Common Law Proof Timeline

[py_mission]

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to read this!

As an overview, my partner and I have been in a relationship for 5 years and been living together for a little over 4 years now.

We have a lease for the first 18 months of us living together after which point we moved into a condo owned by my partners parents so we don't have any lease for about the past 2 1/2 years or so. Her parents don't live with us and they don't charge us any rent, so no rent receipts either. For the first 18 months, we don't have much cohabitation proof, other than a joint lease, phone contract with same address, bills with same address, medical records with same address, bank statements for both sent there, money transfers b/w accounts and online purchases with same address.

We opened a joint utility account recently, but it does not go back an year. Will this help if we send copies of the bills or do we need the contract to be sent? Alternatively, can a family member living with us write a letter confirming our residence?

So basically, we have plenty of cohabitation proof over the past 2.5 years but no joint lease, whereas we have less cohabitation proof overall in the first 18 months but we do have a joint lease.

Should we wait another year or will this be enough?

I'd appreciate any kind of help, as this has been driving me insane. Thanks for helping!

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to read this!

As an overview, my partner and I have been in a relationship for 5 years and been living together for a little over 4 years now.

We have a lease for the first 18 months of us living together after which point we moved into a condo owned by my partners parents so we don't have any lease for about the past 2 1/2 years or so. Her parents don't live with us and they don't charge us any rent, so no rent receipts either. For the first 18 months, we don't have much cohabitation proof, other than a joint lease, phone contract with same address, bills with same address, medical records with same address, bank statements for both sent there, money transfers b/w accounts and online purchases with same address.

We opened a joint utility account recently, but it does not go back an year. Will this help if we send copies of the bills or do we need the contract to be sent? Alternatively, can a family member living with us write a letter confirming our residence?

So basically, we have plenty of cohabitation proof over the past 2.5 years but no joint lease, whereas we have less cohabitation proof overall in the first 18 months but we do have a joint lease.

Should we wait another year or will this be enough?

I'd appreciate any kind of help, as this has been driving me insane. Thanks for helping!

You can get a notarised letter from her parents explaining the living situation. And include your previous lease so all time period is accounted for.

As for utilities..my partner and I have an all inclusive rent for our apartment so we have no utility bills at all. We are choosing the other checklist options within the same category.

Official address evidence we are providing is drivers licenses, bank statements (even though not joint), CRA tax summary showing CL status and address, car insurance, car ownerships, gym membership, Costco membership..and some other i can't think of right now.

Anything that seems uncommon I have included an explanation for.

You definitely do not need to wait another year I dont think.

 

[py_mission]

You can get a notarised letter from her parents explaining the living situation. And include your previous lease so all time period is accounted for.

As for utilities..my partner and I have an all inclusive rent for our apartment so we have no utility bills at all. We are choosing the other checklist options within the same category.

Official address evidence we are providing is drivers licenses, bank statements (even though not joint), CRA tax summary showing CL status and address, car insurance, car ownerships, gym membership, Costco membership..and some other i can't think of right now.

Anything that seems uncommon I have included an explanation for.

You definitely do not need to wait another year I dont think.

Good to know that you think this might be enough. That's pretty much the same for us, as utilities are in her parents name too. They already offered to write us a notarized letter stating that I've been living here for more than a year. So, in your case you're providing a joint lease and important documents then from the checklist, right?

We have pretty much the same proof as you (except car ownership), just not concurrent with our first two leases. We also have joint banks accounts, supplementary credit cards, joint travel and life-insurance policy (recent), joint utilities (telephone, tv, internet - recent), and a lot of other proof amassed over the years. Bunch of documents with same addresses. When we put it all together, the file came out to be about 6-7 inches thick, and that's not even including the forms yet.

By the way, do you think the medical records and bank statements sent to our first address would be considered as "Important Documents"?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Good to know that you think this might be enough. That's pretty much the same for us, as utilities are in her parents name too. They already offered to write us a notarized letter stating that I've been living here for more than a year. So, in your case you're providing a joint lease and important documents then from the checklist, right?

We have pretty much the same proof as you (except car ownership), just not concurrent with our first two leases. We also have joint banks accounts, supplementary credit cards, joint travel and life-insurance policy (recent), joint utilities (telephone, tv, internet - recent), and a lot of other proof amassed over the years. Bunch of documents with same addresses. When we put it all together, the file came out to be about 6-7 inches thick, and that's not even including the forms yet.

By the way, do you think the medical records and bank statements sent to our first address would be considered as "Important Documents"?

6-7 inches of proofs is way too much. You need to cut that down significantly.

Where is your partner from?

