Didnt include common law status at the time of PR application

[k.h.p.]

What about people who live in same roof with another 5 people in same address and later become committed to each other as gf bf are they considered common law ? Does living on same address consider common law?

The OP doesn't not suggest that the relationship started well after they started living together. The OP said they were in a relationship that started in 2017.

Your question regarding roommates, while being silly, is different. If people lived as roommates but did not have a relationship that included a significant degree of attachment, intimacy, and mutual support, then it's not common law. If they lived together for a year and then became committed, the common law status starts twelve months after they became committed.

The problem, though, is if you lived together with roommates for five years before you became committed to each other, you lived together for five years at the same address. You'd need to prove to the visa officer, somehow, that the relationship started after five years of living together. And that may be hard.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

What about people who live in same roof with another 5 people in same address and later become committed to each other as gf bf are they considered common law ? Does living on same address consider common law?

Being roommates doesn't count as common-law. However, the issue is that most people cannot prove that they weren't in a relationship while living at the same address. IRCC sees the shared address history and without proof to the contrary, assumes that the relationship had already started.

 

[Garry21]

Being roommates doesn't count as common-law. However, the issue is that most people cannot prove that they weren't in a relationship while living at the same address. IRCC sees the shared address history and without proof to the contrary, assumes that the relationship had already started.

How can you show that you are not in common law ? What proofs ?

 

[Garry21]

Being roommates doesn't count as common-law. However, the issue is that most people cannot prove that they weren't in a relationship while living at the same address. IRCC sees the shared address history and without proof to the contrary, assumes that the relationship had already started.

Well my sister was living in house with 5 roommates and they all were international worker from Philippines. She liked one guy amd then they became really good friends with that one guy. For some reason they changed house and started living in another alone and after living together as roommates for 6 months they became gf bf . So in this case what you think when is common law started?

 

[Sammy3]

You can't update your status after approval or through your partner's app. Don't do anything. IRCC will not take action against you.

We just discovered that my partners express entry profile was created as single now she got an ITA. There is no option to change it now

 

[Sammy3]

Should we decline her ITA and update express entry profile to add me as common law or is there any other option to update it now? Please guide if anyone knows.
Thanks

 

[k.h.p.]

Well my sister was living in house with 5 roommates and they all were international worker from Philippines. She liked one guy amd then they became really good friends with that one guy. For some reason they changed house and started living in another alone and after living together as roommates for 6 months they became gf bf . So in this case what you think when is common law started?

Common law begins after 12 months of cohabitation in a committed relationship. If they started their relationship six months after living together - say that they moved in on 1 June 2018, decided to be boyfriend/girlfriend on 1 December 2018, then their common law status commenced one year later on 1 December 2019.

That is when common law officially starts. You'd need to find proof of their relationship from 1 December 2018 to 1 December 2019. Address history, though, would show a longer period of living together. If for some reason you needed to prove you were not yet in a common-law relationship, say in August 2018, if you landed as PR then, you'd need to find things like dates with other people, reservations for restaurants, emails, etc. that prove you were not in a committed and exclusive relationship in August 2018.

The related thing to this is that you can't necessarily "back date" a relationship. If you've been living together since 2015 but only in January 2020 decided to be in a committed relationship, you couldn't use bills and leases to prove common law going back to 2015. Bills and leases only show cohabitation - you'd need to prove a committed relationship, like pictures with friends and family, on dates, and other things that couples actually do,

 

[canuck_in_uk]

How can you show that you are not in common law ? What proofs ?

Exactly. This is the issue that people run to when they try to say that they were just roommates.

Well my sister was living in house with 5 roommates and they all were international worker from Philippines. She liked one guy amd then they became really good friends with that one guy. For some reason they changed house and started living in another alone and after living together as roommates for 6 months they became gf bf . So in this case what you think when is common law started?

The one year common-law count started when they started the relationship.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

We just discovered that my partners express entry profile was created as single now she got an ITA. There is no option to change it now

Should we decline her ITA and update express entry profile to add me as common law or is there any other option to update it now? Please guide if anyone knows.
Thanks

No, she doesn't need to decline her ITA. She can just update in the actual PR app.

 

[Wolfpmd3]

Should we decline her ITA and update express entry profile to add me as common law or is there any other option to update it now? Please guide if anyone knows.
Thanks

I'm gonna put it this way. Don't be silly.

