Common law partner for PR

[canadain student]

Help urgent
I got invited in recent stem draw, I believe I made a big mistake though, as I now realized that I have been living more than 12 months with my girlfriend, so my status is actually common-law. It's all on me not familiarizing with those terms in the beginning, but assuming to be officially single at that time. Is it now too late to change from single to common-law post-ITA? We are soon getting married, and the idea was to include her in the application after submitting it, when we get the marriage certificate. So, if I continue and submit my application as a single, and I later add her to the application, they will likely find out that we have shared an address since 2021, and I can't imagine this leading to anything good.
. Any advice, how should I proceed to still have a chance at the PR?
Also My score increases with her, currently as single 515 and with her is 520.
What should I do

 

[armoured]

What should I do

Add her to your app now. Immediately.

Main thing is to not land/become a PR before you have added her to your app.

 

[canadain student]

We both are here on work permit.

My question is should i add her as common law and side by side get married will that make my case more strong?
Or not get married now and stick to common law?

 

[Miss bee]

We both are here on work permit.

My question is should i add her as common law and side by side get married will that make my case more strong?
Or not get married now and stick to common law?

Does matter if you add her as common law or as a married. You should add as a common law asap . If you choose to get married later on , just send them marriage certificate through webform. You can’t declare you are single in application as it would be considered as misrepresentation. Add common law .

 

[canadain student]

Ok understood.
To add her i cannot change my status.
Should i add her as dependent in the application and then also upload an explanation.

We have adress proof as lease, phone bill , joint account. But our taxes for year 2023 that we just did are as single.
Should we also contact cra in this case and update it to common law

 

[Miss bee]

You c

Ok understood.
To add her i cannot change my status.
Should i add her as dependent in the application and then also upload an explanation.

We have adress proof as lease, phone bill , joint account. But our taxes for year 2023 that we just did are as single.
Should we also contact cra in this case and update it to common law

You can’t change your status from common law to single right now . When you fill application it will give you documents you need to submit for your spouse. Also declaring single on tax is misrepresentation if you are already common law . Contact CRA and make that change .

 

[canadain student]

You c

You can’t change your status from common law to single right now . When you fill application it will give you documents you need to submit for your spouse. Also declaring single on tax is misrepresentation if you are already common law . Contact CRA and make that change .

Thanks
My consultant suggested to get married now as we have 2 Months to submit documents. My concern here is if i show my marriage but skip common law that will be more red flags, how to get this thing done is a positive way ?

 

[Miss bee]

Thanks
My consultant suggested to get married now as we have 2 Months to submit documents. My concern here is if i show my marriage but skip common law that will be more red flags, how to get this thing done is a positive way ?

That’s ok . You can get married now and skip common law but in your history you have to show that you were common law before. If you are married you should apply based on that status and provide all documents regarding that status. Also you should declare CRA common law last year tax documents and for next year should declare as a married.

 

[canadain student]

But when we did our pgwp, we put it as single although we were common law ( kind of neglected the part where common law is a thing here). Will that have any negative impacts?

 

[armoured]

But when we did our pgwp, we put it as single although we were common law ( kind of neglected the part where common law is a thing here). Will that have any negative impacts?

It shouldn't.

 

[fegarri]

I have a different situation, where I declared common law to a relationship that wasn't (since we didn't live together continuously in one household for 12 months). I declared in the TRV application that I had previously been in a common relationship, but I am now applying for PR and wanted to say I was single all along. I just got confused with the definition at the time, since we are still together but I moved out for a few months, which does not complete the 12-month continuous cohabitation requirement for common law partners. Does a letter of explanation suffice?