do I need to notify CIC?

[Lady_Ashka]

I am currently waiting for an extension of my WP (applied in July). In September my Canadian BF and I gained common law status (we've been living together for a year now, etc). I didn't put in common law as my marital status in the application for the permit extension (and put divorced instead, as i am), because I figured common law is defined as 12 months of a relationship. But now that we've notified the CRA (for his tax purposes), I am wondering, should I somehow notify CIC about this relationship status change?

We will be applying for my PR in April (we need to wait until cohabitation also reaches 12 consecutive months, I was away for 3 weeks last year and we assumed it will be safer to wait and count cohabitation from when i was back). And if I should notify them, how do I do it?

 

[Lammawitch]

Your post is confusing.

You say you have been living together for a year, then you say you are waiting until April 2016 for a year's cohabitation.

Which is it??? (A three week vacation doesn't necessarily break the timeline).

 

[Lady_Ashka]

Sorry for the confusion. I moved in in September 2014, then in April 2015 took 3 weeks in my home country, defending my PhD, and my BF only joined me later. I asked around here on the forum and was told that it will be safer to file for PR a year after I came back from that trip, because there need to be 12 months of continuous cohabitation before we can apply and the 3 weeks could potentially wreck that (better to be on the safe side), but common law counts from the moment we have had the apartment lease for a year (Sept 2014-2015). And so we will not be applying for PR anytime soon, but in the meantime I had to apply for my WP extension, in July, when we were most certainly not common law according to CIC standards yet. And because we have now gained that status I am wondering whether I need to notify CIC of that changed status, or does the requirement to notify apply only to PR applications/marriage/etc. And if I do need to notify them, how should I do it?

EDIT: for anyone who is wondering about the same thing, I called the CIC Call Centre, finally got through to a consultant, and she told me there is no need to notify CIC about this change now (because it is a WP application). Thanks to everyone who read this!