Common law or conjugal relationship

[ycam]

Hello,

I have a partner back in the Philippines. We're in a same sex relationship and I was trying to know what option is best for us to be together in Canada. Im a PR in Alberta and I was trying to sponsor her.

We've been together since October 2012, we met online and visited her for 5 months in the Philippines, we stayed with my family in Manila and same thing with her family in Davao. In total, we live together for 4 months. We have proofs of remittances (June 2014 to present), I put her as my beneficiary in my life insurance (since Nov 2014), I also put her as my contact in case of emergency at work and my beneficiary too, She's been my SPA since March 2014, we have a joint bank accnt (Jan 2015) and both our families are aware of our relationship. I went back to philippines last january 2015 and stayed with her for a month.

I'm not sure if we could qualify for a common law relationship because we have'nt live together for a year but we started to live together on January 2014 and went back to Canada on May 30, 2014. I came to live with her again for a month, so in total, we live together for 5 months and our relationship is continues. I have bills and mails under her address in davao. Do you think we can be consider as common law if we only have live together for 5 months and we never stop our relationship?

or we could apply for a conjugal relationship? my only fear is we could have live together but choose not to because I cant give up my life in Canada and I'm a resident here. Same sex is not allowed in the Philippines and we tried to apply for a TRV but she got refused. I cant stay too long like for a year in Philippines because my job and life is in Canada now and it is much better for us to live here.

Please help me and thank you so much in advance.

 

[scylla]

Common law requires you to have physically lived together for at least one year continuously. So you are definitely not common law and would apply under conjugal.

 

[Rob_TO]

You can try conjugal. However the only thing in your case is since you're a Philippines citizen, there is no immigration or legal barrier for you to stay in the Philippines 1 year to become officially common-law. The reason not to do this due to your job/life in Canada, could be considered your personal choice so not given much weight by CIC. But this is just speculation.

The decision on whether to accept your conjugal application or not, is solely at the discretion of the visa officer who happens to review it. Hopefully you would get a favorable decision.

 

[truesmile]

. . . and a forum member once posted here that conjugal applications have about a 2% success rate. I haven't vetted that statistic.

 

[ycam]

thanks for all the advices.. however, we will just try to file under common law.

 

[PMM]

Hi

thanks for all the advices.. however, we will just try to file under common law.

1. Your original post said that you haven't lived together for a year, so your C/law application will fail.

 

[scylla]

Hi


1. Your original post said that you haven't lived together for a year, so your C/law application will fail.

Agreed. Impossible for you to file under common law under you have lived together for at least one continuous year together. CIC gives zero flexibility on this rule.

 

[ycam]

yes we haven't live together for a year but since our relationship is continuous and we have proof that she is my common-law partner for more than a year, proofs like bills and remittances, maybe they still consider it. I've checked our application on line last week and saw that they've received her medical result already. Now we were just waiting for the final decision and praying for a positive answer.

Thank you everyone and I hope I've shared some useful information to those people planning to apply for spousal sponsorship.

 

[Rob_TO]

yes we haven't live together for a year but since our relationship is continuous and we have proof that she is my common-law partner for more than a year, proofs like bills and remittances, maybe they still consider it. I've checked our application on line last week and saw that they've received her medical result already. Now we were just waiting for the final decision and praying for a positive answer.

Thank you everyone and I hope I've shared some useful information to those people planning to apply for spousal sponsorship.

If you applied under common-law without living together for 1 full continuous year, your app will definitely be rejected. They will not consider it. 12 months of cohabitation is mandatory requirement for any common-law app, no exceptions.

Hopefully you submitted a conjugal app, or should change your common-law to a conjugal app immediately.

 

[ycam]

If you applied under common-law without living together for 1 full continuous year, your app will definitely be rejected. They will not consider it. 12 months of cohabitation is mandatory requirement for any common-law app, no exceptions.

Hopefully you submitted a conjugal app, or should change your common-law to a conjugal app immediately.

