Need advice: same-sex sponsorship

[am-al]

Hi,

I am new in this forum and I'm glad to have found this great site.

I moved to Toronto last year as a Skilled Worker. Since "common-law" partner is not clear and is confusing for me during my skilled worker application, I did not declare my girlfriend nor mentioned her name in the application. My GF is still in the Philippines and we do not know how to best approach the sponsorship.

I read some of the sponsor's requirements in the cic.gc.ca website and it looks like it could be questionable if I will sponsor her as a common-law partner when in fact i never mentioned her in my immigration application. I do not know if it would be best to get married here first (she will come here as a visitor and get married) then I will sponsor her as my spouse.

The thing with marriage though is the implication of technically changing the marital status and for someone new to this country, I do not know how to approach awkward situations pertaining to same-sex marriage.

As much as possible, I would like to sponsor her as a common-law partner but I am stuck with the fear that the Visa officer might find my previous declaration inconsistent. I believe the sponsorship forms require my immigration information (ie PR card #, or immigration id) and background check or verification will surely be conducted as part of the process. Oh by the way, we lived together (under the same roof) for more than 1 year in the Philippines.

Anyone in the same situation or was in the same situation as mine?

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

 

[scylla]

You're in a very difficult situation. Since you lived with your GF for more than a year - she was your common law partner and should have been declared as part of your application. Since she wasn't declared, technically you can never sponsor her through family class. You also technically committed misrepresentation (were not truthful in your application) because you failed to include her. This could create problems for you/your PR status if CIC ever finds out.

I don't see how you can sponsor your GF as a common-law partner at this point. And getting married won't fix the problem. If you do submit an application to sponsor your GF, you risk having CIC figure out that your GF wasn't declared on your application which would not only lead to a refusal of the application but could put your own PR status at jeopardy.

Can your GF qualify to immigrate independently as a skilled worker? This would likely be the best way to go at this point.

 

[Leon]

If you had lived together in a common law relationship for a year at the time you applied and got your PR, you definitely committed misrepresentation and can never sponsor her. If you did not live together for a year yet at the time you applied and at the time you landed, you had broken up as you were moving to Canada, that could explain why you did not declare her without making you guilty of misrepresentation but it might be a hard sell to immigration.

Other than admitting that you were common law at the time you immigrated, you could try to sponsor her as a conjugal partner but like scylla said, you might have to answer some hard questions about how long exactly you lived together etc.

 

[am-al]

Thanks for your replies. The thing with our situation is that the Philippines does not really recognize such legal relationship. Unlike in the states where from what I know, "common-law" is recognized for same-sex partners. It is very complicated when the involved country, in our case - the Philippines, is not really into that kind of thing.

Can you imagine how my gf have to answer an insurance agent in the Philippines when she wanted to make me a benficiary? The agent said only family members or spouse is allowed. That being said, it is very complicated for us to define what "common-law" partners mean.

If common-law sponsorship sounds complicated now, can we just get married? She's in the process of getting a visitor's visa and we plan to get married soon.

I was thinking that we could totally trash the point that we lived together since we do not have any asset where both our names appear. Even the apartment was only under my name. We have joint bank accounts though but the fact of living together would be hard to prove anyway.

So what do you think?

 

[scylla]

I was thinking that we could totally trash the point that we lived together since we do not have any asset where both our names appear. Even the apartment was only under my name. We have joint bank accounts though but the fact of living together would be hard to prove anyway.

So what do you think?

If you do this, your GF will have to flat out lie in her application. Lying to CIC is always a bad idea (in my opinion).

 

[am-al]

I fully understand. But i realized that to be a "common-law" partner, we have to prove that we lived together. We did but now I realized that we do not have means of proving it. We were using different addresses even when I was in the philippines. I use my apartment's address, while she uses her permanent address. Her bills, her income tax returns, etc are being sent to her own address not in my apartment's address.

Life is too complicated back home. We can not even be "open" in the public. We hope that we could get the freedom and respect we deserve here in Canada so I hope marrying would be the ultimate answer.

If she comes here, get married, then she go back in the Philippines, I process the spouse sponsorship, you think that would work out?

 

[Leon]

The common law mistake is a common thing also among hetero couples but it still does not protect them from the consequences. Ignorance of the rules is no excuse. If immigration finds out that somebody was living together common law before immigrating and they did not declare their partner, even if they did not know what common law means as they don't have it in their country, that still means they committed misrepresentation, can not sponsor their spouse and may even lose their own PR.

