Please Advise -urgent case-spousal sponsorship

[Emmaswan]

Hi,

I submitted outland PR application through my husband as spousal sponsorship. last month, we received an interview notice from Hongkong. As we went over our application, we found out a big problem. my husband and me lived in one place for a year and a half before he landed as PR in Canada. However, my husband declared single when he landed, because even we lived in the same place before we got married, we paid our bill individually, file income tax separately and we had some conflicts in between and he stayed with his friend for a while ( no proof) .we weren't too committed to decide to spend the life together. That's the reason at that time my husband believed he was under single status. Now that we received the interview notice and the officer suspected we are already common law before he landed which might result in a very serious consequence by excluded relationship. In this case, should I withdrawn my application and resubmitted by thoroughly explain the whole story in the new application and will the withdrawn affect my later resubmission? please advise . Thanks

 

[CDNPR2014]

do you know for sure that's the issue the visa officer has about your file or are you only making an assumption?

the best way to find out what their concerns are is to apply for you GCMS notes and see what's listed there.

 

[jeffporfirio1]

How do you know that the officer suspected we are already common law before he landed ?
Agree with above poster order GCMS notes
I would think it would look "fishy" if you withdraw and re-apply the same sponsorship application?

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi,

I submitted outland PR application through my husband as spousal sponsorship. last month, we received an interview notice from Hongkong. As we went over our application, we found out a big problem. my husband and me lived in one place for a year and a half before he landed as PR in Canada. However, my husband declared single when he landed, because even we lived in the same place before we got married, we paid our bill individually, file income tax separately and we had some conflicts in between and he stayed with his friend for a while ( no proof) .we weren't too committed to decide to spend the life together. That's the reason at that time my husband believed he was under single status. Now that we received the interview notice and the officer suspected we are already common law before he landed which might result in a very serious consequence by excluded relationship. In this case, should I withdrawn my application and resubmitted by thoroughly explain the whole story in the new application and will the withdrawn affect my later resubmission? please advise . Thanks

It sounds like indeed you were common-law, and he committed misrepresentation by declaring single on his own PR application. Living together in the same home for 1.5 years will be very hard to convince CIC you weren't common-law.

If you indicated your residential history in the app and it's easy to see the 1.5 years cohabitation, then the damage is already done and there would be no point to withdrawing the app as they already have all your info.

Worst case scenario here is you will be banned forever to be sponsored by your husband under family class.

As mentioned though, you should definitely order your GCMS notes to find out for sure. Perhaps during the interview you can explain that you had a separation during those 1.5 years so you weren't actually common-law, however it's up to discretion of the visa officer if they would accept this explanation or not. In many cases simply sharing the same address for 1 year and just dating each other during that time, is grounds to declare a common-law status despite the fact you didn't share taxes, bills, etc.

 

[carsonTO]

I don't get the common-law thing. Is it self declared? or in any given time you live with a person for 1 year you are automatically common-law?

 

[scylla]

I don't get the common-law thing. Is it self declared? or in any given time you live with a person for 1 year you are automatically common-law?

No - it's not self declared. If you've lived with someone for one year continuously - you are common law.

 

[scylla]

Hi,

I submitted outland PR application through my husband as spousal sponsorship. last month, we received an interview notice from Hongkong. As we went over our application, we found out a big problem. my husband and me lived in one place for a year and a half before he landed as PR in Canada. However, my husband declared single when he landed, because even we lived in the same place before we got married, we paid our bill individually, file income tax separately and we had some conflicts in between and he stayed with his friend for a while ( no proof) .we weren't too committed to decide to spend the life together. That's the reason at that time my husband believed he was under single status. Now that we received the interview notice and the officer suspected we are already common law before he landed which might result in a very serious consequence by excluded relationship. In this case, should I withdrawn my application and resubmitted by thoroughly explain the whole story in the new application and will the withdrawn affect my later resubmission? please advise . Thanks

Resubmitting through spousal sponsorship unfortunately won't help. I agree that the damage is already done. Since you lived together for more than a year before he landed in Canada and became a PR, your husband was obligated to declare you in his PR application and add you as a common law partner before landing in Canada and becoming a PR.

I would definitely attempt to withdraw the application. That should avoid any chance you'll get a misrepresentation finding.

Assuming you can successfully withdraw the application, you will then need to look into immigrating to Canada on your own / independently through an economic stream like Express Entry. Your husband can unfortunately never sponsor you.

 

[Emmaswan]

The GCMS notes stated suspicious of commom law relationship

 

[Emmaswan]

It sounds like indeed you were common-law, and he committed misrepresentation by declaring single on his own PR application. Living together in the same home for 1.5 years will be very hard to convince CIC you weren't common-law.

If you indicated your residential history in the app and it's easy to see the 1.5 years cohabitation, then the damage is already done and there would be no point to withdrawing the app as they already have all your info.

Worst case scenario here is you will be banned forever to be sponsored by your husband under family class.

