Qualified for common-law sponsorship ?

[catsinthecradle]

Hi all,
My girlfriend and I have been living together for more than a year. She is a Canadian citizen, and I was trying to put together all the documents to apply for permanent residency as common law. But the problem is the lack of documentation to prove it.

*All we have is a joint lease together.

*Utilities are all included in the rent, so we do not have any shared bills.

*She did not change her driver's license address or anything to this apartment from her parent's house.

*I can get a letter from our landlord stating that we have been living together for more than a year or from family/friends.

*We would soon be changing our relationship status with CRA.

*I can add her to my bank account and make it a joint account. I don't know if that would be a help at this point, but I have read somewhere in this forum that it would not show the date of being added.

*We do share our rent. We could provide her's and my bank statements to prove that. She usually transfers her share to me and I pay our landlord.

* We take turns for grocery payments.

* We can provide pictures, texts and all that.

But again the main problem is that the only proof to prove the same address is the Join lease.


We are moving to another house next month and have already signed a lease together. We would be changing our addresses on our ID's and whatnot to this new place for sure.

Do you guys think our application would be weak at this point? Should we wait another year to apply?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[BertlCamus]

For starters, you could change the address on your drivers licence to strengthen the application. Just change it again in a month. Not sure what it's like where you live, but in my province address changes on drivers license are free of charge.

 

[BertlCamus]

Also, get a letter from your bank that clearly states you have a joint account and include the contact info of your bank person. Have you filed for taxes in CAN? If so, tell CRA to update your status to common law asap if you have not done so. If you apply for a work permit you need a notarized document (forgot what it's called). Make a copy of that document and also include it in your PR package (not just in your OWP package). Can't hurt! These are a few things my spouse and I have done. We do have a child together and also obviously included a long form birth certificate with both of our names.

 

[Chroniverous]

Some people have suggested even including a Costco card or joint gym membership. Anything that can tie you both to the same address should be fine.

 

[pomato]

We just went through this -- we had our own place for 10.5 months before applying, but had lived together at my mother's for 4 months prior to that. We had no lease/utilities in our names while we lived with my mother, so it was a bit difficult to prove that we were living together.

We included signed affidavits from people who know us to live together (including my mother, who had previously written a letter in support of our application), helped move our stuff, picked us up for squash or dinner, etc. We included any dated info we could find with that address -- email receipts from online orders to that address during that time, a resume from my partner that he sent to my work email for me to print, a job offer letter with that address on it, my vehicle registration renewal, his car insurance, etc. Just make sure when you screenshot anything that the date and address are visible in the same shot.

We also included a pretty detailed description of our living situation over that time period. We figured it was best to explain it clearly and have a weird collection of documentation to support it. It worked! We got our letter approving his eligibility yesterday!

 

[WeegieInOttawa]

Similar situation for me as we have an all inclusive rent so no bills for us.

Definitely include those etransfer receipts for the rent...you dont need to include each and every one but every couple of months worth.

As others have said include things that aren't necessarily joint but show the address as the same phone bills, car insurance I even have a few wedding invites naming us both with their accompanying envelopes showing our address to include. I have also included our Costco membership and gym membership.

In the family/friends letters ask that they put a line in there about "i confirm that they both live at xxxxxx and have done for xxxx months/years"

The common law thing with CRA is a big one so make sure you do do that.

 

[lfindlay]

I'm in a similar situation! I have been living with my boyfriend for over a year but we have a serious lack of documentation as well, as we've been living in my parents basement suite, luckily rent-free and they handle utilities. For us, all we have is our licenses which are issued to the same address.

Other stuff we included that you may consider: paystubs to same address, bank statements to same address, any mail (ie wedding invitations) you or your girlfriend have received to the same address...

We've also included letters from friends (including my parents stating we live there), changed relationship status w/CRA...however all this stuff is much more recent (within last few months). The only thing dating back a year is the licenses.

Also in the same boat with wondering if application is strong enough with this one piece of evidence or if we should wait until the rest of our evidence is a year..