 

[py_mission]

6-7 inches of proofs is way too much. You need to cut that down significantly.

Where is your partner from?

I completely agree; we're going to be picking the most solid proof from our package before sending it in. It seemed excessive, and we were saving things for the past two years based on the old application package. Issue is, there is 5 years of relationship history to show. Should we focus on providing significant proof for the past 1 year (with some additional proof from prior years) or spread it out evenly for the 5 years?

My partner was born in Iran, and got her citizenship around 7-8 years ago, so before we got in a relationship.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I completely agree; we're going to be picking the most solid proof from our package before sending it in. It seemed excessive, and we were saving things for the past two years based on the old application package. Issue is, there is 5 years of relationship history to show. Should we focus on providing significant proof for the past 1 year (with some additional proof from prior years) or spread it out evenly for the 5 years?

My partner was born in Iran, and got her citizenship around 7-8 years ago, so before we got in a relationship.

Include the lease from your first address to show you have been living together that long but focus on the recent proofs at your current address. You want to choose a selection of proofs covering the time period. Instead of submitting 60 pages of bank statements from the past 2 years, just submit the first page from one statement every 6 months. Same with utilities and mail, just include the address page from every fourth bill. There is no need to include everything; think quality over quantity.

I assumed the person posting was the sponsor. Are you the Principal Applicant? What is your nationality?

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Good to know that you think this might be enough. That's pretty much the same for us, as utilities are in her parents name too. They already offered to write us a notarized letter stating that I've been living here for more than a year. So, in your case you're providing a joint lease and important documents then from the checklist, right?

We have pretty much the same proof as you (except car ownership), just not concurrent with our first two leases. We also have joint banks accounts, supplementary credit cards, joint travel and life-insurance policy (recent), joint utilities (telephone, tv, internet - recent), and a lot of other proof amassed over the years. Bunch of documents with same addresses. When we put it all together, the file came out to be about 6-7 inches thick, and that's not even including the forms yet.

By the way, do you think the medical records and bank statements sent to our first address would be considered as "Important Documents"?

Technically all they're looking for is the "one year requirement" as a couple could apply the day after they become common law so you could only send the last years worth of stuff. But i think its important to at least show a little from the beginning if you have it.

We just have the lease and then we also got a letter from our landlord to say we are still here as we are in the rolling month condition of our lease. Also in the letters from friends/family they mention that we do live at xxxxx and have done for x years.

Also we have some items of evidence such as wedding invitations showing both our names, booking for vacations we have taken etc..that is more down the relationship proof route than the living together proof.

For us we have lived together nearly 5 years at the same address so i do want to show that .. For example..I am taking a January bank statement (from our individual accounts) from 2013 and a Dec bank statement from the same year, then a July 2014 and a December 2014 and so on and so on..if you get what i mean. Same for phone bills (individual) and a few other things we have with our address on it. It shows where you have come from as a couple rather than just "here's your year". Just dont overdo it.

 

[py_mission]

Include the lease from your first address to show you have been living together that long but focus on the recent proofs at your current address. You want to choose a selection of proofs covering the time period. Instead of submitting 60 pages of bank statements from the past 2 years, just submit the first page from one statement every 6 months. Same with utilities and mail, just include the address page from every fourth bill. There is no need to include everything; think quality over quantity.

I assumed the person posting was the sponsor. Are you the Principal Applicant? What is your nationality?

Thanks! That's great advise. We'll try to do just that.

What are your thoughts on not having a lease for the past 2.5 years? Would a notarized letter from parents and a sibling living with us be enough to replace the lease? I know this package is quite new and it's difficult to assess how VOs will respond to it, but I'm just worrying over this every day and would like some kind of answer before I submit the application. Don't want this to get rejected or returned as you can imagine, and have future applications (if needed) to be in jeopardy as well.

Yes, I'm the principal applicant and my nationality is Indian. Came here on a study permit for 4 years, then just got a PGWP a couple of months ago.

On a side note, I have a NOC A job currently, and have the option of applying through CEC under Express Entry in the next 10 months. Would that be more advisable seeing my current situation with CL sponsorship?

 

[py_mission]

Technically all they're looking for is the "one year requirement" as a couple could apply the day after they become common law so you could only send the last years worth of stuff. But i think its important to at least show a little from the beginning if you have it.

We just have the lease and then we also got a letter from our landlord to say we are still here as we are in the rolling month condition of our lease. Also in the letters from friends/family they mention that we do live at xxxxx and have done for x years.

Also we have some items of evidence such as wedding invitations showing both our names, booking for vacations we have taken etc..that is more down the relationship proof route than the living together proof.

