How to ensure you are seen as common law, not roommates?!

[dishy_max]

Hey all,

Any help anybody can give me would be greatly, greatly appreciated on this subject!

My boyfriend and I moved in together August 1st 2009. The townhouse we live in is owned by his incapacitated Grandmother and my boyfriend had not paid rent for the previous 4 years he lived there (prior to my moving in). When I moved in, we agreed between us and with his Mother that we would still not pay rent, instead using that money to fix up the place so that when we were ready to move out to somewhere of our own she could rent the place out straight away.

On this basis, we agreed that I would transfer money each month into his account for my portion of the bills and decorating costs etc. Because we didn't know at the time that we would be making this move (and me sponsoring him) we left all bills in his name as they had been for the past 4 or 5 years....

Apparently (according to my immigration lawyer) this poses as problem as the immigration officer might see us as roommates (with him being my landlord) and not common-law partners.

At the same time, most of my bills (being the environmentally friendly Canadian that I am) are paperless and simply available to me if I check online myself. And of course any rubbish post that came through for the first 8-9 months or so would get recycled or shredded.

Basically this means that I have very few pieces of post showing me at my current address with my boyfriend and as we don't have a joint bank account, joint utility bills etc we might be seen to be roommates!!

Can anybody point out how I can effectively demonstrate to the IO that we are in a relationship and not roommates?!?! At the moment I'm just a bit upset that after working at the forms for three months - we're no better off than we were at the beginning

Thanks in advance for any answers, dishy.

 

[buddhadimple]

Join a bank account, get everything put in both your names (even if it's just club cards or library memberships), and basically legally tie yourselves to each other. Get life insurance naming the other as the beneficiary. Get all this before applying.

We've applied as Common Law Partners and although we did have a joint bank account and loads of photos and plane/train tickets with both our names on it, we really should have done more. We were a bit naive in the beginning. No word yet from London but here's hoping.

 

[dishy_max]

Thanks!

I had thought about doing all that but was worried that they would see we had only done it a month before and think it was suspicious no?? Does it not matter it's only been a few weeks that we've had all this stuff?

And did your app go through ok even though you didn't have more documentation?

 

[canadayogini]

Can you get signed statements from friends of their knowledge of your relationship?
Have different sides of your family met at any occasion? - photos?
Last years christmas cards addressed to both of you?
Are you listed as each others emergency contacts anywhere (at the docs, or work?) - get yourselves listed now, they might be able to write a letter saying this has been in the system a while.

Joint purchases for the grocery shopping?

Listed on a will together?

In our case, for Australian immigration they needed 12 months worth of evidence so they wouldn't accept the 6 months of joint bank statements (we only got joint accounts closer to applying for the visa)

Can you print any of the older online bills with your address?

We also wrote a lengthy statement of our relationship explaining what evidence we did have and why we didn't (like you, we also were green and were mostly electronic or recycled right away).

You'll get there and the flight home will be all the more sweeter.

 

[potcakes]

When my other half and i applied, we were short on evidence too. The stuff we had collected was destroyed in hurricain ike (we lived in the turks and Caicos) it all went mouldy with water damage, so our joint bank statements, utility bills all gone we basically had to start from scratch. it took several months so we couldnt apply right away, but we pulled together photos of parents visiting, and photocopies of their passport stamps, we managed to get a back dated bank statements we phoned and asked, it cost $15 but its worth it. Once you take a step back you will be surprised where the stuff comes from. Try you grandmothers lawyer for an afidavit about the lease/rental agreementand the date it started when you moved in. You may not be able to apply straight away, it may take 6 months to build up enough evidence (banks are very slow) but you will get there. it took us a year to collect enough stuff!
Its tough once you make that choice you want it to happen instantly, but take your time. Its so important especially for the common law app to make sure you have enough evidence. Good Luck!

 

[waitingintz]

Hi dishy-max

We also had some challenges with evidence... we live in Tanzania at the moment and everything is pay-as-you-go so no paper bills etc. We just focused a lot on evidence of relationship with eachother's families (get your grandmother to write a sworn statement about your agreement and your common-law partner). We included lots of pictures with eachother's families, even emails and cards. Even if you have to be really cheesy and ask someone from your family to write an email mentioning that time that you guys went wherever together or talking about plans you're all making for the future. Get lots of letters from respectable sources (like employers if possible) mentioning your partner. We included mail we each received to the same address, mail/emails addressed to both of us. Even an email a friend sent you asking about your boyfriend from a year back would be helpful.

I felt like it added up pretty quickly and it's all stuff you definitely wouldn't have with a roommate.

Good luck

 

[dishy_max]

Thanks to everybody for their comments/thoughts.

We have done our own essays (each of us) to describe our relationship from start to finish, we've got Affidavits done up saying why we can't provide certain documentation, we've got statutory declarations from my Mom, his Mom and four friends, photos galore and I'm including emails between him and I which are mushy gushy and some talk about moving in together.

Problem is that I only saved those because it meant something to me....stuff from friends I tend to delete same day. I'm gonna get us joint bank accounts and maybe write something in my covering letter it? What do you think?

Dishy

 

[MrsCasanova]

Thanks to everybody for their comments/thoughts.

We have done our own essays (each of us) to describe our relationship from start to finish, we've got Affidavits done up saying why we can't provide certain documentation, we've got statutory declarations from my Mom, his Mom and four friends, photos galore and I'm including emails between him and I which are mushy gushy and some talk about moving in together.

