Question about common-law!

[Line.a]

What examples can be shown as proof of a common-law relationship?

 

[Leon]

You are living together so all your mail is sent to the same address and your lease is in both your names and some of the utility bills may be in both your names but that's still only indicative of being roomates so you need additionally that you may have a joint bank account, life insurance on each other and wills to inherit each other.

 

[FleetingDasein]

What examples can be shown as proof of a common-law relationship?

I included:

• Copy of joint lease
• Statutory declaration of common-law union
• Letters from family and friends
• Letter from our landlord
• Lots of pictures
• About 20 pages of email conversations/online messaging history
• Timeline of our relationship
• Postcards, love letters, greeting cards

We don't have joint bank accounts or joint utility bills so we couldn't include those.

 

[Jez]

Don't worry too much if you don't have tonnes of photos... we included less than 10. Same for emails.

Though if you don't have joint bank / lease / etc, then bulk it up with other docs! It's all about proving you're committed to eachother

 

[AlieW]

Other things that we included:

Government ID that had the same address on it for both of ours (drivers licenses, identity cards, voting registration).

We showed my work and permanent residency visa's in my partner country which were obtained due to the common-law status of our relationship.

We spent 6 months travelling together though Asia so we included all our entry and exit stamps (and visa's) as they are the same in both of our passports, as well as copies of all our flights to and from Canada together to visit my family.

Our region specific form also required 3 statutory declarations about our common-law relationship so we included one from my partners, one from my partners brother and one from a mutual friend, along with several other regular letters from friends and family.

There is a list of things to include in form IMM5490 as well as the region specific form. If you follow those you should be fine.

 

[Line.a]

thank you so much guys.

i don't live at my boyfriends and it's not really possible just yet so can it be shown just with documents if we don't have joint lease etc?

 

[valy79]

thank you so much guys.

i don't live at my boyfriends and it's not really possible just yet so can it be shown just with documents if we don't have joint lease etc?

If you are not living with him you are NOT common-law and hence not eligible to apply under the common-law category.
Common-law means that you must have lived with your partner for at least one full year (short interruptions allowed).

 

[kelKel]

You have resided together for at least one year though right?

 

[gigi1612]

Yeah you are not common-law, maybe you can apply as "conjugal partner''.

 

[Leon]

If you don't live together, then you are not common law. To qualify as common law, you must have lived together in the same apartment as a couple for 12 months or more.

Another option would be to get married.

A third option would be to apply as conjugal partners but that is a class reserved for people who can not marry for some reason and can not live together because of immigration barriers stopping them from living in the country.

 

[Line.a]

alright. no we haven't resided together for 12 months unfortunately.
it seems pretty difficult hence it's tough to get a job to be able to pay off rent etc, when i don't qualify under skilled worker. :-(