Need advice on common law sponsorship..

[kruppp]

Hello everyone, just had some questions and wanted some advice for common law sponsorship. My boyfriend (Canadian citizen) and I (international on a post-graduation work permit) are planning on applying for common-law sponsorship this March. Here is the proof we currently have:

- Been living in his parents house for the past year (getting a notarized note from them confirming it)
- Government IDs all have the same home address (drivers license, etc.)
- Joint bank account that we put money in monthly to use to buy groceries and other things
- We have both ordered several things from websites such as Amazon throughout the year, where our address is shown
- We are planning on registering ourselves as "common-law" on the CRA website before doing taxes this year
- We recently went on a trip to South America with his parents and have several photos of proof, as well as plane/resort tickets

With that all being said, here are my questions:

1. My post-graduation work permit expires in 5 months, should we apply via inland or outland? We've looked at both, but wanted to know what others suggest on here based on their experience.

2. This application is all new to us, is it better to do it with help (i.e. a lawyer)?

3. Are there any other forms of proof that we could potentially gather that would strengthen our application?

Thanks for all the help in advance!!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Hello everyone, just had some questions and wanted some advice for common law sponsorship. My boyfriend (Canadian citizen) and I (international on a post-graduation work permit) are planning on applying for common-law sponsorship this March. Here is the proof we currently have:

- Been living in his parents house for the past year (getting a notarized note from them confirming it)
- Government IDs all have the same home address (drivers license, etc.)
- Joint bank account that we put money in monthly to use to buy groceries and other things
- We have both ordered several things from websites such as Amazon throughout the year, where our address is shown
- We are planning on registering ourselves as "common-law" on the CRA website before doing taxes this year
- We recently went on a trip to South America with his parents and have several photos of proof, as well as plane/resort tickets

With that all being said, here are my questions:

1. My post-graduation work permit expires in 5 months, should we apply via inland or outland? We've looked at both, but wanted to know what others suggest on here based on their experience.

2. This application is all new to us, is it better to do it with help (i.e. a lawyer)?

3. Are there any other forms of proof that we could potentially gather that would strengthen our application?

Thanks for all the help in advance!!

1. Inland has the option of an OWP and you have to live in Canada with your partner throughout the process. Outland doesn't give an OWP and you have to maintain your status separately but no requirement to be living with your partner in Canada throughout the process.

2. Majority of people don't use a lawyer. Just follow the guide and checklist, read everything carefully, ask questions on this forum.

3. Have you looked at the checklist? Do you have the required proofs?

 

[canuck78]

Just make sure your proof at the same address has various dates especially from the initial month.

 

[armoured]

3. Are there any other forms of proof that we could potentially gather that would strengthen our application?

You could also get married.

It wont' resolve all questions about the genuineness of your relationship (that is, that examining officials may have), but it will remove some of the burden of demonstrating that you are indeed in a common law marriage. Unless you have some strong objection or issue preventing (and of course a common law marriage is a form of marriage itself, as the name indicates), it's worth considering that it will allow you to apply somewhat earlier (and possibly strengthen the application itself).

I'll phrase this as partly a question here - we see this situation a lot where applicants are going to a fair amount of effort to demonstrate that their relationship indeed meets the test of being common law. And I personally don't understand as much of the time one resolution of this is right in front of them - marriage.

Please don't @ me angrily about situations where getting married is just not possible, or if someone has a strong moral objection, or for some other reason needs to hold the marriage ceremony at a later date (although I'd note that it's perfectly legal in Canada to have a civil ceremony and then a religious ceremony separately), and yes, I understand a big deal for some families.

And yes, I also know that marriage alone will not resolve all 'genuine relationship' questions (marriages of convenience do exist). But all things being equal, actual marriage should - I think - reduce the burden of proof somewhat with respect to the common law aspect.

[Side note, I prepared our entire application package due to an issue preventing our marriage, but as soon as that issue was resolved we got married and applied as such. It made the application package a bit easier - not a lot, but a bit - although we got married as we'd always planned, we both considered we'd been married in a real sense for ages. So I'm not insensitive to the issues that sometimes exist...]