Letters from friends (template?) stating our relationship is genuine/continuing

[Boracay]

Hi everyone

Just wondering if there are certain guidelines we should follow.

We will get 2 notarized letters and plenty more others of friends who know us and will attest to the fact that we are a genuine couple that is continuing.

Is that in their own words or a template or ??

Also we have lived together 9+ months, we will be applying for common law after 12 or 13 months of living together. We are moving away from the tiny island we currently live on. So we can honestly say that nobody will have known us for a full year. Will that be a problem? It's very difficult to come back to this island 3 months from now just to make those letters due to the traveling expenses.

Furthermore since we moved here together, as I said it's been 9 months, but we did not meet all our friends on the first day we arrived. So some have known us for 6 months or something random.

So my questions are

1. About the format?
2. Are the people only stating they know our relationship is genuine and continuing or ???
I guess I'm jut hoping that won't be a problem!

 

[Kedeisha]

well others have post that whoever is writing the letter should start with the person they know first for example if its your brother they would start out the letter saying I am the brother of and then explain when they first became aware of the relationship and actitivies if any that you all have partake in together and if this person happen to be in your proofs of pictures even better as they can say we went to "mom's" bday party together for example... thats how i plan to do mine and I am getting letters from my mom sis and hubby sisters and my friends here in Canada that have spoken to him i know thats a lot but i rather they get different people perspective so there would be no questions

 

[canadianwoman]

Just wondering if there are certain guidelines we should follow.

We will get 2 notarized letters and plenty more others of friends who know us and will attest to the fact that we are a genuine couple that is continuing.

Is that in their own words or a template or ??

It should be in their own words. Give them some guidance, but if you give them too much guidance, there is a risk all the letters will look the same, in which case the VO will suspect you just wrote them yourselves.
Look at the 'template' AllisonVSC gave in this thread as an example of the kind of thing to ask for:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/-t41784.0.html

Also we have lived together 9+ months, we will be applying for common law after 12 or 13 months of living together. We are moving away from the tiny island we currently live on. So we can honestly say that nobody will have known us for a full year. Will that be a problem? It's very difficult to come back to this island 3 months from now just to make those letters due to the traveling expenses.

They can state when they met you (they should, in fact), but they don't have to come right out and say "I've known them for 6 months" or whatever. You will presumably keep in contact with these people via email, Facebook, etc., so they can still truthfully state they know you, not just that they 'knew you'. In any case, they should be stressing that they believe your relationship is genuine because ...

You should also try to get at least one letter from someone in your family. Even if they have never met your partner, they can still write about when you first told them about her, about how they know you are deeply in love because ...

 

[missmini]

boracay, i'm curious, if divorce does not exist there, what abt common-law? is it legal, if someone says officially for the gouverment, will they have problems with the law?

i'm struggling a lot with this issue now :'( here it is not legal but so many do it and noone will come to ring the door and ask for marriage certificate....my mom visited us and we have letter from her, notarized in canada....but we want to have one more notarized from our friends here...the problem all the notaries r public and they work for the gouverment so noone can declare openly that we live together, it's like a witness to our future process i tried the canadian consulate too but they say i have to write the letter and sign it, cuz i am the canadian citizen, not our friends from here...do the notarized letters clearly have to say that we live together?

except this we have other proofs: joint bank accounts, credit cards, statements with our common expenses for almost 3 years, receipts, joint rental for our home (thank God, our owner is very nice and does not look at culture things, or maybe he does even not know), our name with the same address from mailing stuff, courrier services, delivery, home repairs (anything non-gouverment), our common pobox for the gouverment + all the genuine relationship stuff...

we've been like this for 3 years now.....nothing happenned: our family and friends know, for anyone not pulic authority we r husband and wife, for the gourverment we have to be single

what would u do in our situation? would one notarized letter b enough? if other notarized don't directly state that we live together, just proof of the relationship, would it be ok? canadianwoman if u read this, i would love to hear ur feedback....and of course anyone else feedback is welcomed....thanks and good luck

 

[Boracay]

Since we're dealing with the Canadian authorities and not Philippines, trying to go to Canada, as long as we follow Canadian law, Canada should accept it.

