Insufficient proof of cohabitation for common-law partner

[ns1995]

Hi everyone, my common-law partner and I submitted our application June of 2021. We got the following message yesterday:

'Proof of Cohabitation for Common-Law Partner: You did not provide sufficient evidence
of cohabitation. Please provide additional evidence of cohabitation that could be used to confirm
whether a sponsored spouse or partner has been continuously cohabiting with their sponsor for at
least 1 year prior to the receipt of the application (2021/06/01). These may include: Joint bank
accounts or credit cards indicating both you and your sponsor's names, Jointly signed ownership of
residential property, Jointly signed residential leases, Jointly signed mortgage or purchase agreement,
insurance and/or beneficiary forms, Joint utilities accounts (electricity, gas, telephone), Important
documents of both parties showing the same address (i.e identification documents, driver’s licenses,
and insurance policies).'

Our circumstances mean we are missing a few of these, but I'll list briefly what we gave:
-1 joint bank account
-1 jointly owned vehicle
-2 car insurance policies, joint
-1 joint utility account (phone)
-driver's licenses and several other individually-held accounts showing same address

We currently live at my parent's place, so we have no ownership of property or lease. All utilities are in their name, but I have been paying them (electricity, property tax, etc.) I could prove I'm paying them by showing my bank account number on the receipts.

So, how should we handle this situation?

It seems to me that I should get affidavits from my parents explicitly stating the dates that we lived here. Maybe my neighbors as well? My parents don't currently live in the country so I would need to arrange an affidavit online. Does anyone know of an accepted affidavit format for IRCC and where would be a trustworthy site to do this?

I'm not sure there's much else that I could do to show this. The only other document I didn't previously include that could work would be our PO Box in town, which would show my partner as an authorised user, though not a joint account.

Sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance for any help you can give.

 

[scylla]

Hi everyone, my common-law partner and I submitted our application June of 2021. We got the following message yesterday:

'Proof of Cohabitation for Common-Law Partner: You did not provide sufficient evidence
of cohabitation. Please provide additional evidence of cohabitation that could be used to confirm
whether a sponsored spouse or partner has been continuously cohabiting with their sponsor for at
least 1 year prior to the receipt of the application (2021/06/01). These may include: Joint bank
accounts or credit cards indicating both you and your sponsor's names, Jointly signed ownership of
residential property, Jointly signed residential leases, Jointly signed mortgage or purchase agreement,
insurance and/or beneficiary forms, Joint utilities accounts (electricity, gas, telephone), Important
documents of both parties showing the same address (i.e identification documents, driver’s licenses,
and insurance policies).'

Our circumstances mean we are missing a few of these, but I'll list briefly what we gave:
-1 joint bank account
-1 jointly owned vehicle
-2 car insurance policies, joint
-1 joint utility account (phone)
-driver's licenses and several other individually-held accounts showing same address

We currently live at my parent's place, so we have no ownership of property or lease. All utilities are in their name, but I have been paying them (electricity, property tax, etc.) I could prove I'm paying them by showing my bank account number on the receipts.

So, how should we handle this situation?

It seems to me that I should get affidavits from my parents explicitly stating the dates that we lived here. Maybe my neighbors as well? My parents don't currently live in the country so I would need to arrange an affidavit online. Does anyone know of an accepted affidavit format for IRCC and where would be a trustworthy site to do this?

I'm not sure there's much else that I could do to show this. The only other document I didn't previously include that could work would be our PO Box in town, which would show my partner as an authorised user, though not a joint account.

Sorry for the wall of text and thanks in advance for any help you can give.

Did the evidence that you already provided go back a full year to clearly show 1 year of cohabitation? For example, for the joint utility account, was it dated at least a year before you submitted your application? Same question for the rest.

The affidavit from your parents is a good idea. I'd recommend that you not select just some random online affidavit service but go with a service that is offered by a lawyer or notary in the province in Canada where you are living now.

 

[ns1995]

Did the evidence that you already provided go back a full year to clearly show 1 year of cohabitation? For example, for the joint utility account, was it dated at least a year before you submitted your application? Same question for the rest.

The affidavit from your parents is a good idea. I'd recommend that you not select just some random online affidavit service but go with a service that is offered by a lawyer or notary in the province in Canada where you are living now.

I will need to review the documents, but I believe we gave evidence of the earliest dates of cohabitation. I don't know if we gave continuous invoices/statements for the entire year however, so maybe it would be good for me to include those additional documents. For the joint bank account, we only opened it a few months into cohabitation, so we only have 9 months worth of statements for it.

I am in NS, so I will contact a local law firm to figure out how to handle the affadavit situation.

Thanks for your advice.

 

[scylla]

I will need to review the documents, but I believe we gave evidence of the earliest dates of cohabitation. I don't know if we gave continuous invoices/statements for the entire year however, so maybe it would be good for me to include those additional documents. For the joint bank account, we only opened it a few months into cohabitation, so we only have 9 months worth of statements for it.

I am in NS, so I will contact a local law firm to figure out how to handle the affadavit situation.

Thanks for your advice.

That sounds like a good way to proceed.

Remember tha you are trying to prove 1 year of continuous cohabitation so evidence dating back to at least a year before the application was submitted is critical. You'll also see this is exactly what IRCC has called out in their letter and it looks like this is what's lacking. I think it's a good idea to review what you have submitted to see what you have that covers the full year. Unfortunatly the joint bank account isn't of any use since it was opened later.

Good luck.

 

[L30N4KU]

Any updates? Did everything workout ? What documents did you provide?