Having a shared address does not imply that that are living in a common law relationship and no-one specially CIC will care.
When you declare a CL relationship, it's because you want to obtain the same benefits or have the same options as a married couple and that is why you have to prove it.

If you're not even looking to get any of this benefits, such as sponsor someone or have them as dependants in your application, it's completely absurd to even think that you need to do so.

Do you think IRCC will go through your address history and then check in their databases for every single person who has lived there to see if the times overlap? That's non sense. Nobody has time for that.

 

[Wolfpmd3]

Being roommates doesn't count as common-law. However, the issue is that most people cannot prove that they weren't in a relationship while living at the same address. IRCC sees the shared address history and without proof to the contrary, assumes that the relationship had already started.

Because you don't need to proof that you aren't in a common-law relationship with every single person you've shared an address with! Nor will they take the time to look for every single person in the country who has ever reported living at every single address you've listed to see if the times overlap. This is ridiculous!

You only need to proof that you do whenever you want to enjoy the same benefits a married couple would do (be able to sponsor your couple, include them as dependants in your application, etc)

Just a matter of common sense people!

 

[Wolfpmd3]

No, you do not get to decide if a common-law relationship exists. If there is one, even if you can't prove it with documents, you cannot choose that it does not exist.

You decide whether you want to declare it or not, and to do so you must be able to prove it.
If you want to declare it but you can't prove it then it's just as if it hasn't ever happened.

You only need to declare and provide proof whenever you want to enjoy benefits a married couple would. Otherwise it's pointless, and no you are not expected/required to declare it unless you want to in order to benefit from it, somehow.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Because you don't need to proof that you aren't in a common-law relationship with every single person you've shared an address with! Nor will they take the time to look for every single person in the country who has ever reported living at every single address you've listed to see if the times overlap. This is ridiculous!

You only need to proof that you do whenever you want to enjoy the same benefits a married couple would do (be able to sponsor your couple, include them as dependants in your application, etc)

Just a matter of common sense people!

??

No one said that you need to prove you weren't common-law with every person you've lived with. This thread is VERY CLEARLY about a couple that IS common-law and therefore legally required to declare it.

Not committing misrepresentation is a matter of common sense.

You decide whether you want to declare it or not, and to do so you must be able to prove it.
If you want to declare it but you can't prove it then it's just as if it hasn't ever happened.

You only need to declare and provide proof whenever you want to enjoy benefits a married couple would. Otherwise it's pointless, and no you are not expected/required to declare it unless you want to in order to benefit from it, somehow.

Take that argument to CRA, another government agency where people are REQUIRED to declare if they are common-law and it pretty much never benefits them. It is NOT a choice whether to declare a common-law relationship to IRCC. What you are advising is misrepresentation.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Because you don't need to proof that you aren't in a common-law relationship with every single person you've shared an address with! Nor will they take the time to look for every single person in the country who has ever reported living at every single address you've listed to see if the times overlap. This is ridiculous!

You only need to proof that you do whenever you want to enjoy the same benefits a married couple would do (be able to sponsor your couple, include them as dependants in your application, etc)

Just a matter of common sense people!

Applicants are legally required to declare all family members. Here is the definition spelled out in IRPA, immigration law. There is a legal requirement to declare a common-law partner, just like a spouse or child.

https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/regulations/sor-2002-227/page-1.html

Definition of family member

(3) For the purposes of the Act, other than section 12 and paragraph 38(2)(d), and for the purposes of these Regulations, other than paragraph 7.1(3)(a) and sections 159.1 and 159.5, family member in respect of a person means

• (a) the spouse or common-law partner of the person;
• (b) a dependent child of the person or of the person’s spouse or common-law partner; and
• (c) a dependent child of a dependent child referred to in paragraph (b).

 

[k.h.p.]

You decide whether you want to declare it or not, and to do so you must be able to prove it.
If you want to declare it but you can't prove it then it's just as if it hasn't ever happened.

You only need to declare and provide proof whenever you want to enjoy benefits a married couple would. Otherwise it's pointless, and no you are not expected/required to declare it unless you want to in order to benefit from it, somehow.

Please stop offering incorrect and dangerously wrong information.

You do not get to decide if common law applies. It applies after the time runs out.

People who do as you advise often find very unfortunate things happen - such as a relationship breakdown where one partner claims for spousal support on the basis off common law and the other partner cannot prove the status didn't apply because it did.