Common-Law Sponsorship while living apart

[Dee Cee 25]

Hi everyone!

I hope someone can help me out on this one. I would like to sponsor my common-law partner but I am still in doubt if we can still qualify to apply for this category. Here’s our situation… We have been in a relationship for 5 years. We cohabitated for a period of two years (2010-2012) in Singapore while we were both under the Skilled Worker Visa. I have a copy of our tenancy agreement, etc. My working visa expired last November 2012 so I had to go back to Canada. Right now I am working and I have a stable income while she remained to stay in Singapore because her employer sponsored her to take part time studies while working full time. Her contract would end in the year August 2016. On her contract it says that if she does not finish until August 2016, she has to pay the amount of tuition fee her company paid for so she had no choice but to stay in Singapore.

So I have been here in Canada since 2012-Present. However, we have proofs that our relationship is still on going and genuine as we are still financially and emotionally interdependent of each other even though we are living apart. Would I still qualify to sponsor her as my common-law partner even if it’s been more than one year that we are living apart? Appreciate it much if someone could help me out.

 

[Rob_TO]

Technically yes, you can still apply as common-law as once you establish 12 years of living together you are still considered common-law even if you then live apart. However there may be doubts with the visa office that you are still common-law, since it's been several years since you last cohabited. They will want to see a very good reason for not continuing the cohabitation, and you will need to hope the employment reason satisfies that. Unfortunately nobody here will be able to tell you for sure, this decision will be completely up to the VO that processes your application.
Read here for more: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf
5.36. How can someone in Canada sponsor a common-law partner from outside Canada when
the definition says “is cohabiting”?
There should be evidence demonstrating that both parties are continuing the relationship, such as visits,
correspondence, and telephone calls.
For common-law relationships (and marriage), the longer the period of separation without any
cohabitation, the more difficult it is to establish that the common-law relationship (or marriage) still
exists.