Desperate and Panicking....

[Adam W]

Hi All,

After reading the posts that are already up I'm amazed at how much advice and information people can provide and I'm hoping you can help me too...

I'm an English citizen and my partner is a Canadian citizen, we met in Toronto when I was there on a working holiday visa in 2008, we fell in love and started living together pretty soon after. We lived together for well over a year, but due to the fact I was still renting my flat (but living with her) for half the time, and because her landlord needed credit checks to add anyone to the lease, we were never listed on the same renters lease. My working visa expired in May 2009, at that point I switched to a standard 6 month holiday visa and continued to live with her in Toronto untill the end of August when I moved back to the UK, solely for the reason of money as she had supported me since May when I had to stop working.
We planned for her to come and live here in England but her career has just taken off in a big way and it isn't possible for her to transfer her job to the UK, so now our plans have changed and I need to move back to Toronto.
We both have had bad family experinces with marriage, and at the same time as serious as we are and as much as we love eachother and want to be together, we don't want to marry just for the visa.
It is literally killing us to be away from eachother for so long, she came to stay with me and my family for Christams and New Years in England and over the last couple of weeks we have decided that the only option we feel we have is to apply for the Spouse/conjucal spouse Family Class Sponsorship visa.
I have recently paid and joined a company in Canada called Migration Expert, and I am now considering their premium service which costs lots but means that they will have a "Migration Expert" handle everything for you. I'm not lazy but they say that they have a 99% success rate and will be able to get my application into processing much faster and more proffessionally. I really don't want to mess up the application, plus I want to have the best chance of acceptance on application of the visa.
We have loads of evidance of our relationship, 100's of close friends and family in Canada and England that have witnessed our relationship, masses of phone records and emails, loads of photos, passport stamps from when we have holidayed together, the lot.

We just don't know what to do, or even if what we can do.

I'm sorry this is the longest post in the world!, I just thought that the more info I gave the more chance that someone might be able to help. Massive thanks to all that have read this far, and many many thanks in advance for any help!

 

[fallenstar831]

I think you are on the right track. Though I think immigration consultants are a waste of money. The applications are actually quite easy, and this forum is an amazing help. To be honest most of the leg work is getting together the proof of your relationship which no consultant can do for you. So you're paying then to type answers into a form that is pretty straight forward.

Your case sounds pretty straight forward, though not having both names on the lease is a downer - however, if you have bills or mail that was sent to the address and still have copies, you could be okay.

I would think to do it yourself and put your all into it, and if there are problems, or a need for appeal then you can hire a consultant.

Anyone out there done commonlaw as well? What did you send as evidence?

 

[saralune]

hummm but if they don t live together anymore can they still be considered common law ???

I just would look into that...

 

[fallenstar831]

Yes they can, they lived together for over a year at some point. It's right in the application.

 

[Adam W]

Thanks so much guys!

We lived together at 2 seperate residence's, and I have mobile phone records mailed to the second property...

How much influence do character witness' or any type of family, hers live an hour from where we lived and I saw them all the time.
She has been to visit me an met all my family too, my sister met my partner when we first started dating back in 2008. I have no idea if these are even useful?
Also i'm unsurte what the average time to take would be between application and PR being granted from a work point of view? I want to save for the next couple of months so I can go out on a holiday visa and support myself from early summer till it comes through... is that possible?

Thanks again!

 

[rnbacchus]

we have decided that the only option we feel we have is to apply for the Spouse/conjucal spouse Family Class Sponsorship visa.

Does that mean you are planning to apply as conjugal partners rather than common-law partners? Considering there has been no barrier to you living together (which you have but don't have a joint lease as proof) or getting married, it would be unlikely that you would be approved under the conjugal partner category.

If you are applying as common-law partners, it might be a slight issue that you don't have a joint lease but I imagine you can get around that by providing other evidence of co-habitation (ie. any joint bills that go to the same address).

I would advise against hiring a consultant, especially if the organization has exorbitant fees. As fallenstar already said, the most daunting part of the application is gathering proof of your relationship and no one but you and your partner can do that. No immigration lawyer or consultant can promise you faster processing times or a better chance of your application being accepted if you hire them.

 

[kc416]

I agree with rn. I may sound repetative.

conjugal is hard to prove they always seem to look for a really really good explanation / story. Having bad experience with marriage does not qualify for a good reason why you are applying as conjugal. dont mean to sound harsh

same with common-law, there seems to be some holes and plenty of room to question espeically not having a lease but if you have a joint account and have joint utility bills or phone bills or something to prove you were living together maybe try and get a letter from the landlord.

I also do not suggest hiring a consultant, lawyer, whomever... especailly at the cost they charge! You can and will get more accurate reliable support and direction from this here forum than from any consultant etc. Let them FREE!

I know the feeling of "not wanting to get married for a visa" i was in the exact same situation where my husband and I would not have gotten married so soon in life and so soon in our relatinonship if we had lived in the same town, province or even country. But we had no choice and it came down to the point where we couldnt bare to be without eachother any longer than we HAD to... so we married and I have never been so happy!

Go get married............ ;D follow your heart and let yourself be vulnerable again - you wont get hurt if its true love!

THE BIGGER THE RISK THE BIGGER THE REWARD

 

[toby]

I agree with KC416.

I'd advise you not to get married just for the visa, but (like us) if you must to apply as married spouses, and you are in love, take the leap. It's lamentable that bureaucratic requirements pressure us to marry before the ideal time, but that's life sometimes.