Legally separated but living common law

[AlexZ92]

I married a Canadian citizen in 2015 but we separated in 2016 and I early 2017 I returned to my home country.
I then met my now fiancé and I came to Canada in January 2018 and started living together after 10 months of knowing each other through social media, we are in a happy relationship.

I would like to know if we can apply for sponsorship now or I have to wait for my divorce to be finalized (also I didn’t fill up the divorce papers yet). Is there a good chance we can still apply?

Note: I accidentally selected “Married” in my two previous visitor extension application as I wasn’t aware that Canada considers a couple legally separated after 1 year spent apart. Could that affect my application? Also in the application I selected that I would be residing at a friend’s house stating that she is a friend when in reality that was my girlfriend. I did that because I wasn’t aware of what to select in the application. Is this a problem? We have plenty of photos and friend and family who can write letters stating that our relationship is genuine, I also have a post card and love letters that I sent her long time ago.

 

[AlexZ92]

Also, Alberta considers common-law (now called adult independent partner) after 3 years of living together.
Does that mean that my fiancé has to change her marital status from single to common-law anyways in order to sponsor me? Or she can just select “common-law” in the application without having to notify CRA? I’m a bit confused.

 

[AlexZ92]

Up

 

[AlgCad0218]

Common law per immigration is one year of living together continuously. If you have been living together since January 2018 you are common law.

However I don’t have answers to your other questions.