Common-Law Partner Sponsorship Inland Application -Application Forms

[pyonta]

Hi,

My Canadian boyfriend & I are going to apply for Common-law Partner Sponsorship ( within Canada Application). We have been living together since I came to Canada with a work permit in 2010 April. We would appreciate if anybody could help us with the following questions relating to some of the required the application forms.



1. IMM 1344: Part 1. Application to sponsor and undertaking
- Question 6 (c) : If you are in a conjugal relationship, provide the date on which you entered into the relationship

- If we are common-law partner, we don’t have to enter this date, right?


2. IMM 1344: Sponsor Personal Detail
- Question 8 (c ), If are you in a common law relationship, provide the date on which you entered into the relationship

- According to the guide, it says that “this is the date your status "OFFICIALLY" changed from being single to common-law, NOT the date you started living together." Should I put down the date after one year of living together? Or should I put down the date we sign the statutory declaration of common law union form? hh

3. IMM0008: Application Details
- Question 4: Immigration office requested for processing this application

- We are applying for PR under common law sponsorship WITHIN canada, which immigration office should I put down?


4. IMM0008: Personal Details
- Question 10: Current country of residence: The dates you have been living in your current country of residence ( Dates : From – To)

- I have been living in Canada since 2010 April, but during this period, I have renewed my status from “worker- student- student- and currently again a worker”. Do I put down the date of the original entry to canada with my initial work permit (2010 April) as “FROM”, or should I put down the issue date of the current /most recent work permit as “from”? What date should I put down as “ TO”- should I put down the expiry date of the current work permit or Should I put down the date of signing this application form?


5. IMM5406
- Section A & Section C: Write the personal details of “ Common law partner”” Mother” “ Father”, “Brother/Sister”…etc.

- I am applying for PR under common law sponsorship, do I include my boyfriend ( who is my sponsor ) as “Common Law partner”? in this section? Also, my mother, father and sisters are all living in Japan, and they have no intention of immigrating to Canada, do I still have to put down their information??

6. IMM 5669: Question 4 & 5
- “Personal details of father and mother” – My parents are residing in Japan, and they have no intention of immigrating to Canada, do I still have to put down my parents’ information here?

7. IMM 5710 : Application to change conditions, extend my stay as a worker

- Question 3. I am applying for one or more of the following: Option below
- A work permit with the same employer OR An initial work permit/work permit with a new employer
- I am applying for common law PR, currently working with post graduation open work permit. I was told that by including this application with PR application, I will be able to get an open work permit. Should I pick “Work permit with a new employer” as I am applying for “ Open work permit” even if I continue to work for the same employer?

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Rob_TO]

1 - If you put "common-law" in 6a, it should automatically block out 6c question since it doesn't apply.

2 - You put the date that matches exactly 12 months from when you first started living together (April 2011). The "Declaration of Common-Law" form is irrelevant, and not actually required (although you can include it).

What is more important, is as of the date you became common-law (so April 2011), BOTH of you changed your status with the CRA from single to common-law. You should also have been filing your taxes with CRA each year (starting with 2011 tax year) as common-law.
If you have been filing taxes as single, that would be tax fraud and could make your PR application difficult.

3 - You can put Vegreville office.

4 - Put down your original entry into Canada. For "to" you can leave it blank and hand write "to present" or something, or just put the date that your current visa expires.

5 - Yes you have to include your sponsor, parents and siblings. This is just basic family info, they are not actually included as dependents on PR app.

After you get PR, you have the option then to sponsor your parents and their dependents. So CIC is just getting a record of any potential family members you may decide to sponsor at sometime in the future.

6 - Same as #5. Yes you need to include parents info.

7 - The OWP application you include with your PR app, will not be processed until you get stage 1 approval/AIP, which is around 9 months from when you submit the application. So until then, you must continue working only under conditions of your current work visa.


On a general note, you can also look into applying via the OUTLAND process, and selecting CPC-Ottawa as processing office based on you having valid status in Canada for at least 1 year, and residing here already for so long. Outland apps processed through CPC-Ottawa are usually done in around 8-10 months total.

 

[pyonta]

Hi Rob_TO,

Thanks for your reply and the information. They have been really helpful.

However, regarding question #2, we have some problems.
We have been filing the documents all as single.
1) BOTH our taxes (April 2011, April 2012, April 2013, April 2014) as single.
2) Student Visa application submitted in Jan 2011 for (Received in May 2011)
3) Student Visa Renewal Application in April 2012.
4) Post Graduate Work Permit Application in March 2013.

We have been filing all of the above as single due to our negligence, definitely not because we wanted to commit tax fraud on purpose (I can see how CRA could see it otherwise due to the better tax benefit, but there's no advantage of me applying all my visa/work permit as single, at least not that I'm aware of)


So do you have any advice on what we should do now regarding
1) CRA (the tax filing part)?
2) CIC (past visa/permit granted based on my incorrect filing of marital status)?


Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks again.

 

[Rob_TO]

1) CRA (the tax filing part)?

To make things right with the CRA, you would really need to do re-assessments of both your taxes going back the past 3 tax years (so re-assessments for 2011, 2012 and most recent 2013 tax year).

The positive to this is that whoever made the higher income, could claim common-law spouse as dependent and get the appropriate tax credit.

The big negative is that any credits you were getting as single (such as GST/HST rebates, Trillium benefits etc) that you wouldn't have qualified for as common-law using family income, you would owe back to the government. Over 3 years, this could be quite the bill.

Remember that if at any time CRA becomes aware that you were actually common-law in those years you filed as single, they can come after you in an audit and force you to pay back anything they gave you that you weren't entitled to. I'm not sure if CIC and CRA communicate about these things.

What I recommend at a MINIMUM, is to at least do a re-assessment of your 2013 taxes as common-law. Your boyfriend as sponsor will need to include his 2013 Option C printout from CRA in your PR application, and if it says single when you should have been common-law, that is a big area of concern. CIC will probably not care what marital status was on previous years taxes, but i'm not certain on that.

2) CIC (past visa/permit granted based on my incorrect filing of marital status)?

I'm really not sure what to suggest for this. All those past visas are done, so it's not like you can go back and re-do them. CIC will have access to all of them, and will see that you applied as single, but in your PR application you are claiming you were in fact common-law.

If anything, I would include a cover letter stating clearly you were ignorant of the rules surrounding common-law, and files as single by accident. Perhaps others can advise here.

 

[pyonta]

Thank you so much for your help and your advice.

You've been a big help.