Common Law Sponsorship proof of cohabiting

[Sherv92]

Hello!

First time posting here and just need some advice.

My girlfriend and I have applied for a Sponsorship Common Law and we have been living together for two years now. (Since Feb 2018) The person looking over our application has asked us to provide any document to prove we have been cohabiting, may it be joint accounts, lease agreement etc.

I have submitted a signed letter from my father indicating that we have been living together under his roof since February 2018, along with a letter from my bank that we have a joint account under our name, DL's under our name, and even later on an insurance slip from her that shows our current address. My cousin and our mutual best friend also wrote letters stating they confirm our relationship and that we have been living in the same residence since February 2018

The person who's looking at our claim for the second time has given a response saying he feels that we may not meet the requirements for her immigration to Canada. Essentially he feels like we have not submitted enough evidence that we have been cohabiting.

So at this point I am not sure what we are suppose to do. Even in his email to us he really hasn't mentioned anything about my fathers letter, he has mentioned that the insurance slip date is after when we applied (She didn't have a G2 until later in 2019) also that there are no bank statements from our joint account. Weirdly enough our joint account is under our name, but doesn't show our names when I pull up the account on easyweb.

And at the end of the email he's asking us to "satisfy" him that we are a member of the common law class.

What can I submit to him at this point? This may be our last chance.

This is what I have submitted to them so far:

-Both drivers license with same address
-Life Insurance
-Signed letter from father we live together under his roof no rent
-My Cousin and our mutual best friend letter stating we are cohabiting and to confirm our relationship
-Joint Account Letter from my bank stating we are both on the account and when the account was opened, bank statements were not provided
-Over 20 photos
-Tickets we purchased when we had a vacation
-Her insurance slip that she got way later after the application was submitted

There probably were others and i'll edit it when I do remember.

 

[Jersey1]

Do you have each other as nominees in retirement plans? (in case that exists in your country)
Maybe more letters from both families / common friends? Are you Canadian, or is she Canadian, or is one of you a PR? We had like 6 letters, mostly because people wanted to write them, you can see if additional people like neighbours are willing to write them...

 

[Sherv92]

Do you have each other as nominees in retirement plans? (in case that exists in your country)
Maybe more letters from both families / common friends? Are you Canadian, or is she Canadian, or is one of you a PR? We had like 6 letters, mostly because people wanted to write them, you can see if additional people like neighbours are willing to write them...

I was born in Canada so i'm a citizen and she was on a work permit. I was thinking about getting more letters and I don't have any of the retirement plans set up. Were both in our mid 20's. Is there any specific kind of template I can use as a guide line for my friends/family?

 

[scylla]

I was born in Canada so i'm a citizen and she was on a work permit. I was thinking about getting more letters and I don't have any of the retirement plans set up. Were both in our mid 20's. Is there any specific kind of template I can use as a guide line for my friends/family?

The family/friends thing isn't really considered as proof for cohabitation. You want hard evidence you have been sharing an address for at least a year. Can you show proof that the joint bank account was opened a year ago? Can you provide bank statements that are a year old which show both of your names and the joint address? Does the insurance evidence date back a year? What you're looking to do is provide evidence that dates back the full year to prove you have the full 12 months of cohabitation. Photos and travel evidence aren't proof of cohabitation - they just show you are in a relationship together.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hello!

First time posting here and just need some advice.

My girlfriend and I have applied for a Sponsorship Common Law and we have been living together for two years now. (Since Feb 2018) The person looking over our application has asked us to provide any document to prove we have been cohabiting, may it be joint accounts, lease agreement etc.

I have submitted a signed letter from my father indicating that we have been living together under his roof since February 2018, along with a letter from my bank that we have a joint account under our name, DL's under our name, and even later on an insurance slip from her that shows our current address. My cousin and our mutual best friend also wrote letters stating they confirm our relationship and that we have been living in the same residence since February 2018

The person who's looking at our claim for the second time has given a response saying he feels that we may not meet the requirements for her immigration to Canada. Essentially he feels like we have not submitted enough evidence that we have been cohabiting.

So at this point I am not sure what we are suppose to do. Even in his email to us he really hasn't mentioned anything about my fathers letter, he has mentioned that the insurance slip date is after when we applied (She didn't have a G2 until later in 2019) also that there are no bank statements from our joint account. Weirdly enough our joint account is under our name, but doesn't show our names when I pull up the account on easyweb.

And at the end of the email he's asking us to "satisfy" him that we are a member of the common law class.

What can I submit to him at this point? This may be our last chance.

