OCTOBER 2014 OUTLAND APPLICATIONS!

[ChrisCK]

Seeking some advice for Common Law

Oct 02 - Sent in PR application for Common Law
Oct 06 - Canada Post tracking shows received
Dec 12 - Called to enquire. Told us we should have received an email saying additional documents requested. (We didn't receive it, they got our email address wrong.)
Jan 02 - Called again to follow up, because we still hadn't received any word (email or mail). Agent told us to keep waiting.
Jan 21 - Finally we received a letter in the mail asking for more proof of relationship.

Here is a snippet of the letter:

Your application is incomplete; you will find the details of the item(s) that are missing from this application below:

• The Principal Applicant must provide a copy of their civil status document in support of their relationship to the sponsor, such as a copy of their marriage certificate, proof of co-habitation, or any other official document confirming their relationship status. In addition, the Principal Applicant must provide supporting documentation attesting to the continuing and genuine relationship with the sponsor such as wedding photos, letters, cards, telephone bills, airline tickets, entry/exit passport stamps.

We've been dating for 5 years and have been living together on-and-off due to work and immigration status. We did live together for 14 consecutive months from Aug 2013 - Sept 2014, without a break in between. This is the basis of our Common Law co-habitation and we applied for PR Sponsorship in Oct 2014.

And here is what we sent in for the application:

• First 6 Months Rental Agreement (open-ended with agreed month-to-month afterwards)
• 12 Months of Hydro, Cable, Telephone, VISA bills (both names, same address)
• BC Driver's License (same addresses)
• Car Insurance Bills (same addresses)
• Bank Statements
• Airline Tickets
• Travel photos
• Letters, cards

The proof of relationship was spread out over Question 9 (Describe your relationship) and Question 20 (Are you Common Law), as well as some appendices (airline tickets etc.).

We're not sure what they are asking for since we feel we had already given them many many things that show our relationship.

Would any of you have any advice for us? How obvious do we need to spell it out, and would you recommend we annotate the evidence, submit an accompanying letter etc. I feel like this generic response is not clearly telling us what we are missing. The phone agents do not help either.

We're wondering if we need to send in everything again, this time with annotations.. or.. did they miss the proof we sent earlier? Very confused. :-[

 

[Divyanjali]

Drax1289 u hav been a helpful member ..i would lik to ask u wats next aftr sa???

 

[jayhan]

Hi everyone....a new member here...a filipino ,just wanna ask whats next after the csq aprroval letter received?...thanks...bound to quebec ....oct 3 application

 

[prairiegirl22]

Seeking some advice for Common Law

Oct 02 - Sent in PR application for Common Law
Oct 06 - Canada Post tracking shows received
Dec 12 - Called to enquire. Told us we should have received an email saying additional documents requested. (We didn't receive it, they got our email address wrong.)
Jan 02 - Called again to follow up, because we still hadn't received any word (email or mail). Agent told us to keep waiting.
Jan 21 - Finally we received a letter in the mail asking for more proof of relationship.

Here is a snippet of the letter:

Your application is incomplete; you will find the details of the item(s) that are missing from this application below:

• The Principal Applicant must provide a copy of their civil status document in support of their relationship to the sponsor, such as a copy of their marriage certificate, proof of co-habitation, or any other official document confirming their relationship status. In addition, the Principal Applicant must provide supporting documentation attesting to the continuing and genuine relationship with the sponsor such as wedding photos, letters, cards, telephone bills, airline tickets, entry/exit passport stamps.

We've been dating for 5 years and have been living together on-and-off due to work and immigration status. We did live together for 14 consecutive months from Aug 2013 - Sept 2014, without a break in between. This is the basis of our Common Law co-habitation and we applied for PR Sponsorship in Oct 2014.

And here is what we sent in for the application:

• First 6 Months Rental Agreement (open-ended with agreed month-to-month afterwards)
• 12 Months of Hydro, Cable, Telephone, VISA bills (both names, same address)
• BC Driver's License (same addresses)
• Car Insurance Bills (same addresses)
• Bank Statements
• Airline Tickets
• Travel photos
• Letters, cards

The proof of relationship was spread out over Question 9 (Describe your relationship) and Question 20 (Are you Common Law), as well as some appendices (airline tickets etc.).

