Common Law or Conjugal

[bukayo]

Hi guys! What is the best thing to do? Common law or conjugal sponsorship? I have a Canadian girlfriend for over 12 years now and counting. I am separated from my wife and I filed for my annulment last 2013. Can she sponsor me? We have pictures, travels with each other, monthly remittance to Canada and joint accounts. What are the chances? My annulment is still ongoing and is taking a long time due to the slow process.
Any advises are all welcome. She desperately want me to go there in Canada. What am i going to write in the Application? Married or separated?
Thanks...

 

[kerryannbailey]

Well you wouldn't be able to do common law because the requirement for that is living together for a minimum of one year. You would either have to go to Canada as a visitor and try to get extensions for a year to fulfill that requirement or she'd have to go where you are andlive with you for a year. You wouldn't be able to do conjugal either because in order to do that there would need to be some kind of barrier that prohibits you guys from getting married like say the type of marriage is illegal in the countries that you guys live in or something extreme like that. Also I think you need to be completely divorced if you are to marry your current girlfriend. You'd need to provide proof of the annulment or divorce to CIC. A senior member can expound on the because I'm not well verse on that part.... But the long and short of it is you'd need to become common law by living together for at least a year or get married in order for her to sponsor you

 

[bukayo]

Thanks. I'm from the Philippines and divorce is not recognized. That's why I filed for annulment. And also I applied for TRV and refused. That's the bad part of it.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hi

As you have been refused a TRV and are unable to divorce in order to marry your partner, you qualify for Conjugal. You will need to state your relationship status as conjugal and then explain in an additional sheet that the anullment is ongoing.

 

[bukayo]

Thanks! Will i need help from an Immigration consultant? I have read that it will costs much. What are the specific documents that I will include to my application so that it will not go to waste. I'm sick and tired of the refusal letters.

 

[canadianwoman]

Conjugal is a difficult class, but the Philippines is one country where conjugal applications do have a chance (because of the lack of divorce). Your current partner can sponsor you even though you are not divorced and your marriage has not been annulled yet. For a conjugal application to succeed, you need to show that your lives are intertwined as much as a married couple's would be, that you have had this relationship for at least a year, and that there are immigration barriers to you getting married or becoming common law.

The rejected TRV is one piece of evidence of the immigration barrier. The fact you cannot get divorced is another. Your finances should be joined as much as possible - it sounds like you have evidence of this, such as joint bank accounts and remittances.

However, your partner could come to the Philippines to live with you for a year to establish common law. You need a reason why she cannot do this. CIC does not accept a job as an excuse - in most cases. Still, people in your situation have had conjugal apps approved. I've read that in the Philippines living with someone while married to someone else can lead to criminal charges. (Is this right?) If so, it is another piece of evidence you can use as to why you two cannot live together for a year.

 

[bukayo]

Thanks. That is absolutely right. In the Philippines you cannot live with someone else as long as you are married. That's a criminal charge. She is also a Filipino at birth and she got her Canadian citizenship just recently. Do you think that what we spend time in the Philippines before she migrated to Canada is not enough?

 

[canadianwoman]

Did you live with her in the Philippines for a year or more before she immigrated to Canada? If you did, you should have been declared on her PR application and you would have had a medical exam.

 

[bukayo]

Yes maam, we had lived for more than a year before she migrated to Canada. She did not put me in her PR application because of legal constraints in the Philippines for I was still married eventhough I was separated already.

 

[Rob_TO]

Yes maam, we had lived for more than a year before she migrated to Canada. She did not put me in her PR application because of legal constraints in the Philippines for I was still married eventhough I was separated already.

Uh oh. In this case if you are honest in your application and disclose that you had been living together over 1 year BEFORE she landed as PR, then you will be considered banned forever under family class from her. You were a common-law couple by Canadian definition (even though married on paper to someone else), but she didn't declare it on her own PR form so is considered to have committed misrepresentation.

Is there some other immigration stream you can immigrate to Canada, besides family class (i.e like as a skilled worker)?