no source of income.

Can you give me a better idea?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

* it was when she gave birth that she went back home and live together for 7 months and after that, they filed for common law.

Exactly. She was not common-law when she became a PR, so there was no issue with future sponsorship. However, she would have not have been able to sponsor him as common-law after 7 months of living together; she either lived with him for a year, got married or lied in the app.

should i apply then for a conjugal? which is for sure I will not qualify as well.. Getting married is not an option too, maybe if i go in other country. I might get a visa but my girlfriend may get refused as she is still a student back home and no source of income.

Can you give me a better idea?

There is no legal or immigration barrier stopping you from living in the Philippines to become common-law. You could try conjugal and hope you get a sympathetic VO but if they apply the rules as the are supposed to, you wouldn't qualify.

I would really suggest trying to find a country where you can get married.

 

[Rob_TO]

should i apply then for a conjugal? which is for sure I will not qualify as well.. Getting married is not an option too, maybe if i go in other country. I might get a visa but my girlfriend may get refused as she is still a student back home and no source of income.

Can you give me a better idea?

If you have applied as common-law after only living together 5 months, your application is practically guaranteed to be rejected. You do not meet the legal definition of common-law.

You should be putting all your efforts into finding a country your partner can get a visa to, that allows same-sex marriage.

Else if you've been together a long time and have ample proof of a marriage-like relationship (which I think you do with insurance on each other and joint accounts and assets), then your only hope would be under conjugal. You would just need to satisfy the visa officer you couldn't get married (so could show visa rejections), and that you couldn't live 12 months in Philippines to become common-law. Whether you are successful in a conjugal app is at discretion of the visa officer, but anything is better then applying as common-law when you haven't lived together 12 months, which is pretty much a 0% chance of success.

 

[acfajardo]

should i apply then for a conjugal? which is for sure I will not qualify as well.. Getting married is not an option too, maybe if i go in other country. I might get a visa but my girlfriend may get refused as she is still a student back home and no source of income.

Can you give me a better idea?

New Zealand has lenient visa policies. If you think your partner will most likely be refused, apply for a limited visa for NZ instead. State your reason as to why you want to go there and submit the requirements. That's what I did. I applied for a limited visa stating that my reason for going there is so that my girlfriend and I can get married. I attached all the necessary proof including a notice for intended marriage that I passed to the Auckland Marriage Registrar and our correspondences re the ceremony. As for the financial requirement, why not make an affidavit of support? Also since your girlfriend is still a student, that all the more is a stronger reason for her to not get denied because it proves she has ties in the Philippines.

 

[ycam]

Been reading all the comments here. I just want to say thank you for all the help. You guys are right, we applied first as a common law partner but the officer was so kind and change our application to conjugal partnership without refusing our first application, just informing us that they are processing our application under Conjugal Partnership. I'm so happy being with my partner now and living together for more than a year in Calgary. Love wins! Thank you so so much everyone, I really do appreciate it!