Problem is that I only saved those because it meant something to me....stuff from friends I tend to delete same day. I'm gonna get us joint bank accounts and maybe write something in my covering letter it? What do you think?

Dishy

I have an idea, what if you put each other in your wills? I think that would make a strong statement

 

[dishy_max]

I'd be more than happy to but I'm just paranoid that they'd see the will was signed for example on 08 November and we apply on 15th? Would they not see that as doing it just for the sake of having stuff to send in?

If it's not too suspicious, will go and do it right now.....just need to find a lawyer

 

[MrsCasanova]

Hmmm i dont know, thats a good point. i would probably do it anyway, but i see what you mean. i dont know what to tell ya, it was an idea though

 

[dishy_max]

Lol, great idea and I had thought of it myself....maybe I'll try that CIC hotline number and see what they say.

Thanks!

 

[kelKel]

Dishy even if you have all online bills (so do I) when you go online you can print them out. They will show your address listed under your name so at least you'll be able to show bills listed under the same address.

 

[buddhadimple]

Thanks!

I had thought about doing all that but was worried that they would see we had only done it a month before and think it was suspicious no?? Does it not matter it's only been a few weeks that we've had all this stuff?

And did your app go through ok even though you didn't have more documentation?

I can answer this now as we got our Passport Request today!!


To be honest, I think the legal stuff (joined accounts) is more about you showing you are willing to tie your credit together and other legal aspects of your life. I know I wouldn't be willing to join my credit with a roommate who might go take out a big loan and never pay it back.

Our timeline was this (as a common law application)

Lived together 5 months in Canada.
Lived apart 6 months when he returned to the UK (he visited during this time).
Lived together 18 months in the UK before submitting the application in August 2010
Sent application to Mississauga 10 August 2010
Started Processing in Mississauga 12 August 2010
Sponsorship Approval and file transferred to London 10 September 2010
In Process in London starting 29 September 2010
Passport Request for Permanent Residence today 5 November 2010


In terms of the PR application (not the Sponsorship Application), we included:

- A joint bank account letter (saying that we were approved for a joint bank account, and it was dated not long before the application).
- Two Statutory Declarations from his mother and my mother declaring they know about our relationship and support it and are aware of our plans for the future together.
- A few more e-mail print-outs from friends saying how they know about our relationship and support it and how they met us, etc.
- Statutory Declaration of Common Law Union (although not required, another good piece of evidence), sworn in front of three British Magistrates.
- Expired/Invalid Life Insurance naming him as the beneficiary (it was provided through a job I had but expired when I quit and I put a note explaining it was no longer valid as I didn't work there anymore)
- Printout of our Facebook pages ... for several reasons: (1) it shows we're "in a relationship", (2) it shows our "mutual friends", (3) it has many more photos in chronological order in separate albums, and (4) it invites them to have a look and judge for themselves whether we're in a real relationship and the day-to-day lives we lead as well as our relationships with friends and family as well. Whether they check this or not, I don't know - but we included everything we possibly could.



We did a "Timeline of our Relationship" which included:
- Copies of cashed cheques (printed from my Canadian bank account online) saying "rent for _my name_ and _his name_" in the 'memo' section of the cheque, to prove we lived together in Canada (there was no tenancy agreement as it was a dodgy apartment building in the first place)
- Photos, receipts, bank statements showing outtings together (e.g. winter holiday we rented a cabin: photos of the trip, copy of cashed cheque for the deposit on the cabin, a website print-out of the cabin's website showing their name [which matched the name on the cashed cheque], receipts from the pubs we went to at the holiday destination, etc)
- Photos of weddings we attended (meeting family and friends), the train tickets it took to get to the weddings and flight tickets with both our names on them



Basically, in this "timeline", we did a Table of Contents and put things we thought were significant (attending weddings, moving house, starting a new job, going on holiday, etc). We said everything we did together and then proved it with our evidence, which were put in sections following the Table of Contents. Most of it came from Facebook photos and bank statements as well as e-mail confirmations of plane and train ticket bookings. We had no "printed" evidence really. We had to track it down online and print it ourselves.


Hope that helps!

 

[BeShoo]

I'd be more than happy to but I'm just paranoid that they'd see the will was signed for example on 08 November and we apply on 15th? Would they not see that as doing it just for the sake of having stuff to send in?

If it's not too suspicious, will go and do it right now.....just need to find a lawyer

Do it now. What's suspicious is if you do it after the application is refused and before an appeal. You don't want to be in that situation should it ever come to an appeal.

Read the reply I posted at http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html;msg357741#msg357741 and the two additional ones that follow it. Think of everything you might have that could show the criteria that are mentioned there, in the cases where those criteria apply to your situation. Things in writing (or printed from electronic sources) are the best, but if you can get someone to vouch for you, that is also good.
I'm sure there are things you can come up with.

 

[MrsCasanova]

Do it now. What's suspicious is if you do it after the application is refused and before an appeal. You don't want to be in that situation should it ever come to an appeal.

Read the reply I posted at http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.0.html;msg357741#msg357741 and the two additional ones that follow it. Think of everything you might have that could show the criteria that are mentioned there, in the cases where those criteria apply to your situation. Things in writing (or printed from electronic sources) are the best, but if you can get someone to vouch for you, that is also good.
I'm sure there are things you can come up with.

i agree, thats a good point