Proof of Living Together - Common Law Partner Application

[ChristyandRob]

Hi everyone,

My Canadian common-law partner and I submitted our application to CIC in Mississauga a couple of weeks ago (the application arrived in Canada last week). I have an Australian passport. We're both working and living in Germany.

I have a quick question about proof of living together. We've lived together since the end of February 2009. The first documentary evidence of our mutual residence that we submitted to CIC is dated 28 April 2009 (confirmation letter from our bank re opening of joint account). We have a number of bank / other documents after that date which confirm our residence at the same address (although we didn't get around to adding me to the lease until November 2009 as neither of us speaks good enough German to deal with formal documents and only one lady at the rental agency speaks some English - we didn't really think it a big deal as we hadn't decided about moving to Canada at that point. We included a copy of the signed (and translated) lease with our application too).

We included three notarized statutory declarations from a) his father b) our (mutual) boss (we work together too, that's how we met) and c) a friend / colleague to confirm when we began dating and to confirm that we've been living together since February 2009.

Will the stat decs be considered weighty enough evidence to confirm that we've been living together for over a year?

Also, who looks at the evidence of living together - Mississauga (during the sponsorship assessment) or Berlin (for the applicant assessment)? If the latter, I guess that by the time the file is transferred there, the bank letter hopefully be a year old by that point...

Thanks a million in advance for any advice

 

[dlee31]

I was sponsored by my husband after we got married, but I know a friend who went through the common-law route. (Girl-Canadian, Guy-Swedish)

She said for proof of having lived together (they were in Ireland at the time), she got her landlady to sign a letter (notarized) saying they had both been residents there since whenever. She also included proof (receipts?) that she and her partner had been paying the rent together for more than a year.

Letters from parents, the mutual boss, and friends probably wouldn't hurt either, but I'm not sure how they would prove that you had resided together for a year (unless they all specifially state that they knew you were living together?). I would put these with the other evidence for having a genuine relationship.

Hope this helps

 

[whoopi83]

Also, who looks at the evidence of living together - Mississauga (during the sponsorship assessment) or Berlin (for the applicant assessment)? If the latter, I guess that by the time the file is transferred there, the bank letter hopefully be a year old by that point...

Thanks a million in advance for any advice

Mississauga evaluates the sponsor eligibility and completeness of application. Berlin will assess the evidence provided in support of the relationship.

 

[ChristyandRob]

Thanks for your comments! Well, by the time it gets assessed by Berlin, I'm sure all evidence will be one year old at least by then.

whoopi83, when you mentioned 'completeness of application', do you mean the sponsor's application, or both the sponsor AND the principal applicant's application as well?

I had to get 5 police clearances from 5 different countries. 2 (Australia and UK) had to be sent direct (i.e. by the Australian / UK police, not by me). The UK one was sent to Mississauga by the UK police a few days before we finally got our application pack off to Mississauga, so Mississauga returned it to the UK saying there was no record of me. The UK have just sent it again, and it should arrive by next week.

Will this materially hold up the approval of the sponsor's application do you think (our pack arrived in Mississauga a week ago) - I think it takes them 2-3 weeks to start looking at / approving an application? The Australian one should also have arrived there this week, too.

 

[whoopi83]

Thanks for your comments! Well, by the time it gets assessed by Berlin, I'm sure all evidence will be one year old at least by then.

whoopi83, when you mentioned 'completeness of application', do you mean the sponsor's application, or both the sponsor AND the principal applicant's application as well?

I had to get 5 police clearances from 5 different countries. 2 (Australia and UK) had to be sent direct (i.e. by the Australian / UK police, not by me). The UK one was sent to Mississauga by the UK police a few days before we finally got our application pack off to Mississauga, so Mississauga returned it to the UK saying there was no record of me. The UK have just sent it again, and it should arrive by next week.

Will this materially hold up the approval of the sponsor's application do you think (our pack arrived in Mississauga a week ago) - I think it takes them 2-3 weeks to start looking at / approving an application? The Australian one should also have arrived there this week, too.

Yes, they check that the sponsor is eligible and that the PR application has all the right forms. They don't assess content merely that you've sent all the forms you should have and that they are signed etc.

Not sure why UK police had to send direct? I obtained mine via www.acpo.police.uk/certificates and sent within the application? Perhaps because you are outside the UK....

Generally you will know of a decision within a month or so regarding the sponsor. As long as the certs are now there or will be within a week or so, I can't see a delay.
Berlin is then usually quite quick!

 

[ChristyandRob]

Thanks a lot, that's a relief!

I put my own address in Germany on the ACRO form, but when I chased them for an update, they told me they sent it directly to Mississauga (I don't even recall giving them the Mississauga address, so they must have had it themselves). I guess that's because I'm not in the UK, maybe there's a different procedure than within the UK.

Thanks again!

 

[MexiCana]

In our case I moved into my partner's place at the end of March 2009 and didn't pay him rent. Three weeks later we signed a lease on a new apartment that we moved to in June.

So for the first 2 months of our cohabitation I produced his lease, emails confirming cohabitation from the time period (not great evidence, but hopefully combined with everything they will be of some probative value), examples of mail I received there in late March, our rental application from April, 2 statutory declarations from a colleague and a friend, our own statutory declaration of common law union just in case, and we have pictures of us in the house with all of my folded clothes stacked up against the wall. It was a total bachelor pad with almost no furniture!

It's not as good as having a fresh new lease for the first day you commence cohabitation, but I am hoping CIC realizes that relationships don't always happen like that.

I always plan for the worst case scenario so I had the possibility of needing to sponsor in the back of my mind. Original plan was less onerous CEC (or even FSW) but he was laid off from his job before obtaining enough Canadian experience. Still this is the best evidence we have. I imagine there are plenty of legitimate couples with even less. What happens to them?