But you're right....I didn't realize that the notary public works for the government but to be honest I think it's ok to use them, mainly because I think you have to in some aspects, not 100% sure though. For example divorce is not legal but if you get your common law declaration form notarized do we need to actually mention that 1 side is still married in The Philippines?
As far as friends or family stating that we are a genuine relationship and continuing and getting that notarized, do we have to mention one side of the partnership is still married. Even if we do, will this person actually care enough to report it? Highly unlikely especially here in The Philippines....personally the ones here in Boracay you can probably get to write anything you want, although I wouldn't go that route!

I think technically that if you state you are married and then state that you are also in a marriage like relationship with someone else, under Philippines law technically you can be charged with bigamy. But I say technically because I think that most people will turn a blind eye to that, including many police and government officials because in reality they or their friends are in the same situation in this unfair law. However that being said I wouldn't go announcing it, especially when leaving the country. Your passport says nothing regarding whether you are married or not, so just state the hard fact but don't mention the past and you will be fine.

The notarized letter stating your relationship is important but it's not 100%, it's really a mix of everything that will convince a the officer that everything is aok.
I hope this makes you feel a bit better =)

 

[missmini]

Since we're dealing with the Canadian authorities and not Philippines, trying to go to Canada, as long as we follow Canadian law, Canada should accept it.

But you're right....I didn't realize that the notary public works for the government but to be honest I think it's ok to use them, mainly because I think you have to in some aspects, not 100% sure though. For example divorce is not legal but if you get your common law declaration form notarized do we need to actually mention that 1 side is still married in The Philippines?
As far as friends or family stating that we are a genuine relationship and continuing and getting that notarized, do we have to mention one side of the partnership is still married. Even if we do, will this person actually care enough to report it? Highly unlikely especially here in The Philippines....personally the ones here in Boracay you can probably get to write anything you want, although I wouldn't go that route!

I think technically that if you state you are married and then state that you are also in a marriage like relationship with someone else, under Philippines law technically you can be charged with bigamy. But I say technically because I think that most people will turn a blind eye to that, including many police and government officials because in reality they or their friends are in the same situation in this unfair law. However that being said I wouldn't go announcing it, especially when leaving the country. Your passport says nothing regarding whether you are married or not, so just state the hard fact but don't mention the past and you will be fine.

The notarized letter stating your relationship is important but it's not 100%, it's really a mix of everything that will convince a the officer that everything is aok.
I hope this makes you feel a bit better =)

yeah it does thanks for ur time...i also agree that the officer should look overall at the whole mix of proofs well here the laws r a little stricter than in other places; before a lawyer could stamp anything ( u were also paying a lot) witgout asking questions especially if we were asking a foreign one; now it's only the notary who can do it and all of them are locals; we'll see if they even accept to stamp a personalized letter

all we can do is to hope for the best! good luck!!

 

[canadianwoman]

what would u do in our situation? would one notarized letter b enough? if other notarized don't directly state that we live together, just proof of the relationship, would it be ok?

You need two notarized letters. If you are really worried about this, is it possible in your country that the notary will not need to know that one of you is already married? The notary needs to see proof that the person writing the letter is who he says he is; does the notary need to see your ID, and in particular will be able to tell from that ID that one of you is already married to someone else? Or is even two single people living together illegal in your country?
If yes, then just getting the second person who writes a notarized letter to state that he believes your relationship to be genuine and continuing for more than a year, without mentioning you live together, will be OK.
Then get other letters stating that the writer believes your relationship is genuine and continuing, and mentioning that you have lived together for a year or more; these don't have to be notarized, so no problem.

