Hello!
I'm trying to figure out what the more accurate date to put on my common law application for my partner and I's PR. We are applying via Express Entry with myself as the principal applicant. I am a UK citizen and he is Swedish.
We met in Canada in Nov 2018 by renting rooms in the same house when we moved over on working holiday permits. We quickly became a couple and told our landlords in late Nov 2018 that we intended to share a room together etc. starting Dec 1st. Hence our cohabitation started Dec 1st 2018. He met my family when they came over in the spring and we were openly and outwardly a couple to everyone we knew in Canada too.
We both went to our home countries in May/June 2019 and had discussed for me to go over to Sweden to meet his family, however my stepmom was diagnosed with cancer shortly before my flight home so I postponed going to see him and his family to prioritize spending my time with my stepmom and supporting my own family. So there was a 4 week gap in us seeing each other, but we did still behave as a couple and had our joint lease etc. for this time back in Canada.
My partner's one year working Holiday permit expired in Oct 2019, so he moved onto a visitor record and stayed in Canada with me whilst I worked. We then arranged to go back to our countries again for Christmas 2019, my partner had been accepted a place with an RO to apply for a second working holiday permit, so needed to arrange police certificates and technically apply from his home country. Due to my job, I could only take a certain amount of time off (I used up all vacation and personal days I had in my contract for this trip), and with flights being so expensive at that time of year, we flew at different times to keep his flights as cheap as possible. Here is the schedule of how we moved;
Dec 8th - Partner flew home to Sweden
Dec 13th - I flew to UK
Dec 15th - Partner flew to UK to spend time with my family
Dec 18th - we flew together to Sweden to meet his family
Dec 22rd - I flew back to UK, partner in Sweden
Jan 02rd - I flew back to Canada
Jan 08th - Partner flew back to Canada
So in total we were separated for a week (Dec 8-14) and then together for a week meeting families (Dec 15-22) and then had time apart again for approx 2 weeks (Dec 23 - Jan 08).
I honestly had never realized that either of these trips would constitute a break in our living together, as we had committed to our place in Canada together with a joint lease and we wanted to go home to spend time with each other in our home countries, meeting home friends etc - which from our perspective was further evidence of our commitment to each other? But having looked into this recently, i've seen the number of "2-3 weeks max" thrown around for these types of trips so my questions are:
Any advice or similar experiences would be really helpful! - we're trying to figure out how to navigate this situation moving forward to ensure the best possible outcome for us to stay in Canada permanently. Thank you!
I'm trying to figure out what the more accurate date to put on my common law application for my partner and I's PR. We are applying via Express Entry with myself as the principal applicant. I am a UK citizen and he is Swedish.
We met in Canada in Nov 2018 by renting rooms in the same house when we moved over on working holiday permits. We quickly became a couple and told our landlords in late Nov 2018 that we intended to share a room together etc. starting Dec 1st. Hence our cohabitation started Dec 1st 2018. He met my family when they came over in the spring and we were openly and outwardly a couple to everyone we knew in Canada too.
We both went to our home countries in May/June 2019 and had discussed for me to go over to Sweden to meet his family, however my stepmom was diagnosed with cancer shortly before my flight home so I postponed going to see him and his family to prioritize spending my time with my stepmom and supporting my own family. So there was a 4 week gap in us seeing each other, but we did still behave as a couple and had our joint lease etc. for this time back in Canada.
My partner's one year working Holiday permit expired in Oct 2019, so he moved onto a visitor record and stayed in Canada with me whilst I worked. We then arranged to go back to our countries again for Christmas 2019, my partner had been accepted a place with an RO to apply for a second working holiday permit, so needed to arrange police certificates and technically apply from his home country. Due to my job, I could only take a certain amount of time off (I used up all vacation and personal days I had in my contract for this trip), and with flights being so expensive at that time of year, we flew at different times to keep his flights as cheap as possible. Here is the schedule of how we moved;
Dec 8th - Partner flew home to Sweden
Dec 13th - I flew to UK
Dec 15th - Partner flew to UK to spend time with my family
Dec 18th - we flew together to Sweden to meet his family
Dec 22rd - I flew back to UK, partner in Sweden
Jan 02rd - I flew back to Canada
Jan 08th - Partner flew back to Canada
So in total we were separated for a week (Dec 8-14) and then together for a week meeting families (Dec 15-22) and then had time apart again for approx 2 weeks (Dec 23 - Jan 08).
I honestly had never realized that either of these trips would constitute a break in our living together, as we had committed to our place in Canada together with a joint lease and we wanted to go home to spend time with each other in our home countries, meeting home friends etc - which from our perspective was further evidence of our commitment to each other? But having looked into this recently, i've seen the number of "2-3 weeks max" thrown around for these types of trips so my questions are:
- I now assume this June 2019 gap is too long (even if we didn't mean for it to be) to maintain the 12 month continuous count towards common law, so we restarted the clock at that point? Or would the health of my stepmom be a valid reason for us to have not spent that time together as we had hoped?
- I'm hoping our time at home in Dec 2019 shows the point of us going home to spend time with each other's families, and that the time spent apart on either side of that was due to flight costs and my work commitments (for reference, him flying a week either side of my dates saved us more than $2000). Hence would this be likely ok from a common law 'short time apart' perspective?
- Which of these two dates are our official start point from an IRCC perspective of when our 12 months for common law started, if either - Dec 1st 2018 (when we got a joint lease) or June 20th 2019 (when we both returned to Canada after our trip home)?
Any advice or similar experiences would be really helpful! - we're trying to figure out how to navigate this situation moving forward to ensure the best possible outcome for us to stay in Canada permanently. Thank you!