This is what I have submitted to them so far:

-Both drivers license with same address
-Life Insurance
-Signed letter from father we live together under his roof no rent
-My Cousin and our mutual best friend letter stating we are cohabiting and to confirm our relationship
-Joint Account Letter from my bank stating we are both on the account and when the account was opened, bank statements were not provided
-Over 20 photos
-Tickets we purchased when we had a vacation
-Her insurance slip that she got way later after the application was submitted

There probably were others and i'll edit it when I do remember.

Agree with scylla. IRCC doesn't want more letters from family or photos. They want concrete proof that you were both living at the same address for at least a year. The proofs you submitted are quite lacking. Bank statements, credit card statements, utility bills, phone bills, Amazon deliveries, payslips, doctor/dentist letters/ government letters etc. over the course of at least one full year.

 

[Sherv92]

The family/friends thing isn't really considered as proof for cohabitation. You want hard evidence you have been sharing an address for at least a year. Can you show proof that the joint bank account was opened a year ago? Can you provide bank statements that are a year old which show both of your names and the joint address? Does the insurance evidence date back a year? What you're looking to do is provide evidence that dates back the full year to prove you have the full 12 months of cohabitation. Photos and travel evidence aren't proof of cohabitation - they just show you are in a relationship together.

I got a letter from my branch stating that both of our names are on the account and it has been open for almost 2 years. Bank Statement for some reason aren't showing under our name and the joint account that we have is just her putting money into it every month but no transactions

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I got a letter from my branch stating that both of our names are on the account and it has been open for almost 2 years. Bank Statement for some reason aren't showing under our name and the joint account that we have is just her putting money into it every month but no transactions

Go to the branch and get statements. What bank accounts do you both actually use for transactions? Get those statements.

Understand that if you don't show sufficient proof of common-law, your app will be refused.

 

[scylla]

I got a letter from my branch stating that both of our names are on the account and it has been open for almost 2 years. Bank Statement for some reason aren't showing under our name and the joint account that we have is just her putting money into it every month but no transactions

OK - that's better than nothing.

However your cohabitation evidence still looks pretty weak. Right now it looks like you have the bank account and the letter from your father. Is there anything else you can provide?

 

[Sherv92]

Go to the branch and get statements. What bank accounts do you both actually use for transactions? Get those statements.

Understand that if you don't show sufficient proof of common-law, your app will be refused.

We actually don't use any accounts together, they've all been separate, mostly because I actually pay for everything, and her occasional online shopping but that's really it.

 

[Sherv92]

OK - that's better than nothing.

However your cohabitation evidence still looks pretty weak. Right now it looks like you have the bank account and the letter from your father. Is there anything else you can provide?

Well besides these that I stated above

-Both drivers license with same address
-Life Insurance
-Signed letter from father we live together under his roof no rent
-My Cousin and our mutual best friend letter stating we are cohabiting and to confirm our relationship
-Joint Account Letter from my bank stating we are both on the account and when the account was opened, bank statements were not provided
-Over 20 photos
-Tickets we purchased when we had a vacation
-Her insurance slip that she got way later after the application was submitted

I can only get more of our friends to say we were living together. I had wrote in the email that we had applied decently late for it, like if we were to reapply we would most likely get approved cause we would have 2 years worth of living together now then the 1 year. If she does get refused what happens to her work permit which had expired long after this application? Does she get a renewed one or does she have to leave the country and re apply?

 

[scylla]

Well besides these that I stated above

-Both drivers license with same address
-Life Insurance
-Signed letter from father we live together under his roof no rent
-My Cousin and our mutual best friend letter stating we are cohabiting and to confirm our relationship
-Joint Account Letter from my bank stating we are both on the account and when the account was opened, bank statements were not provided
-Over 20 photos
-Tickets we purchased when we had a vacation
-Her insurance slip that she got way later after the application was submitted

I can only get more of our friends to say we were living together. I had wrote in the email that we had applied decently late for it, like if we were to reapply we would most likely get approved cause we would have 2 years worth of living together now then the 1 year. If she does get refused what happens to her work permit which had expired long after this application? Does she get a renewed one or does she have to leave the country and re apply?

As said previously, some of this isn't evidence of cohabitation.

-Both drivers license with same address this - this is OK
-Life Insurance - good provided you showed she was added to your insurance policy at least one year ago and you included evidence to prove this
-Signed letter from father we live together under his roof no rent - good provided it states when you started living together in the house, would be better if the letter was attested since you are a bit weak on evidence
-My Cousin and our mutual best friend letter stating we are cohabiting and to confirm our relationship - IRCC will most likely consider this as relationship proof only, not cohabitation proof
-Joint Account Letter from my bank stating we are both on the account and when the account was opened, bank statements were not provided - this is good (I'm assuming the letter indicates that the account was opened as a joint bank account / opened in both of your names rather than one of you being added earlier)
-Over 20 photos - relationship proof / not cohabitation proof
-Tickets we purchased when we had a vacation - relationship proof / not cohabitation proof
-Her insurance slip that she got way later after the application was submitted - not sure I understand what this is but it's only valuable if it dates back at least a year

Have you declared yourself as common law to CRA yet? You will need to file your 2019 return as common law.

