Few questions about Common Law Sponsorship

[MrScarface]

Hello there,
i have some questions regarding the whole Common Law Sponsorship procedure and i hope you guys can help me out

1. Just to make sure, since its not further explained i guess the information mentioned in the sticky thread applies for common law as well ?!?

2. For common law we have to be living together for at least 12 months. Is it possible to do those 12 months living anywhere in the world or does it have to be in Canada? The CIC website doesn't say much about it!
My girlfriend is from Canada and i'm from Germany and she is going to do a Working Holiday in the UK for up to 2 years and that's where we are going to be living together!

3.

If you are a Canadian citizen, you can sponsor your spouse without being in Canada but you do then have to prove that you are planning on moving to Canada when your spouse gets approved for permanent residency. Such proof can include having arranged jobs, being accepted to college, having arranged housing or letters from friends & relatives stating that they know of your plans and that you can stay with them while you look for housing etc.

When exactly would we have to provide proof? When applying or later on?
Asking this because i can imagine getting an apartment or a job 1 1/2 or 2 years in advance might not be the easiest.

4. We are currently in Argentina for 5 months, living with her relatives and traveling around. WOuld those 5 months possibly benefit towards our 12 months of living considering that we're pretty much together 24/7 even though we don't have a apartment rented in our name or something like that.

Thank you in advance!!

 

[Ponga]

1. Yes

2. Yes. As long as you can ultimately provide sufficient proof of cohabiting, you can live together anywhere.

3. You need to start collecting proof from the day that you begin living together (or close to it). You will then submit that proof with your application.

4. If you are together under the same roof, yes. Again, keep anything that could help prove this later, when you apply.


Good luck!

 

[MrScarface]

1. Yes

2. Yes. As long as you can ultimately provide sufficient proof of cohabiting, you can live together anywhere.

3. You need to start collecting proof from the day that you begin living together (or close to it). You will then submit that proof with your application.

4. If you are together under the same roof, yes. Again, keep anything that could help prove this later, when you apply.


Good luck!

Hi Ponga, thank you for your quick answer.

To 3. I was referring to the proof that we intend to live in Canada after the application goes through. It says that a already arranged housing or a job offer would be helpful. But im just thinking that it might not easy to get a apartment or a job that much in advance. With the processing times of 1 1/2 to possibly 2 years that sounds pretty hard and i can see a lot of landlords or employers being not able or willing to give a guarantee that far ahead!

To 4. Okay good! Now after Argentina my gf has to go back to Canada to do one more semester of school and only after that we are going to the UK. Of course we have plans of her visiting me in Germany and me visiting her in Canada during this time but due to me being unable to work there I obviously cant stay for months. So we're not living together for a couple of months, is it right that that pretty much makes the 5 months spent in Argentina worthless and once in the UK we have to start counting from 0 again?

 

[canadianwoman]

A five-month break is too long. Keep proof of this travel together - it will help show the development of the relationship and that the relationship is genuine, but it will not count as part of the 12-month cohabitation you need for common-law.

 

[CdnandTrini]

Hi Ponga, thank you for your quick answer.

To 3. I was referring to the proof that we intend to live in Canada after the application goes through. It says that a already arranged housing or a job offer would be helpful. But im just thinking that it might not easy to get a apartment or a job that much in advance. With the processing times of 1 1/2 to possibly 2 years that sounds pretty hard and i can see a lot of landlords or employers being not able or willing to give a guarantee that far ahead!

To 4. Okay good! Now after Argentina my gf has to go back to Canada to do one more semester of school and only after that we are going to the UK. Of course we have plans of her visiting me in Germany and me visiting her in Canada during this time but due to me being unable to work there I obviously cant stay for months. So we're not living together for a couple of months, is it right that that pretty much makes the 5 months spent in Argentina worthless and once in the UK we have to start counting from 0 again?

MrScarface,

Back To 3. Perhaps you can make an arrangement with a family member or friend for now and that can be included as a letter of intent or agreement signed by them, which you can include in your package. I mean a million and one things could happen between now and then; however, as Ponga stated, start collecting now and the more proof you can include with your package, the better.

Back To 4. Although probably not the answer you wanted, CW is absolutely (but unfortunately for you folks) correct.

A final note of caution, some visa offices, do not "like" common law applications and therefore may require a much higher burden of relationship proof. (Like children ). So if marriage is not in the plan, make sure you explain the reasoning for that in your application, they will want to know. Are they supposed to be like this? No......but it has happened. So do some more poking around here to gauge the experiences of other common law couples. Blessings.

 

[MrScarface]

A final note of caution, some visa offices, do not "like" common law applications and therefore may require a much higher burden of relationship proof. (Like children ). So if marriage is not in the plan, make sure you explain the reasoning for that in your application, they will want to know. Are they supposed to be like this? No......but it has happened. So do some more poking around here to gauge the experiences of other common law couples. Blessings.

Hm that is interesting, that you for your "warning".
The situation with us is, yes obviously there have been talks of marrying but we both don't want to rush a marriage just because of the papers. Its not that we never wanna marry or anything, no we want to marry each other but we just don't want the wedding to be earlier or more rushed cause of the papers and since it doesn't give us a time advantage in form of less processing time there's not really a reason that we have to have the wedding earlier. Is that not a legit explanaiton?
In my opinion Common Law should be less prone to fraud since it defs takes more to live with somebody together for a year than to just have a quick wedding of convenience!?!