As mentioned though, you should definitely order your GCMS notes to find out for sure. Perhaps during the interview you can explain that you had a separation during those 1.5 years so you weren't actually common-law, however it's up to discretion of the visa officer if they would accept this explanation or not. In many cases simply sharing the same address for 1 year and just dating each other during that time, is grounds to declare a common-law status despite the fact you didn't share taxes, bills, etc.

The GCMS stated suspicious of commom law relationship. The truth is my husband was not aware we were commom law ( in our culture, there is only married or single). he doe not have such deep understanding of what is commom law relationship ( it was an honest mistake). me and my husband are still debating whether to go for the interview next week or withdraw the case, if we do decide to go for interview how do we defense ourselves? If we withdraw, will the officer go after my husband and charge him misrepresentation ?

 

[Emmaswan]

Hi,

I submitted outland PR application through my husband as spousal sponsorship. last month, we received an interview notice from Hongkong. As we went over our application, we found out a big problem. my husband and me lived in one place for a year and a half before he landed as PR in Canada. However, my husband declared single when he landed, because even we lived in the same place before we got married, we paid our bill individually, file income tax separately and we had some conflicts in between and he stayed with his friend for a while ( no proof) .we weren't too committed to decide to spend the life together. That's the reason at that time my husband believed he was under single status. Now that we received the interview notice and the officer suspected we are already common law before he landed which might result in a very serious consequence by excluded relationship. In this case, should I withdrawn my application and resubmitted by thoroughly explain the whole story in the new application and will the withdrawn affect my later resubmission? please advise . Thanks

FYI: The GCMS notes stated suspicious of commom law relationship! If we decide to go for the interview how do we defense ourselves? This was a truly honest mistake, my husband was not aware that counted as commom law relationship and in our culture there is only married or single, otherwise he would have declared me as his commom law partner and we would not need to result in this dilemma

 

[Rob_TO]

The GCMS stated suspicious of commom law relationship. The truth is my husband was not aware we were commom law ( in our culture, there is only married or single). he doe not have such deep understanding of what is commom law relationship ( it was an honest mistake). me and my husband are still debating whether to go for the interview next week or withdraw the case, if we do decide to go for interview how do we defense ourselves? If we withdraw, will the officer go after my husband and charge him misrepresentation ?

Not being aware of the rules is not a valid excuse. It doesn't matter if common-law is recognized or not in your own culture, the only thing that matters is the Canadian definition of common-law. People immigrating to Canada are expected to research and know the rules around immigration.

Even if you withdraw the case, there is a chance they could go after your husband for misrepresentation since they are already obviously aware of it. However in most of these types of cases, they don't bother and just state the undeclared spouse is barred forever to be sponsored.

The only defense in the interview I could think of to show that you weren't common-law, is if you could prove there was some break in the relationship or cohabitation so you didn't actually live together 12 consecutive months in a conjugal relationship. However since your residence history shows 1.5 years of continuous cohabitation, I doubt the visa officer would accept this explanation (though this is just my guess).

There was some talks recently within CIC that this rule of barring undeclared spouses is too harsh when the non-declaration was unintentional. So there is some chance in the future this rule may be changed to allow sponsorship of undeclared spouses, or at least to allow them to be approved on H&C grounds easier in appeals process. But all this is just talk at this point, and who knows when new laws or regulations would actually get passed to make this true. Read though this thread for some more info: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/possible-misrepresentation-t468089.0.html;msg5689560#msg5689560
You might also want to try getting in touch privately with the user "ProCaNaDa-MZ" as he seemed to be in similar situation but somehow managed to be sponsored successfully.

 

[Emmaswan]

Thanks for your advises. In your opinion, do you think it will be better if we withdraw the case and resubmitted it again so that I can fix this ( add more details regarding the conflicts we had during our cohabitation before he landed)?

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks for your advises. In your opinion, do you think it will be better if we withdraw the case and resubmitted it again so that I can fix this ( add more details regarding the conflicts we had during our cohabitation before he landed)?

There is nothing to "fix". CIC already has all the details from your current application. Submitting a new app will just get you back to this exact same position. If you are going to "fix" anything, it would have to be during the interview already scheduled.

If you think you can qualify independently to immigrate to Canada on your own, then it would be better to withdraw the app and try that route.

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your advises. In your opinion, do you think it will be better if we withdraw the case and resubmitted it again so that I can fix this ( add more details regarding the conflicts we had during our cohabitation before he landed)?

The only way you might be able to "fix" this is if you can prove with hard evidence (e.g. rental agreements, bank statements, pay stubs, employment letters, utility bills, etc.) that you were living at different addresses and never lived together for a year. Do you have that kind of evidence covering that year and a half period?

 

[carsonTO]

I dont get it. Why does the common law relationship matter? It doesnt harm any one in Canada. Is it because CIC thinks the husband is deceiving the government?