 

[Sherv92]

As said previously, some of this isn't evidence of cohabitation.

-Both drivers license with same address this - this is OK
-Life Insurance - good provided you showed she was added to your insurance policy at least one year ago and you included evidence to prove this
-Signed letter from father we live together under his roof no rent - good provided it states when you started living together in the house, would be better if the letter was attested since you are a bit weak on evidence
-My Cousin and our mutual best friend letter stating we are cohabiting and to confirm our relationship - IRCC will most likely consider this as relationship proof only, not cohabitation proof
-Joint Account Letter from my bank stating we are both on the account and when the account was opened, bank statements were not provided - this is good (I'm assuming the letter indicates that the account was opened as a joint bank account / opened in both of your names rather than one of you being added earlier)
-Over 20 photos - relationship proof / not cohabitation proof
-Tickets we purchased when we had a vacation - relationship proof / not cohabitation proof
-Her insurance slip that she got way later after the application was submitted - not sure I understand what this is but it's only valuable if it dates back at least a year

Have you declared yourself as common law to CRA yet? You will need to file your 2019 return as common law.

So we haven't declared our taxes yet, just due to what's been going on with the Corona virus but we definitely are going to. We just need to set up a time.

We you say "was attested" in regards to the signed letter what exactly do you mean by that? A lot of the things I did provide has a hard time showing proof that we live together as we decided it was kind of last minute where we thought we could try since we believed we did have enough proof. But I feel like they're just asking for a mountain of things at this point.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

So we haven't declared our taxes yet, just due to what's been going on with the Corona virus but we definitely are going to. We just need to set up a time.

We you say "was attested" in regards to the signed letter what exactly do you mean by that? A lot of the things I did provide has a hard time showing proof that we live together as we decided it was kind of last minute where we thought we could try since we believed we did have enough proof. But I feel like they're just asking for a mountain of things at this point.

You don't have to have filed your taxes. You were required to update your marital status with CRA within 30 days of becoming common-law. You can log into your CRA account and correct it now.

Attested = notarized.

They aren't asking for a mountain of things. The proofs you submitted really don't prove common-law. Scylla broke down your proofs one by one and explained. You need to show a spread of proofs over at least one year.

 

[Sherv92]

You don't have to have filed your taxes. You were required to update your marital status with CRA within 30 days of becoming common-law. You can log into your CRA account and correct it now.

Attested = notarized.

They aren't asking for a mountain of things. The proofs you submitted really don't prove common-law. Scylla broke down your proofs one by one and explained. You need to show a spread of proofs over at least one year.

Okay I can definitely update that and attach that for the next email I send him. Scylla has been really great help and based on everything so far I have submitted I actually don't have anything else to really prove it, I've gone over it a lot too see if I was missing anything but the only thing that is a full 12 months or over is our Drivers License, and joint account. If I were to have my dad re-write a letter and have it notarized, because I feel like the gentlemen who's looking after our file didn't see it and resubmit it would that help? Should I maybe get a immigration lawyer at this point?

Do I have no other options here? Cause if it gets rejected, what are options for her cause she would need another work permit.

 

[scylla]

Okay I can definitely update that and attach that for the next email I send him. Scylla has been really great help and based on everything so far I have submitted I actually don't have anything else to really prove it, I've gone over it a lot too see if I was missing anything but the only thing that is a full 12 months or over is our Drivers License, and joint account. If I were to have my dad re-write a letter and have it notarized, because I feel like the gentlemen who's looking after our file didn't see it and resubmit it would that help? Should I maybe get a immigration lawyer at this point?

Do I have no other options here? Cause if it gets rejected, what are options for her cause she would need another work permit.

I wouldn't recommend getting an immigration lawyer. It's expensive and won't help you. If IRCC thinks you are short on cohabitation evidence, a lawyer can't magically fix this. You either have enough to show you are common law or you don't. I would recommend you submit what you have - that's really the best you can do. Get a new letter from your father and get it notraized. Make sure it specifies clearly the date you first started living together.

You are definitely a bit light on evidence. This could go either way to be honest. Not sure there's much you can do but wait for the application to be processed and see how IRCC feels about what you've submitted.

Just in case you are refused and need to reapply (hopefully that doesn't happen), I would start building much stronger cohabitation evidence now. Or, alternatively, consider getting married.

Good luck. Hope it works out.