Common-law relationship evidence?

[pip_kerr]

Hello, my partner and I are hopefully only a week away from sending off for our PR sponsorship, we have collected as much proof as we can find but I am very worried that it may not be enough and missing key evidence which is lease agreements.
My partner is Canadian and I am Australian and we are both passionate travellers, because of this we have never settled long enough to sign a lease, we have always sublet or stayed at the family home. We have been together for almost 2.5 years now and have never spent time apart. I will write a list of what proof we have and hopefully someone can answer whether it should be enough or a complete waste of time? We originally planned on getting quickly as extra proof but both our parents want it to be done properly and they can all attend, right now that is not possible for us.

Proof...

Banking
- Joint bank statements listing both names and same address.
- Bank letter stating we opened up a joint account 18 months ago.
- Proof of mutual spending from these accounts
- Proof of 3 seperate savings accounts, one for a house, one for a wedding and one for retirement.

I have a couple of old travel insurance print outs, one states Natalie as the Beneficiary on it and other shows she paid for it.

We have 10 flight print outs all listing both our names next to each other.
We also have some of the actual stubs that we saved from them.

3x bus ticket printouts from a trip to Europe showing both our names on them.

A few event ticket printouts and some hand written cards congratulating our engagement.

200 photos showing our lives together
- we have included all the trips and countries we visited together
- many family events and outings with both our Canadian family and Australian
- Our engagement moment in Thailand
- a fair display of everything we have done since we met.

10 Personal references
- Some parents and family members
- Our boss from work
- A couple of people we have sublet off or lived with

Some screen shots of Facebook messages from the beginning till now. We dont have emails or hand written stuff as we have always been with each other.


This is everything we can come up with at this stage, I would like to think from all the photo's and travel documents it would be clear that we are in a loving relationship and that we have always been with each other, but I know sometimes this comes down to hard exact proof. I really don't not what else we can do if this is not enough. Please if anyone can think on here what else we could provide that we may not have thought of let us know.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Rob_TO]

Based on the Australia outland guide, at least 2 of your personal declarations from friends/family need to be statutory (meaning they get them witnessed and signed by a notary or lawyer). For these I would concentrate on the declaration from the people who's homes you stayed in the longest, and make sure in the letters they are stating that you in fact lived in their home for those times.

 

[dominokitty]

Do you have any mail that was delivered to both of you at the same address? It might be helpful to include the envelopes or letters, in addition to the banking statements you have. Utility bills are useful too. With a common-law application, you need to be able to prove you two have been living in the same place for at least a year consecutively. I like Rob's idea of notarized letters from the people whose homes you lived in.

Is there any particular reason that you two decided not to get married? As far as the Canadian government is concerned (taxes, etc), you are still spouses if you live together in a conjugal relationship for a year. But making it official really simplifies things.

 

[Ponga]

Is there any particular reason that you two decided not to get married? As far as the Canadian government is concerned (taxes, etc), you are still spouses if you live together in a conjugal relationship for a year. But making it official really simplifies things.

Uh oh...you may have opened up a Pandora's Box with that one.

A strong common-law sponsorship application will simplify things too.

 

[dominokitty]

Haha, that's true. But it seems like they're missing the proof they need to make a strong case for common-law sponsorship. There's definitely a higher burden of proof there.

Sponsorship is no joke and I figure, if you're serious enough to take that step, why not be serious enough for marriage? Unless of course you have a moral objection to the whole concept of marriage or involving the government in your relationship, which I can understand. Or perhaps you can't be legally married for whatever reason. An Aussie and a Canadian living in Canada together, though? They most likely don't have that problem, unless one of them is married to someone else. In my opinion it's just simpler to marry the person you love and get on with it

 

[Ponga]

Sponsorship is no joke and I figure, if you're serious enough to take that step, why not be serious enough for marriage? Unless of course you have a moral objection to the whole concept of marriage or involving the government in your relationship, which I can understand. Or perhaps you can't be legally married for whatever reason. An Aussie and a Canadian living in Canada together, though? They most likely don't have that problem, unless one of them is married to someone else. In my opinion it's just simpler to marry the person you love and get on with it

Even if a person is still married to someone else, they can still apply for Common-Law sponsorship if they qualify...and if they've been separated from their spouse for at least one year.

"...why not be serious enough for marriage?"

That's the Pandora's Box that I was talking about. I know couples who are just as serious as their married couple friends are.

