Question about sponsored spouse/partner questionnaire

[ralu1150]

My sponsor and I want to get married in the future but we don't really have a set time frame, would it be ok to explain that on the application? Or just not mention it at all?
we're applying as common law.

Do all the dates that we spent together in both Canada and the U.S. has to be 100 percent accurate? Or can it roughly be around the time frame?
The visitation period of the relationship.

 

[BeShoo]

If you do not have current plans to get married, I think you're better off not mentioning it. In order to be sponsored in your situation, you need to be either married or in a marriage-like relationship. If you discuss getting married sometime in the future, they may decide that you are not yet in a marriage-like arrangement.

Fianc(é)es cannot be sponsored, so if they get the sense that you may only be boyfriends/girlfriends, your application will be denied. Some immigration officers would probably prefer that you were married because it's less ambiguous, so it's your job to convince them that you have already been in a continuing, committed relationship for at least one year, not that you are about to enter one sometime in the future.

The dates need to be as accurate as possible, and they'd like to see hard evidence that you visited at those times and are not just making it up. Hopefully you are aware that you need to have lived together continuously for at least one year to qualify as common law partners. You definitely need proof of that.

 

[iarblue]

your passports should be stamped with the dates you came and went is it not?

 

[BeShoo]

your passports should be stamped with the dates you came and went is it not?

Passports weren't required for Americans to come to Canada (and vice versa) until last year. Although Canada usually stamps passports of Americans coming to Canada, the U.S. hardly ever stamps them when they return. Also, my Canadian passports have rarely ever been stamped on my many visits to the U.S., so this probably won't work well for crossings between the U.S. and Canada.

 

[ralu1150]

Yea we have 4 stamps in our passports. We've got the dates of at least 18 visits in the 2 years before we moved in together. I'm sure there were many more then that. It's very hard though to remember the exact dates. Did I get here on a sat or on a friday in 2006? god knows! We have some pics and some bank statements showing purchases of tickets. But these don't help with exact dates.

We've been living together continuously since july 2008. I took trips back for a weekend or so every 6 months.

 

[BeShoo]

I think what I would do is state that certain dates are approximate (and say which ones if you can). You just don't want them to get the impression that you are intentionally misleading them. They mainly want to know that your relationship is not one "of convenience" faked to get into the country under false pretenses.

 

[tgchi13]

Passports weren't required for Americans to come to Canada (and vice versa) until last year. Although Canada usually stamps passports of Americans coming to Canada, the U.S. hardly ever stamps them when they return. Also, my Canadian passports have rarely ever been stamped on my many visits to the U.S., so this probably won't work well for crossings between the U.S. and Canada.

In six years, neither I or my American partner have had our passports stamped. Scanned *most* of the time, but never stamped. Here's an idea (not knowing if its a good one) consult with border control and ask them for the dates: Since they will likely end up providing them to immigration, you should each be entitled know when it was swiped/stamped/etc.