Common Law Outside of Canada and Travelling

[mierl]

Hello,

I am in the final stages of obtaining my PR. Once I get PR and do my landing in Canada, I want to sponsor my girlfriend of three years. However, I want to make sure CIC will not think I am misleading them on my application and revoke my PR.

My girlfriend and I met three years ago when we lived in a big share house in Vancouver in 2014. There were 30 people in the building, and we lived down the hall from each other. We began dating after a few months, but in all the time we were there we still lived in separate rooms. We left Canada about a year ago in 2016, when her visa expired and my post-graduate work permit expired a few months after that. We traveled together for two months in her country, before going to New Zealand together on a working holiday visa. Now we have been living together (we signed a lease together and share the same room) in New Zealand for about 8 months. By the time I am granted PR and do my landing in Canada, we will have lived together in New Zealand for about 11 months and 2 weeks, plus about 2 months of travelling together in Asia. Here are my questions:

1) Can we cohabit in another country? Or can I only sponsor her after I have received PR and we have cohabited in Canada?
2) Does travelling together count as living together? We signed our lease in NZ soon after we arrived, but we can only stay here less than one year. After we leave NZ, we will travel together but will not have a permanent home until we return to Canada.
3) In Vancouver we lived in the same building, but different rooms. But on our tax returns and documents it says the same address without any reference to room number. Is this a problem? Will CIC count this as cohabiting and being in a Common Law relationship?
4) We have not cohabited for 12 months yet, but we will have by the time I will do my landing in Canada. Do I need to take any steps to clarify this to CIC? In my application I am listed as 'single', even though I am in a relationship, because we are not yet considered Common Law.

Thanks in advance for all your help!

Robert

 

[scylla]

You need to include her as your common law partner and add her to your application. If you include the time you traveled together, you're over the 12 month time frame required for common law. It's possible CIC may end up saying you don't have enough evidence to prove common law and remove her from the application. But let that be their choice. If you leave her out yourself and they try to sponsor her later - you might end up with issues.

Include the two months you traveled together in your common law calculation. Once you hit 12 months, you'll need to notify the visa office that you are now common law and officially add her to your application (this means resubmitting some of the paperwork, having her take the medical and provide PCCs, etc.).

 

[canadianwoman]

I agree with the above. Do not land as single. Even if CIC decides that your evidence of common-law is insufficient, if they then refuse to include her, you are safe to sponsor her later. If you land as single, you will most likely have problems sponsoring her as your common-law partner later.
Traveling together can count towards the 12-month requirement for common-law status, but you need lots of proof you were in fact together.

 

[mierl]

Thank you Scylla and Canadianwoman! I really appreciate your responses.

So what you're saying is that I should tell CIC that she will become my common law partner in a couple months, and once this happens then she is required to submit the medical and the PCCs? So she is not required to submit the medical and PCCs right now?

As of right now we have been travelling together for 10 months, and living together for 8 months. So I don't think we qualify as common-law partners yet. But I will tell CIC that we will officially become partners soon.

We have lots of pictures of us travelling together, plus the accounts from friends we met and stayed with while travelling. We have flight tickets that we booked together, and matching passport stamps. We also have lots of emails and skype conversations where we plan our travels together. Do you think this is sufficent?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[kaszuby]

Thank you Scylla and Canadianwoman! I really appreciate your responses.

So what you're saying is that I should tell CIC that she will become my common law partner in a couple months, and once this happens then she is required to submit the medical and the PCCs? So she is not required to submit the medical and PCCs right now?

As of right now we have been travelling together for 10 months, and living together for 8 months. So I don't think we qualify as common-law partners yet. But I will tell CIC that we will officially become partners soon.

We have lots of pictures of us travelling together, plus the accounts from friends we met and stayed with while travelling. We have flight tickets that we booked together, and matching passport stamps. We also have lots of emails and skype conversations where we plan our travels together. Do you think this is sufficent?

Thanks again for your help!

As far as I know, cohabitating just means staying together in a marriage like relationship - doesn't matter if you are traveling or not. When you were in the giant house with lots of people that would not count but if you were staying in the same room while traveling then that would count toward your 12 continuous months.

I'm in a bit of a hurry right now but to me it looks like you qualify already? You lived together for 11 months and then traveled for 2 months immediately after? If you were staying in the same room then I think you qualify as common-law partners already.

You won't do medicals or PCCs until your application for her PR is already sent. You need a form to do medicals now that they will have to send you after AOR.

Good luck

 

[canadianwoman]

Just don't land as single if you have been living together (in one place, and traveling) for 12 months or more. If it has not been 12 months when you apply, you should tell the visa office you have become common-law and want to add your partner to your application.

 

[mierl]

Thank you all for your help. Just a point to clarify: we haven`t cohabited for 12 months yet.

Here is the breakdown:
Sept 2016- October 2016- Travelling together (2 months)
Nov 2016- Present- Cohabiting in NZ (8 months)
Total time cohabiting as of right now: 10 months.

Future Plans:
Nov 2017- Jan 2018- We must leave NZ and will start travelling in Asia.
Jan 2018- Landing in Canada.

So officially we aren`t common-law yet, but we will be by the time we land in Canada. Do you advise us to tell CIC we are going to become common-law partners in a couple of months? So CIC know what to expect when we land? What do you think is the best option?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you all for your help. Just a point to clarify: we haven`t cohabited for 12 months yet.

Here is the breakdown:
Sept 2016- October 2016- Travelling together (2 months)
Nov 2016- Present- Cohabiting in NZ (8 months)
Total time cohabiting as of right now: 10 months.

Future Plans:
Nov 2017- Jan 2018- We must leave NZ and will start travelling in Asia.
Jan 2018- Landing in Canada.

So officially we aren`t common-law yet, but we will be by the time we land in Canada. Do you advise us to tell CIC we are going to become common-law partners in a couple of months? So CIC know what to expect when we land? What do you think is the best option?

You have one option: when you become common-law in Sept 2017, you need to add your partner to your application.

 

[canadianwoman]

You should not wait until you try to land to declare her as your common-law partner. Once you are common-law, ask the visa office to add her to your application.