Organization of Common Law Applications

[Bright_skies]

If anyone who applied common law has a minute to spare I would love some insight into how you organized your application. Folders? Sections? Packets? The mind reels!

 

[OhCanadiana]

If anyone who applied common law has a minute to spare I would love some insight into how you organized your application. Folders? Sections? Packets? The mind reels!

Take a look at http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/how-i-organized-our-applcation-and-a-summary-of-all-helpful-tips-i-have-learned-t92449.0.html for an example with folders as well as an ongoing discussion. Other people have used big binder clips instead of folders to separate sections (and hold everything together).

 

[Bright_skies]

Hey thanks!

I saw that one and was just wondering if anyone who applied common law had done anything differently. I feel like there are a lot of loose ends with proof of one year co-habitation along with the proof of relationship.

I was thinking to do separate folders with proof of residence, finances and travel, communication, and photos...?

 

[GuerricH]

Not sure if this helps, but what we did is have three larger folders, one for the Sponsor info, one for the Applicant info, and one for all the relationship + cohabitation info.

Within the folders we had smaller sub-folders, each quite specific. So we had one for e-mail records, one for all postage sent to us both at the same address, one for information on our shared bank account, one for our common living arrangements, one for letters of support from family members, etc. I figured that very specific folders would help the officers figure things out that much quicker.

 

[rjessome]

Ok, I'm going to say this one more time. Use a big binder clip or elastic bands to put it all together as ONE package. You will REDUCE the likelihood that CIC will lose something because they had to remove stuff from folders or remove staples. The visa officer assessing your file will NEVER see your application they way you organized it! All of those folders, staples, etc. get removed at Case Processing Centre in Mississauga when the sponsor's application is processed. So while it totally makes sense to you the way you organized the file, it won't stay that way for more than 10 minutes after the envelope is opened.

 

[bbiery]

We paper clipped documents together in applicant, sponsor, sponsor proofs, and applicant proofs. We then sectioned them using colored separators. Photos went in their own packet. We basically bundled the separate checklists together.