We're not sure what they are asking for since we feel we had already given them many many things that show our relationship.

Would any of you have any advice for us? How obvious do we need to spell it out, and would you recommend we annotate the evidence, submit an accompanying letter etc. I feel like this generic response is not clearly telling us what we are missing. The phone agents do not help either.

We're wondering if we need to send in everything again, this time with annotations.. or.. did they miss the proof we sent earlier? Very confused. :-[

Hi Chris, sorry to hear. It is a request that does come up however. In all honesty, I would post this in the main forum as I don't think this group has enough experience to help you with your request. I've personally learned a lot from being on the London thread from folks who have gone through it all and feel that through that, I've read they flag relationships if you are no longer living together at the time of your application but say you are CL (opposed to married). Despite your CL status for the year you proved, is it obvious to CIC that you currently do not live together? ie. perhaps you're currently in different countries and have different addresses. For that reason alone I think they will question it.

If that is your case, I wonder if you should consider talking to a lawyer. At minimum, see if you can find other answers about how to prove you are CL and a genuine relationship through the main forum (I would post this as its own topic) and look into getting some advice from immigration law. Good luck

 

[ChrisCK]

Thank you for replying.

When we sent in the application, we had cohabited for 13 consecutive months in Canada (Aug 2013 - Sep 2014). I was on a study permit and I had just graduated. We applied for an outland application in October, and I left Canada shortly after because my student permit was due to expire in Nov 2014. I was confused because I wasn't entirely sure whether I was allowed to stay with "implied status" – we hadn't received any word from CIC that the application was in process. But either way, I had work obligations overseas because I run a company there.

I haven't been back to Canada since, however she has come to visit me for ten days in Dec 2014. I also plan to visit her in Canada for a month in Feb 2015.

A forum user told me that once we were common law, the break didn't matter because we applied via outland. The inland applications required the spouse to remain in Canada. We filed with our Canadian address in the outland application.

 

[ChrisCK]

I found my answer in Page 27 of this document: cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

According to case law, after the one year period of cohabitation has been established, the partners may live apart for periods of time without legally breaking the cohabitation. For example, a couple may have been separated due to armed conflict, illness of a family member, or for employment or education-related reasons, and therefore do not cohabit at present. Good news.

 

[draxz1289]

Hello everyone,

I just checked on ecas and it says decision made in sponsorship approval. It furthur says that they have send a letter on 22nd Jan. And under principal applicant it says medical received.

Does this decision made means its a positive one or could it be a negative one also. A little worried.

You should be less worried, you can be certain its a positive outcome since we have all got the same.

You should receive the letter sometime this week and if you have given your email address in the application you should double check if you have received any email from then - also check your junk.

There are instances where CIC have communicated via mail for SA even though you had given your email address, but its better to double check your email.

 

[draxz1289]

Drax1289 u hav been a helpful member ..i would lik to ask u wats next aftr sa???

Thank you

The next step would the applicant getting a AOR2 from NDVO which is taking 1-2 weeks.

 

[prairiegirl22]

I found my answer in Page 27 of this document: cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

According to case law, after the one year period of cohabitation has been established, the partners may live apart for periods of time without legally breaking the cohabitation. For example, a couple may have been separated due to armed conflict, illness of a family member, or for employment or education-related reasons, and therefore do not cohabit at present. Good news.

Well that sounds good. The wording of the letter is difficult to interpret. One thought is that if you haven't already done so, you could provide the statutory declaration of common law? We didn't submit it but we have been living together for 3.5 years in the UK. I considered it though as I saw some people submitted or were asked for at a later date from CIC. It is a form asked for if the CL is a co-sponsor but it would still be pretty good proof that you solemnly swear in front of a notary that you are CL. (may be more difficult to submit on time I realise as you are currently abroad). That is as legal as it could get without a marriage cert.

Secondly - did you provide 2+ statutory declarations of friends/family declaring they believe your relationship genuine etc? It was a requirement for us applying from the UK but I don't know if that is requested for every country. (which Outland Country are you applying from?) If you haven't done that, I would do it asap. I had one from a friend here in the UK and one from my parents in Alberta.