 

[missmini]

You need two notarized letters. If you are really worried about this, is it possible in your country that the notary will not need to know that one of you is already married? The notary needs to see proof that the person writing the letter is who he says he is; does the notary need to see your ID, and in particular will be able to tell from that ID that one of you is already married to someone else? Or is even two single people living together illegal in your country?
If yes, then just getting the second person who writes a notarized letter to state that he believes your relationship to be genuine and continuing for more than a year, without mentioning you live together, will be OK.
Then get other letters stating that the writer believes your relationship is genuine and continuing, and mentioning that you have lived together for a year or more; these don't have to be notarized, so no problem.

thank u canadianwoman, here is illegal for two people to live together if they r not married...we've never been married before, but we would like to do that close to our families, not here....anyway, yeah the notary just asks for id's but if he would have suspicion he could make police complaint and they will investigate....since they r all gouverment probably it appears somewhere our marital status and maybe they could know our residential address too...u don't know the ppl in front of u, what they think....we'll see if they even accept to stamp a personalized letter...hope they will

yeah we do have nice other letters which state everything, our relationship and that we live together, but only one was notarized....and (hopefully) the second notarized (from here) just states what u mentioned: continued and genuine...

good luck!!!

 

[canadianwoman]

I think it should be good enough. If the visa officer asks about it at the interview, you could say why the letter wasn't as direct as the non-notarized letter.
Also, if you have any friends or relatives who are going to be traveling abroad soon, or who live abroad, maybe you could get the 2nd notarized letter from them, done while in a foreign country.

 

[missmini]

I think it should be good enough. If the visa officer asks about it at the interview, you could say why the letter wasn't as direct as the non-notarized letter.
Also, if you have any friends or relatives who are going to be traveling abroad soon, or who live abroad, maybe you could get the 2nd notarized letter from them, done while in a foreign country.

good point but i don't want to be too intrusive, they are already doing so much for us and i don't want to spoil their vacation we'll see

yeah my family from both canada and my birth country know abt this stuff and could do it, we have from my mom already (having one from my dad too would be kinda the same thing, i wanted from others); my aunt in my birth country could probably have hers notarized too, but i was keen to have from here too so we show from his side too, with people who actually know us both and visited us, etc; his country is more or less like here and now it's also dangerous to go, they don't function normally anymore

thanks for ur continuous support and feedback...

 

[canadianwoman]

You're welcome.
You could get the second notarized letter from abroad, and then just get non-notarized letters from his side to be perfectly safe.

 

[missmini]

You're welcome.
You could get the second notarized letter from abroad, and then just get non-notarized letters from his side to be perfectly safe.

yeah thank u so much we did find options, i'll try all...i was just freaking out since i thought we r close and it's something straightforward to do, but it will take enough energy and time and we got so many involved....i guess i keep forgetting that we r not in canada

 

[TGR]

Hi everyone

Just wondering if there are certain guidelines we should follow.

We will get 2 notarized letters and plenty more others of friends who know us and will attest to the fact that we are a genuine couple that is continuing.

Is that in their own words or a template or ??

Also we have lived together 9+ months, we will be applying for common law after 12 or 13 months of living together. We are moving away from the tiny island we currently live on. So we can honestly say that nobody will have known us for a full year. Will that be a problem? It's very difficult to come back to this island 3 months from now just to make those letters due to the traveling expenses.

Furthermore since we moved here together, as I said it's been 9 months, but we did not meet all our friends on the first day we arrived. So some have known us for 6 months or something random.

So my questions are

1. About the format?
2. Are the people only stating they know our relationship is genuine and continuing or ???
I guess I'm jut hoping that won't be a problem!

Boracay- we got two family members (one from his, one from mine) and a friend to write letters in their own words. I also asked them to send me photocopies of their passport page (to prove that they are who they say they are). That way they know the letters are from real people and not just made up.

 

[msingh2013]

Is it necessary that family or friends write letters to the applicant and the sponsor to state that the relationship is genuine and continuing? Isn't this section asking for an essay to be written from both the applicant and the sponsor? what if there are no letters from friends/relatives provided? Is that an issue?

Thanks!

 

[canadianwoman]

If they are applying common-law, they need two notarized letters or statutory declarations that they believe the relationship is genuine and that the couple has been living together for a year.

For someone applying as a sponsored spouse, such letters are not necessary. If you feel you don't have much evidence showing your relationship is genuine, then these support letters can help.