 

[canadianwoman]

There was one couple on here who were traveling for several months that counted as their 12 months of cohabitation. They submitted proof of travel, such as plane tickets, boarding passes, bus tickets, etc.; matching entry and exit stamps in their passports; lots of photos of them in each place they stayed; and most importantly, they were able to document where they stayed the whole time. They had hotel, hostel, and guesthouse receipts with both names; they had letters from places that didn't give receipts; they had name cards and photos of them standing in front of the guesthouses they were staying at; and so on. They were approved, and very quickly.

Try to get as much proof that you two were staying together at each place you were. Banking and other financial proof is good, but the key point you have to prove is that you were living with each other.

 

[pip_kerr]

Thank you everyone for the detailed responses, we are not apposed to getting married we just wanted to do it properly and save up and be able to do it in an environment with both our parents and family involved. If our proof is not enough and the only option for us then of course we will have to do this. We were hoping to send the application off in the next couple of weeks to avoid having to spend much time apart from each other whilst processing and I think applying for a marriage now and waiting the 2 months for certificate will slow us down a lot. Originally I was meant to work in Canada for a whole extra year and during that time we would have gathered more proof, probably married and gotten a proper lease sorted, however, my second year visa was declined because I applied for the wrong kind.
So here we are...
We have always had our banking posted to Natalie's parents house over the past 18 months, we have also lived here most of the time between traveling. I can show different letters being sent here, also I can get her dad to do a declaration. We lived in another house in Toronto sublet and I can hopefully contact the guy and get him to do one too, we never had mail sent there though as her parents was always safer and we visit a couple of times a week.
As for proof whilst we traveled, we have all matching passport stamps, again like I mentioned lots of flight tickets and all that, plus we can show photos together in each travel destination, a lot of them are photos where it is clear we are a couple.
It would just be terrible if we got declined and then had to wait and do the whole process again and be separated in different places.

Thanks again for the responses.

 

[pip_kerr]

So my partner and I are looking at just getting married now and then stating in the application that we will send the certificate through once we receive it. We will just do it for the paper work now as extra proof of our relationship, we are engaged and planning on doing it anyway, then when we have more money we will do a full celebration.
Do you think that getting married like this will help our cause or make it look like we are doing it just for visa purposes? I am worried it might now look good as it wont be a full prepared wedding.

Thanks

 

[blackbear88]

Hi guys,

In regard to the Statutory Declaration of Common Law Union (IMM5409E), do we the need to bring the evidence/proof of our common law relationship along when going to the Notary Public? Or just attach the evidence/proof afterwards when uploading all the documents online?

Thank you!!

 

[Hurlabrick]

So my partner and I are looking at just getting married now and then stating in the application that we will send the certificate through once we receive it. We will just do it for the paper work now as extra proof of our relationship, we are engaged and planning on doing it anyway, then when we have more money we will do a full celebration.
Do you think that getting married like this will help our cause or make it look like we are doing it just for visa purposes? I am worried it might now look good as it wont be a full prepared wedding.

Thanks

If you have been together for 2.5 years, never apart and have all of the 'proof' you and others have talked about, you will be fine as 'common law'. No need to get married if you don't want to just yet - you don't have to justify why you are not married!

But if you do want to get married in a small 'registry office' wedding, by all means do so. In the UK, you get copies of the marriage certificate immediately and can get further copies in a week or two. If you do decide to get married, you should wait until you have the certificate and send the whole pack in with it. CIC won't think it at all odd that you have just got married - what you have described is not a 'marriage of convenience / marriage fraud' for visa purposes, it is perfectly fine to 'bring you marriage date forward' which is what you are talking about.

But honestly, apply either as common law or married, if married, don't submit until you have the certificate.

 

[Hurlabrick]

Hi guys,

In regard to the Statutory Declaration of Common Law Union (IMM5409E), do we the need to bring the evidence/proof of our common law relationship along when going to the Notary Public? Or just attach the evidence/proof afterwards when uploading all the documents online?

Thank you!!

You do not need to take any 'evidence' to the Notary, he / she is not remotely interested in your 'proof'. The Notary is there to witness your solemn declaration, that's all. They will want a couple of proofs of id and address though to prove that you are who you say you are (passport, photo driving licence, utility bills etc.), The Notary will tell you what to bring.

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Hi guys,

In regard to the Statutory Declaration of Common Law Union (IMM5409E), do we the need to bring the evidence/proof of our common law relationship along when going to the Notary Public? Or just attach the evidence/proof afterwards when uploading all the documents online?

Thank you!!

Also you know that the common law declaration is not one of the specified things as a must send (unless it is different for different countries) Are you just doing it as an extra reinforcement?