Those are some ideas of additional documentation that could help support it. Perhaps they know that your visa expired so they wonder about the shared address things? We all have a hard time getting into their heads don't we.

 

[sunnycool]

You should be less worried, you can be certain its a positive outcome since we have all got the same.

You should receive the letter sometime this week and if you have given your email address in the application you should double check if you have received any email from then - also check your junk.

There are instances where CIC have communicated via mail for SA even though you had given your email address, but its better to double check your email.

We have given the email address, infact we got the AOR via email. I have been checking the email and the junk folder too, but there has been nothing there. It seems they may not email the SA and have send a letter in the post.

 

[rhcohen2014]

We have given the email address, infact we got the AOR via email. I have been checking the email and the junk folder too, but there has been nothing there. It seems they may not email the SA and have send a letter in the post.

exacty. just because AOR was sent by email, or the sponsor provided an email address, it doesn't guarantee the SA will be sent by email. CIC is not consistant in the type of communication used. it seems a batch of SAs are coming in the mail. IT has happened before and will happen again in the futur. CIC does this randomly for some reason we will never know!

 

[fabibeach]

exacty. just because AOR was sent by email, or the sponsor provided an email address, it doesn't guarantee the SA will be sent by email. CIC is not consistant in the type of communication used. it seems a batch of SAs are coming in the mail. IT has happened before and will happen again in the futur. CIC does this randomly for some reason we will never know!

In our case, we both provided email addresses, however, we didn´t receive and AOR, and our SA was sent by regular mail.

 

[tannygirl]

Hi everyone,

My husband & I gave our email addresses in the application & AOR was received by email, but SA came by Canada Post.
They don't always send it by email.
Look out for the mailman!
Ours arrived by post 8 days after SA, so I would say 8-10 days is a safe estimate.

If you don't hear from them, you should call the CIC call centre at 8.00am, as that's a good time and you'll be able to get through quicker.

Also, it's been 13 days for me since receiving SA and file transfer to my VO but I haven't got AOR2.

Anyone else without an AOR from their home VO?

Good luck to everyone and congratulations to all who got SAs!

 

[draxz1289]

Hi everyone,

My husband & I gave our email addresses in the application & AOR was received by email, but SA came by Canada Post.
They don't always send it by email.
Look out for the mailman!
Ours arrived by post 8 days after SA, so I would say 8-10 days is a safe estimate.

If you don't hear from them, you should call the CIC call centre at 8.00am, as that's a good time and you'll be able to get through quicker.

Also, it's been 13 days for me since receiving SA and file transfer to my VO but I haven't got AOR2.

Anyone else without an AOR from their home VO?

Good luck to everyone and congratulations to all who got SAs!

We are still waiting for AOR from NDVO and we got our SA Jan 19th.

 

[ashia]

I found my answer in Page 27 of this document: cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

According to case law, after the one year period of cohabitation has been established, the partners may live apart for periods of time without legally breaking the cohabitation. For example, a couple may have been separated due to armed conflict, illness of a family member, or for employment or education-related reasons, and therefore do not cohabit at present. Good news.

Chris, your case needs more details, what exactly you gave them, and with what annotations. you wrote you are considering sending same stuff again with annotations, so you didn't write anything on your documents?
we wrote whole story, how we met, and then how relationship developed, how we were falling in love, and what was disturbing etc., how we met our friends and families (providing photos for this), and also statements and letters from family members and friends.
So, we attached 1. proofs of cohabitation, same address, 2. proofs of being a couple - two types - a) that we really are together, happy, loving couple (so meetings andpictures with family, friends, us travelling together, celebrating, Christmas etc.), b) that we are committed and we trust each other, make important decisions together etc (bank account, life insurance, and more formal, financial etc. things).
I believe these 3 fields are important, but to evaluate what is missing from your application, you need to give us more details. Also, very much put it as a new thread on the forum, so more people, especially more experienced member, would read it and help your specific case. Here it will disappear in our everyday questions about AOR and SA

best of luck!