Hi everyone! I apologize in advance for the long read...
I am a Canadian citizen and my girlfriend is from South Korea who came to Canada to study (she recently graduated, I am still in school). We are both in our early twenties. We've been dating for almost 4 years and she has 14 months left on her post graduation work permit. Since we're kind of short on time, we want to make sure we are doing the right method that essentially has the best chance to get her PR. We're stuck deciding between applying for common law sponsorship or getting married and doing a marriage sponsorship... Can anyone please tell us what would be best? Here's a little background info:
Common-law method:
We've currently been living together at my parents house for 6 months, so we are half a year away from potentially applying for common law sponsorship. This is what we currently have for proof:
- Joint bank account in which we deposit money into monthly and use whenever we're out
- My drivers license/health card as well as hers are all under my parents address
- We have both purchased several things online that have shipped to my parents house under our names from websites such as Amazon, etc. and we have receipts for all of those purchases
- We both have our own credit cards, both of which have the same billing address (parents house)
- We have a netflix account that we share, with the billing address being my parents house
- We have tons of photos together, tons of messages, birthday cards, etc.
- We are planning on going on vacation together, so we will be showing our plane tickets to show that we've travelled together
- We will also be providing a note from my parents in the application where they will state that we indeed lived together under their house for 12 months.
Marriage method:
I haven't looked too much into the marriage/spousal method as we were planning on getting married after I graduate and when she receives her PR via common-law. But since she only has a little over a year left on her PGWP, we're worried that if the common-law application gets denied, I might not have another chance at sponsoring her since her permit will be expiring, so we've recently thought about getting married sooner rather than later. The issue is that we are not fully financially stable as I am still a student, which is why we wanted to get married after I graduate. Her parents are also overseas and would probably not be able to attend the ceremony if we were to decide to get married soon. If we were to get married without a ceremony and apply for spousal sponsorship.. would that hurt our chances?
With all of that being said.. What is the best method for us?
1. Will we have a better chance through common-law sponsorship with the proof I've provided? Is there anything else we could add to our current proof to strengthen our application?
2. Should we completely scrap the idea of common-law sponsorship and have a civil marriage due to financial restrictions and apply via spousal/marriage sponsorship?
Thank you and any advice will be appreciated! If needed, I can provide more info.
I am a Canadian citizen and my girlfriend is from South Korea who came to Canada to study (she recently graduated, I am still in school). We are both in our early twenties. We've been dating for almost 4 years and she has 14 months left on her post graduation work permit. Since we're kind of short on time, we want to make sure we are doing the right method that essentially has the best chance to get her PR. We're stuck deciding between applying for common law sponsorship or getting married and doing a marriage sponsorship... Can anyone please tell us what would be best? Here's a little background info:
Common-law method:
We've currently been living together at my parents house for 6 months, so we are half a year away from potentially applying for common law sponsorship. This is what we currently have for proof:
- Joint bank account in which we deposit money into monthly and use whenever we're out
- My drivers license/health card as well as hers are all under my parents address
- We have both purchased several things online that have shipped to my parents house under our names from websites such as Amazon, etc. and we have receipts for all of those purchases
- We both have our own credit cards, both of which have the same billing address (parents house)
- We have a netflix account that we share, with the billing address being my parents house
- We have tons of photos together, tons of messages, birthday cards, etc.
- We are planning on going on vacation together, so we will be showing our plane tickets to show that we've travelled together
- We will also be providing a note from my parents in the application where they will state that we indeed lived together under their house for 12 months.
Marriage method:
I haven't looked too much into the marriage/spousal method as we were planning on getting married after I graduate and when she receives her PR via common-law. But since she only has a little over a year left on her PGWP, we're worried that if the common-law application gets denied, I might not have another chance at sponsoring her since her permit will be expiring, so we've recently thought about getting married sooner rather than later. The issue is that we are not fully financially stable as I am still a student, which is why we wanted to get married after I graduate. Her parents are also overseas and would probably not be able to attend the ceremony if we were to decide to get married soon. If we were to get married without a ceremony and apply for spousal sponsorship.. would that hurt our chances?
With all of that being said.. What is the best method for us?
1. Will we have a better chance through common-law sponsorship with the proof I've provided? Is there anything else we could add to our current proof to strengthen our application?
2. Should we completely scrap the idea of common-law sponsorship and have a civil marriage due to financial restrictions and apply via spousal/marriage sponsorship?
Thank you and any advice will be appreciated! If needed, I can provide more info.
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