However, in many cases where people do not have proof of living together, they would not be believed if they said they were common law anyway. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Anyway, even though lying is bad and can bite you in the butt later on, since you already did, I don't see a way to get out of it for you. At the very best, you already committed misrepresentation and must hope they never find out so if you take that further and say that this living together for one year never happened, then you can sponsor your partner as conjugal or if she gets her visit visa, you could marry.

 

[Bengkoy0430]

Hello,

I am new to this forum and I am glad to have found this topic. I am also in the same dilemma and I would really like to know what happened with your application, it can perhaps help us, we have almost the same situation. My same sex partner migrated to Canada 2 wks ago and she wasn't able to declare me in her application (we lived together for 15 mos) because her mother (her sponsor) knows nothing about and is against same sex relationship. And also we both do not know about the common law partner category. How did your apply apply for tourist visa and did you get married in Canada, what process are you taking now to sponsor her? It will be much appreciated if you can share your experience. Thank you.

 

[Leon]

My same sex partner migrated to Canada 2 wks ago and she wasn't able to declare me in her application (we lived together for 15 mos) because her mother (her sponsor) knows nothing about and is against same sex relationship. And also we both do not know about the common law partner category.

If she was a dependent child sponsored by her mother, she can not be married or common law because she would no longer be a dependent child. If she tries to sponsor you now and you admit that you lived together for 12 months or more before she immigrated, she would be guilty of misrepresentation and would lose her PR.

You can either try to get a tourist visa to Canada to get married or she can try to sponsor you as a conjugal partner.

 

[Bengkoy0430]

Conjugal partner? Can you please give me an idea about that and if I am going to apply for a tourist visa and we get married in Canada, will she be able to sponsor me as spouse even if I get back to the Philippines once my tourist visa expires?

Thanks so much for replying and for your infos.

 

[Leon]

Conjugal partner? Can you please give me an idea about that and if I am going to apply for a tourist visa and we get married in Canada, will she be able to sponsor me as spouse even if I get back to the Philippines once my tourist visa expires?

Thanks so much for replying and for your infos.

Conjugal partner is for people who are unable to get married or live together because of immigration barrier, culture in their homeland etc. If you are refused a tourist visa, you will not be able to get married because I assume you would not be allowed to get married in your homeland. You need to have had a marriage like relationship for at least 12 months but without having lived together for 12 months and without being married. Same sex couples are more easily approved under the conjugal class because in many countries it is not socially acceptable for a gay couple to live together and they are not allowed to get married.

If you do get a tourist visa and come to Canada and get married, you can go home and she can still sponsor you or if you want to stay, you can apply to extend your visitor visa to stay based on your sponsorship.

 

[bishista1]

Conjugal partner is for people who are unable to get married or live together because of immigration barrier, culture in their homeland etc. If you are refused a tourist visa, you will not be able to get married because I assume you would not be allowed to get married in your homeland. You need to have had a marriage like relationship for at least 12 months but without having lived together for 12 months and without being married. Same sex couples are more easily approved under the conjugal class because in many countries it is not socially acceptable for a gay couple to live together and they are not allowed to get married.

If you do get a tourist visa and come to Canada and get married, you can go home and she can still sponsor you or if you want to stay, you can apply to extend your visitor visa to stay based on your sponsorship.

Better apply for visit visa and if approved, extend the stay after marriage.

 

[Zouk Princesse]

So this is me playing devil's advocate here: if you read the Operating manuals or even the general advice on the CIC site, they make it very clear that living together in and of itself does NOT constitute a common-law relationship, as this requires the two people to be in a "spousal-like relationship". They even go on to say that just living together or trying it out does not qualify as common law, hence why showing your names together on a lease or utility bill is not considered full proof of common law. Thus the onus is on the applicants to prove that they are in a spousal like common law relationship and not not just living together.

Being that there is so much grey area, would it not be possible to say that although two people lived together, at the time of the OP's migration they were not in a spousal like relationship and thus not required to declare common law status? I.e. no misrepresentation was committed?

Now these are just my thoughts, and in no way is this professional advice, so please don't say I said. Also, the government generally hates when we find loopholes in their master plan, so proceed with caution

 

[Leon]

Immigration always interprets what you say in a way that it suits them. If you are trying to prove a common law relationship by proving that you have lived together, they could say that doesn't prove anything, you were just roomates. However, if you are trying to sponsor a partner that you had lived with but did not declare, they will say, oh, you lived at the same address so you were really common law and therefore misrepresentation, lost PR, barred from sponsorship etc.

 

[Bengkoy0430]

Thank you so much for your replies. I know how hard it is to get a tourist visa, but if ever I got one, do we have to pretend that the relationship just started recently when applying for a spousal sponsorship?