You're right Leon. There's a gray area with the common law thing. It's at the discretion of the CBSA officer and it depends on whether the sponsor has reported this new set of "facts" (using this term loosely) to CBSA. I hope the OP and his partner get back together. However, I was commenting on the post that said you can "divorce" your sponsor before you land. That's ridiculous and untrue. There was a case where a Husband and Wife broke up before landing but they did NOT divorce. CBSA allowed the applicant to land and did not want to get involved in their marital issues. The sponsor then reported the breakup to CIC and they are reviewing the new PR's eligibility for PR (or so they say because they hate investigating these things.) However, if a sponsor produces a divorce order or certificate to CBSA BEFORE the applicant lands, they are no longer a member of the family class and CBSA won't allow them to land. At best, they will allow them to stay in Canada to appeal their decision and it goes from there.