Im hoping everything will be smooth and we can be approve in this application. I have a friend with the same situation and her partner is already here in Canada. ;D

 

[acfajardo]

Our situation is pretty similar. I also have a same sex partner in Canada who's Filipino but a citizen already. We met online and started dating in October 2012 as well and since then she has gone home here in the Philippines (3 times) every year for 1-2 months. I applied for TRV as well and got refused too.

We considered common law or conjugal as but didn't push through with it since we lacked the cohabitation requirement and didn't want to risk being rejected.

Since we only had conjugal partnership left and our lawyer advised against it, what we did was we got married in New Zealand. Pretty expensive but definitely worth it. Now we've submitted our Spousal Sponsorship and we're just waiting.

I'm hoping you guys get approved as well. Being in an LDR is tough and hopefully we can end the distance soon!

 

[Eight]

I also have a same sex partner in Canada, a Filipino and a PR. He has been my boyfriend for 9 years. Our family and some of our friends knew our relationship. We lived together for more than 2 years before he landed in Canada as WP. After 6 months, he files a PR with the help of his boss. He got his PR Sept 2012. The problem is when we decided to file a common law since we are qualified, a friend told us that it is a red flag because he didn't include me in filing for PR. On that time, he has no idea about the processing. According to a friend, he might be deported if cic found out so we did not pursue with our application.

Same with Ycam, we have a joint bank account opened last April 2011. He is my beneficiary in my insurance here in the Philippines and the same. He has kept all the remittance receipts and waybills that he is sending packages. Right, we are trying our luck for TRV. Hope this will be my path getting there and get married. -

 

[acfajardo]

I also have a same sex partner in Canada, a Filipino and a PR. He has been my boyfriend for 9 years. Our family and some of our friends knew our relationship. We lived together for more than 2 years before he landed in Canada as WP. After 6 months, he files a PR with the help of his boss. He got his PR Sept 2012. The problem is when we decided to file a common law since we are qualified, a friend told us that it is a red flag because he didn't include me in filing for PR. On that time, he has no idea about the processing. According to a friend, he might be deported if cic found out so we did not pursue with our application.

Same with Ycam, we have a joint bank account opened last April 2011. He is my beneficiary in my insurance here in the Philippines and the same. He has kept all the remittance receipts and waybills that he is sending packages. Right, we are trying our luck for TRV. Hope this will be my path getting there and get married. -

Sad to hear that but your friend is right. I'll definitely pray for you to get that TRV. If it gets refused (although I hope not) you can consider getting married in another country where same sex marriage is legal such as the US, UK and New Zealand. NZ has more lenient immigration officers though and refusals are unlikely especially if you mention your intention of getting married. Good luck!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Same with Ycam, we have a joint bank account opened last April 2011. He is my beneficiary in my insurance here in the Philippines and the same. He has kept all the remittance receipts and waybills that he is sending packages. Right, we are trying our luck for TRV. Hope this will be my path getting there and get married. -

As you were told when you posted earlier in the year, because your partner didn't declare you, you are forever excluded from the Family Class. Getting married doesn't change that; you will still be excluded.

 

[Aquakitty]

I also have a same sex partner in Canada, a Filipino and a PR. He has been my boyfriend for 9 years. Our family and some of our friends knew our relationship. We lived together for more than 2 years before he landed in Canada as WP. After 6 months, he files a PR with the help of his boss. He got his PR Sept 2012. The problem is when we decided to file a common law since we are qualified, a friend told us that it is a red flag because he didn't include me in filing for PR. On that time, he has no idea about the processing. According to a friend, he might be deported if cic found out so we did not pursue with our application.

Same with Ycam, we have a joint bank account opened last April 2011. He is my beneficiary in my insurance here in the Philippines and the same. He has kept all the remittance receipts and waybills that he is sending packages. Right, we are trying our luck for TRV. Hope this will be my path getting there and get married. -

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.