Cover letter and timeline

[dstpcansgirlfriend]

Hi everyone

First off, thanks so much for all your help. I’ve learned a lot from reading the threads on this forum. I’ve got a couple more questions that I’m hoping you can give me your opinions on (and my apologies for asking so much!)

What – if any – sort of cover letter do you include with your common law inland application? I’ve seen some sites that indicate a cover letter is a good idea, and others that stress that it’s not really necessary. I don’t want to overwhelm the visa officer with unnecessary clutter, but we can write one if it’s encouraged. Alternatively, we could each include a statement about our relationship as part of the “additional information about the relationship” section in IMM5532.

Second question – what sort of timelines do you guys enclose? I’m the sponsor, and my partner is from South America. We were long-distance for 2 ½ years and then he moved here. We were thinking of including a timeline for the “is there any more information you wish to share” question on IMM 5532, as it could help give some context to the documents that we are submitting for that (10 page sampling of our Facebook conversations since we met, boarding passes for various trips, proof of travel together, greeting cards etc). Do you include facts about every single thing you guys did together? I have pretty good records of parties and events that we’ve attended together, dinners we went to, and trips we took, so we could include a fairly lengthy timeline. Do visa officers care about this?

Last question about documents in general : is there such a thing as too many pieces of evidence? For the proof of our address, I can print off every pay stub I’ve had since we began living together, as well as every gym membership invoice, utility bill, bank statement etc. In other words, we could each have multiple records showing our name and address for pretty much each month that we lived together. Is this sort of repetitive information frowned upon, or do they want as much as possible?

As always, thank you for your valuable advice. We officially become common-law on September 30, so we are gathering our documentation now.

 

[James_NZ1]

Hi everyone

First off, thanks so much for all your help. I’ve learned a lot from reading the threads on this forum. I’ve got a couple more questions that I’m hoping you can give me your opinions on (and my apologies for asking so much!)

What – if any – sort of cover letter do you include with your common law inland application? I’ve seen some sites that indicate a cover letter is a good idea, and others that stress that it’s not really necessary. I don’t want to overwhelm the visa officer with unnecessary clutter, but we can write one if it’s encouraged. Alternatively, we could each include a statement about our relationship as part of the “additional information about the relationship” section in IMM5532.

Second question – what sort of timelines do you guys enclose? I’m the sponsor, and my partner is from South America. We were long-distance for 2 ½ years and then he moved here. We were thinking of including a timeline for the “is there any more information you wish to share” question on IMM 5532, as it could help give some context to the documents that we are submitting for that (10 page sampling of our Facebook conversations since we met, boarding passes for various trips, proof of travel together, greeting cards etc). Do you include facts about every single thing you guys did together? I have pretty good records of parties and events that we’ve attended together, dinners we went to, and trips we took, so we could include a fairly lengthy timeline. Do visa officers care about this?

Last question about documents in general : is there such a thing as too many pieces of evidence? For the proof of our address, I can print off every pay stub I’ve had since we began living together, as well as every gym membership invoice, utility bill, bank statement etc. In other words, we could each have multiple records showing our name and address for pretty much each month that we lived together. Is this sort of repetitive information frowned upon, or do they want as much as possible?

As always, thank you for your valuable advice. We officially become common-law on September 30, so we are gathering our documentation now.

I'll try answer as best I can,
We wrote a cover letter that introduced us both, how we meet and our future (family, buying a house etc) Sort of like a cover letter for a job. We also highlighted 10 months of time apart before we officially started living together. She was studying in her home country and I had to leave as my work visa was coming to an end. It helps to fill in the gaps that you have also highlighted within the application.

Try to include what I like to call big ticket events. These are things like Holidays/vacations, a friends wedding or engangment party, moving into first rental or home and any major events within the family like your parents 50th or sisters 21st (for example.) Trips away from home cost money, involve planning and usually involve joint spending so build a good profile for you. Engagement parties, workplace events, family birthday dinners show you and your partner being included with the family or workmates or friends. Including information about the time you both went to Doug's housewarming party will just use up valuable space that could be better given to proof. Don't send in 10 pages of facebook messaging etc. Just mention you have this available if they want it. What we are all trying to do is convince a complete stranger you are dating or living together. If you show a stranger of you two would the story behind it show that you are dating/living together? That stranger just happens to be a immigration officer.

For your last question. I lived with my partner at a new house every year. Rental leases are one year long and we wanted to move each year to a different part of the city we lived in. We submitted proof of each address but one or two documents per address. So for one address we submitted maybe our contents and vehicle insurance and our power bill. The next house we submitted two proofs (insurance and internet bill) We submitted our full joint account statements for three years. For each address we also submitted our rental lease and bond receipts. All our proofs were in both our names (joint) the only one in my name was our mobile phone account as this was a one name only account. I don't think you need to submit every months bill or rent payment. Just enough proof you lived there. I submitted my employment insurance and next of Kin details with my partners name on them. This showed valid proof from day one to my last day at work.

Every application is different and everyone has different proof they want to submit. Don't go over what they require and submit what you think is enough. It's important to remember that if they are ever in doubt you will be contacted to submit more proof BEFORE they decline your application. At that request you submit EVERYTHING haha.

Hope this helps, all the best

 

[Wakki]

you do not need a cover letter.....check the applicable and just provide the checklist.

you may include a timeline to help give some context.

Provide the documents as required by the checklist.

How can my common-law partner and I prove we have been together for 12 months?

 

[dstpcansgirlfriend]

Thanks guys! That was really helpful, and good to read. Thanks, James_NZ1 for saying that they'll contact you *before* they decline the application. I feel like we've got more than enough valid proof of what they want- it's just deciding how much is just enough to put in. We will choose a good selection of documents and send them off next month.