Speaking of that, i can very well see us being engaged by the time we apply so what exactly happens if we would be getting married after the application and while we're waiting?
I guess we have to inform CIC but would that make us ineligible for common Law and they would automatically switch our application to Spousal Sponsorship?

 

[CdnandTrini]

Hm that is interesting, that you for your "warning".
The situation with us is, yes obviously there have been talks of marrying but we both don't want to rush a marriage just because of the papers. Its not that we never wanna marry or anything, no we want to marry each other but we just don't want the wedding to be earlier or more rushed cause of the papers and since it doesn't give us a time advantage in form of less processing time there's not really a reason that we have to have the wedding earlier. Is that not a legit explanaiton?
In my opinion Common Law should be less prone to fraud since it defs takes more to live with somebody together for a year than to just have a quick wedding of convenience!?!

Speaking of that, i can very well see us being engaged by the time we apply so what exactly happens if we would be getting married after the application and while we're waiting?
I guess we have to inform CIC but would that make us ineligible for common Law and they would automatically switch our application to Spousal Sponsorship?

I agree with all of your reasoning (if only I was approving apps ) and oftentimes, it depends on the visa office (VO) that is processing your file. If they get a lot of common law apps then they seem to be more comfortable and experienced with them. I do not want to unfairly cause you concern or stress; however, there was a member on our thread (the Port of Spain VO in Trinidad, that processes a large majority of Caribbean country applicants) who did all of this and they were refused for a ridiculous reason after waiting over a year, being interviewed and having a ton of proof. It was devastating for them and it completely disrupted their lives. They ended up getting married and like you had planned to anyway (the bride simply wanted to be able to marry in Canada as her mother was unable to travel) so they eventually had to go through the entire process twice. :'(.

So it may be better to ask some of these questions via a thread that deals with the VO that will be processing your file. I definitely do not want to steer you wrong on such an important matter. I also cannot answer your question re: getting married during an active CL application. Let's call in some reinforcements from other senior members and those who have done CL through your VO already. Sit tight and/or pose this question back into the main thread as a new topic.

HELLO experienced CL folks and seniors - please help MrScarface

 

[Alurra71]

A five-month break is too long. Keep proof of this travel together - it will help show the development of the relationship and that the relationship is genuine, but it will not count as part of the 12-month cohabitation you need for common-law.

They are both living with her relatives and traveling together, how would this be considered a break in the relationship? I would think that the key word of living, even if with relatives, so long as they can provide some sort of proof of this, that it would count toward the ultimate goal of 12 months of cohabitation.

 

[CdnandTrini]

They are both living with her relatives and traveling together, how would this be considered a break in the relationship? I would think that the key word of living, even if with relatives, so long as they can provide some sort of proof of this, that it would count toward the ultimate goal of 12 months of cohabitation.

I think the OP mentioned in his point from one of his posts below, that they are currently living together for five months in Argentina. Unless I have missed something, I did not see where they have lived together prior to this and after this 5 month period they will not be together continuously again until many months later when they reunite in the UK. For CL criteria to be met it has to be 12 months of uninterrupted time. A vacation apart may be fine, but not an entire school semester.

To 4. Okay good! Now after Argentina my gf has to go back to Canada to do one more semester of school and only after that we are going to the UK. Of course we have plans of her visiting me in Germany and me visiting her in Canada during this time but due to me being unable to work there I obviously cant stay for months. So we're not living together for a couple of months, is it right that that pretty much makes the 5 months spent in Argentina worthless and once in the UK we have to start counting from 0 again?

 

[Alurra71]

I think the OP mentioned in his point form one of his posts below, that they are currently living together for five months in Argentina. Unless I have missed something, I did not see where they have lived together prior to this and after this 5 month period they will not be together continuously again until many months later when they reunite in the UK. For CL criteria to be met it has to be 12 months of uninterrupted time. A vacation apart may be fine, but not an entire school semester.

To 4. Okay good! Now after Argentina my gf has to go back to Canada to do one more semester of school and only after that we are going to the UK. Of course we have plans of her visiting me in Germany and me visiting her in Canada during this time but due to me being unable to work there I obviously cant stay for months. So we're not living together for a couple of months, is it right that that pretty much makes the 5 months spent in Argentina worthless and once in the UK we have to start counting from 0 again?

I didn't read quite as in depth as I should have. I picked out the 5 months of living together and the 5 months that was mentioned as a break and assumed there was a misunderstanding from the original statement. I don't think a college semester is 5 months, they are usually 9-12 weeks, but I do suppose that even 12 weeks would be considered too long a time apart to get that 5 months back.

 

[CdnandTrini]

I didn't read quite as in depth as I should have. I picked out the 5 months of living together and the 5 months that was mentioned as a break and assumed there was a misunderstanding from the original statement. I don't think a college semester is 5 months, they are usually 9-12 weeks, but I do suppose that even 12 weeks would be considered too long a time apart to get that 5 months back.

Usually anything involving college, university, work, internship - unless it's a well-documented and very short time frame, CIC sees it as "break" in the CL relationship. CL in most countries (especially non-visa exempt) generally means a higher burden of proof required by CIC.

The example I mentioned in one of my earlier posts - about the person on my VOs thread - the reason CIC actually gave them for refusal: The rental agreement was signed by the couple with a different colour of pen ink than the rent cheques they gave to the landlord for over a year. CIC did not care one whit about their reason for CL instead of marriage Sad but true.