Hello everyone!
I saw that topic, and thought that maybe I could also get some advice from someone more experienced at this, as I am about to send my INLAND common-law application (Quebec) next week. I think (I hope!) we gathered enough documents supporting our relationship, yet some points on the checklist are still unclear. Maybe someone here could shed some light on it? Thank you in advance, this forum is so helpful!
We live together in Montreal since February 2018 until now. My partner is a citizen by birth, from Quebec, I am from Poland. I was here with international experience canada, now on visitor. We will try to prove 1 year of cohabitation feb 2018 - feb 2019 (after that, in feb 2019, I left for ~ 3 weeks to my country to visit family and friends, I would still consider that allowed temporary break and not a break of cohabitation, but with the immigration officers we never know apparently)
point 7. on the checklist: proof of relationship to sponsor
PART A
*rental agreement for both of us - we have a rental agreement for the NEXT YEAR (starting july 1st 2019, but we signed at the end of may) showing both of us as occupants
+ we have past rental agreement for the name of my partner
+ we have notarized statement from our landlord, who lives next to us (so he can really confirm that) that my partner lives there since july 2017, that i moved in february 2018 and that we live there together since then
*proof of joint accounts - we have joint bank account (I got a statement from the bank confirming that me and him have a joint bank account at this bank - is that enough?). But checklist also say "submit a minimum of 1 bill" - can it be a bank statement showing what we paid for with the money on this account for lets say 1 month? - we have this account mainly for the groceries, we put money every 2 weeks and then pay for all the food we buy, or when we order something etc)
*copies of documents showing the same address - we have copies of documents showing the same address, both governmental and others (for the governmental - Revenue Quebec tax documents for both of us, for him from 2018 and 2019, from me only 2019 since it's I was on work visa in 2018 only - i believe revenue QC is provincial government department, so that classifies as governmental documents) + I have lots of other documents with my address starting from feb 18 and going through the whole time ("welcome" letter from bank just after we started living together, my phone agreement, receipts from french language school with my address, some document from work, medical records from hospital when I had emergency one time etc.). My partner does not have a lot of correspondence coming in general, but he has some and also he was on the rent the whole time, so I hope that's fine. Also, letter from friends (invitation to wedding) which came to both our names, but this is only written on the envelope - should I just send the envelope? Feels kind of weird as a proof, but who knows)
PART B - not applicable since we dont have children together
PART C
*documentary evidence of financial support and/or shared expenses: I find this one tough, but that's what I thought of:
a) financial support - the fact that my partner is the only one paying for the flat every month - so bank statement coming back to february 2018 showing that he's paying every month - can it be considered as financial support? He is not supporting ME technically, but he's paying the rent for both of us, so I don't have to do it + also, the fact that he was paying for my gym since november 2018, when we both signed up. We was paying monthly for both of us (I have the contract with the amount I owe the gym, he has the matching bank statements showing transfers that amount of money to that gym)
b) shared expenses - can it be the same what I added as a joint account proof (statement from the bank showing what we bought from common account within the last month, maybe underlining and explaining some expenses)? + would shared expenses from travels be fine? We recently went to south america, and I paid for one hotel, he paid for the next one, I paid for local plane tickets for both, he paid for train tickets the other day and so on... we could get bank statements matching with the plane or train tickets that I fortunately kept, and also matching the hotel confirmation which I can print from booking.com
*other proof - we have 5 support letters from family and friends, one notarized, one sworn in front of someone, and other 3 not notarized, but we will add ID copies of the persons who wrote then, I've read somewhere here that it's a good idea) + social media info (not too much, but we have 2 photos from our travels with a numerous comments of friends and family, so I'm gonna include screenshots).
Please someone give me any advice! My level of stress if that is enough is raising every day, at the point that I called a lawyer, who only made it sound like it's impossible without professional help and that we will probably make a lot of mistakes