Need help with Common Law Sponsorship

[Finley]

Hi I am an Irish citizen and I have been in a committed relationship with my Canadian girlfriend since 2011 and we were living together in Toronto from November 2012 til July 2013 when we moved to Ireland and have been living here together since.

We are planning on moving back to Canada and were wondering what is the best way to go about doing this. Do we qualify as a common law couple and can my girlfriend sponsor me? We have shared leases and have a joint bank account here in Ireland along with a photographic history of our relationship.

I was also wondering f we moved back to Canada in the coming months and I entered on a holiday visa could we apply from there or should we try stay together in Ireland and apply from here?

 

[Majromax]

From your description, you have been cohabitating for nearly three years. This more than satisfies the cohabitation requirement for a common-law relationship. Shared leases, a joint bank account, and photographic history are also good documentation factors.

Presuming your girlfriend is a Canadian citizen, she can sponsor you as a permanent resident provided she intends to return to Canada. You both should use CIC's family sponsorship process. (If your girlfriend is a permanent resident but not a citizen, then she must be physically resident in Canada to sponsor you.)

If you begin the application ASAP (which is generally recommended just for the sake of long processing times), then the "outland" application process is the only one available to you. If you enter on a holiday visa first then you could apply "inland", but this process typically takes much, much longer. (CIC does not consider it a priority since the partners are obviously already together, ergo it is not "reunification".) Even if you do reside in Canada on temporary status, you can still apply via the outland process.

Generally, users here will recommend applying outland in almost all cases. The biggest differences are:

• Outland applications benefit from much faster processing times, and they are generally processed by visa offices abroad
• Outland applications are "durable;" inland applications are cancelled if you stop residing in Canada. On temporary status, that can happen simply by leaving for a trip but being denied re-entry.
• Inland applications currently offer the possibility of an open work permit after application receipt (typically 4 months), but this is a pilot program; if that ends the work permit can only happen after stage-1 approval which takes a year or so.
• Inland applications do not currently require that the applicant have legal status (but the early OWP does), so they are a slightly safer route for applicants who are not in Canada legally.

In your application, don't downplay your relationship. CIC's standard for a genuine common-law relationship is a "marriage-like" relationship, with substantial merging of affairs such as bank accounts and leases. You seem to meet that physical requirement just fine, but an agent could possibly become suspicious if you downplay the seriousness of your relationship. Avoid phrases like "we aren't ready to get married yet."

 

[Sheps]

As Majromax mentioned, you qualify.

If you enter Canada on a working holiday, they may decide to process you in Ottawa as you will be legally residing in Canada for 1 year (or more). I am not sure if you actually need to live there for one year before you are eligible for Ottawa or if having a valid status is enough. You also could be one of the few very lucky ones that gets held over in Mississauga and gets processed within 2 months.

Since you will be going to Canada on a working holiday, I don't think it matters which option you take to be honest. You will have a work permit for the duration (apply for the OWP with the PR app, that way you are covered for a long time).

I agree with the downplay, kind of. You shouldn't use the exact phrase that he used (sounds like you are BF/GF) however saying something like "At this time, marriage is not right for our personal circumstance". That said, you don't need to mention this at all, it isn't a requirement that you state why you are or are not getting married. Just make sure you get some notarized letters from people before you leave in regards to your relationship.

 

[Finley]

Hi thanks for the quick response and all the useful information.

Sorry Majromax, I meant to include that girlfriend was a Canadian citizen.

Regarding getting a 1 year working holiday visa. When I lived there previously I was on working holiday visas for 2 years and because of that I don't think I qualify for another year.

A third idea we had was that if my girlfriend moved back to Canada before me and I continued in Ireland saving money for our relocation, as I already have full time job and wouldn't like to be unemployed for to long if I was living in Canada. Could we apply via the outland process before she left or would this hinder our application? Basically how would this affect our application?

 

[Majromax]

Sorry Majromax, I meant to include that girlfriend was a Canadian citizen.

Good, that means you can start the process at your earliest convenience.

A third idea we had was that if my girlfriend moved back to Canada before me and I continued in Ireland saving money for our relocation, as I already have full time job and wouldn't like to be unemployed for to long if I was living in Canada. Could we apply via the outland process before she left or would this hinder our application? Basically how would this affect our application?

That would be fine. CIC recognizes that common-law couples sometimes have to live apart for immigration reasons, although they could question whether the separation actually indicates that the relationship has broken down.

Your situation has a few possible outcomes, so you should be aware of the caveats:

• If you and your girlfriend apply for outland sponsorship now, CIC will care that you both intend to live in Canada permanently once residency is granted. Plans to move "in a few months" would be a good start, but often CIC requests things like a job offer or evidence of searching for housing.
• If you and your girlfriend are living apart (yourself in Ireland, your girlfriend in Canada), CIC will care that the relationship is still ongoing. CIC's outland processing manual (pdf) has a section on this specific issue at page 27, and one of the relevant bits states:
  [quote author="CIC Manual"]Despite the break in cohabitation, a common-law relationship exists if the couple has cohabited continuously in a conjugal relationship in the past for at least one year and intend to do so again as soon as possible. There should be evidence demonstrating that both parties are continuing the relationship, such as visits, correspondence, and telephone calls.[/quote]
• If you and your girlfriend are living together in Canada, yourself on temporary tourist status, then you cannot legally work. Applying inland may give you easier access to an open work permit, but an inland application depends on continual cohabitating residence in Canada -- it sometimes happens that applicants are refused re-entry by a CBSA agent who does not believe their intent to leave at the expiry of the visiting period (but this is less of a problem for visa-exempt residents). The inland application process also takes substantially longer than the outland process, and so it is not recommended here.

 

[canadianwoman]

Could we apply via the outland process before she left or would this hinder our application? Basically how would this affect our application?

Yes, you can apply outland while she is still in Ireland. They want proof she will return to Canada, but she should have some - her ticket, proof of preparation for leaving such as quitting her job, arranging packages to be sent home, etc. This might not ordinarily be considered enough, but because she is moving back, you can prove that later.

When she is back and has a place to live and a job, I would send proof of this to the visa office processing the application to be added to the file.

 

[Finley]

Thanks Canadianwoman. If we're staying in Ireland together how do we prove that we're moving back to Canada, if we cant book flights or look for work or an apartment until our visa application is approved and we know exactly when we would be going back?

If I need to get a canadian police check how and where do I go about doing that. I got my fingerprints done for my second year working holiday visa in Toronto around June 2012, would the RCMP still have that on file?

Does my girlfriend still need an option c print out given that she hasn't lived or worked in Canada for the last 2 years?

 

[canadianwoman]

The applicant doesn't need a police check from Canada - CIC looks after that themselves.

Your girlfriend should write a letter explaining why she does not have an Option C, and provide the other proof they want - proof of her income abroad for the past year.

 

[Finley]

Thanks again.

If we're staying in Ireland together up until I get the visa how do we prove that we're moving back to Canada, if we cant book flights or look for work or an apartment until our visa application is approved and we know exactly when we would be going back?

 

[Finley]

Hi, regarding the question,

Does my girlfriend still need an option c print out given that she hasn't lived or worked in Canada for the last 2 years?

We do intend on sending a letter explaining why we don't have one but would this suffice? Or should we still be trying to get one?