For us we have lived together nearly 5 years at the same address so i do want to show that .. For example..I am taking a January bank statement (from our individual accounts) from 2013 and a Dec bank statement from the same year, then a July 2014 and a December 2014 and so on and so on..if you get what i mean. Same for phone bills (individual) and a few other things we have with our address on it. It shows where you have come from as a couple rather than just "here's your year". Just dont overdo it.

That's good to know. I heard some similar advise from a consultant, but wasn't sure of the accuracy as they seemed so relaxed and carefree about it. She told us to just go ahead and submit the app, saying that we're not a 'red flag' case so we won't have any problems. It seemed too vague, as even though we're not a red flag case, there are still some issues which need clarification for the VO.

Anyway, we'll send in proof spread over intervals of around 6 months as recommended.

I'm planning on having about 4 letters in total from friends and family. We'll have them mention our relationship history, for how long they have known us, and where we have lived over the past years.

Getting a letter from a landlord in your case is strong evidence of joint cohabitation. For us, our landlord happens to be the sponsors parents which is worrisome since they might not take that seriously.

So sending in individual phone bills I guess would count as important documents showing same address? Also, how are you showing joint finances if you don't have a joint bank account? Highlighting statements showing similar purchases in different months? We didn't have joint accounts for the first couple of years, so wondering if transfers between accounts will be enough or we need to show expenses as well.

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

That's good to know. I heard some similar advise from a consultant, but wasn't sure of the accuracy as they seemed so relaxed and carefree about it. She told us to just go ahead and submit the app, saying that we're not a 'red flag' case so we won't have any problems. It seemed too vague, as even though we're not a red flag case, there are still some issues which need clarification for the VO.

Anyway, we'll send in proof spread over intervals of around 6 months as recommended.

I'm planning on having about 4 letters in total from friends and family. We'll have them mention our relationship history, for how long they have known us, and where we have lived over the past years.

Getting a letter from a landlord in your case is strong evidence of joint cohabitation. For us, our landlord happens to be the sponsors parents which is worrisome since they might not take that seriously.

So sending in individual phone bills I guess would count as important documents showing same address? Also, how are you showing joint finances if you don't have a joint bank account? Highlighting statements showing similar purchases in different months? We didn't have joint accounts for the first couple of years, so wondering if transfers between accounts will be enough or we need to show expenses as well.

I wouldn't worry about them not taking it seriously the fact that its from parents. These days i think living situations are so varied that they cant think objectively like that..VO are used to seeing all kinds of situations. In this day and age not everyone can have their own place, paying their own bills and have only their name on the door! Notarising the letter or getting an affidavit gives it extra clout and is much more "official" than just writing a little note.

The joint financial part is the "weakest" part for us but i am not worried as we have enough elsewhere and again these days not everyone combine their finances completely. But we have purchases that clearly relate to each other, he pays our joint gym membership and we have a letter from the gym owner stating this, joint Costco account which came with a joint credit card, e-transfers, we own a little fishing boat together (random!), he has leant me money in the past as a lot of my funds are tied up in the UK.

And advice wise, this forum is the best place for it. Nobody here is out to make a buck from you or get you out their office because they have another appointment or something. The people here are so helpful and everyone is, or has been, in a similar boat at some point, thats why they're her. Everyone here just wants to help and make a stressful and difficult process and time in your life easier. Personally i would take the advice and opinions here more seriously than that of a CIC call centre rep or a lawyer/consultant. But thats just me!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thanks! That's great advise. We'll try to do just that.

What are your thoughts on not having a lease for the past 2.5 years? Would a notarized letter from parents and a sibling living with us be enough to replace the lease? I know this package is quite new and it's difficult to assess how VOs will respond to it, but I'm just worrying over this every day and would like some kind of answer before I submit the application. Don't want this to get rejected or returned as you can imagine, and have future applications (if needed) to be in jeopardy as well.

Yes, I'm the principal applicant and my nationality is Indian. Came here on a study permit for 4 years, then just got a PGWP a couple of months ago.

On a side note, I have a NOC A job currently, and have the option of applying through CEC under Express Entry in the next 10 months. Would that be more advisable seeing my current situation with CL sponsorship?

You need to relax . You have been living together for 4 years and it looks like a very straightforward case that should breeze through the process.

A notarized letter from the parents is perfectly acceptable in place of a lease. Many people live with family, so IRCC is quite familiar with this situation. And remember that a lease is just one of several options to submit for proofs, not a requirement.

There is no point in waiting until you qualify for CEC when you can apply now and most probably be a PR around 10 months from now.