Sponsoring a Common Law partner

[solanah]

I would like to ask on how to sponsor a Common- Law partner. This is the situation. My friend is already a Permanent Resident of Canada since 2012. She's just got home to her country to be with her boyfriend. They lived for more than 12-months now and my friend is now pregnant. The immigration entitled the Permanent Residence of Canada to be physically present in Canada for 2-years during 5-years period. And my friend is outside Canada for only 1year and 2 months now.Since she still pregnant she doesn't want to go back yet in Canada. The problem is, if her boyfriend/partner will be qualified for Common-law partner since they lived together already for 12-months more than. But the guy still legally married to someone else. But they been separated for 5-years now. My friend and her partner can prove to the Immigration that their relationship is genuine and they have now the child to prove that evidence. PLEASE HELP.

 

[scylla]

She can sponsor her common law partner provided they can prove they are truly common law and have lived together for a minimum of one year. She can sponsor him while he is still married to someone else.

Since she is a PR, she must be living in Canada in order to sponsor her common law partner. Short trips (e.g. 3 weeks) outside of Canada during the application process are fine. However she must make Canada her primary home (spend most of her time here) while the application is being processed to qualify as a sponsor.

She must make sure that she meets the residency obligation before she sponsors her common law partner. This means that she should return to Canada before she has been outside of Canada for 2 years. Ideally she should return with a few months buffer to make sure CIC doesn't question her on the RO when processing the sponsorship application.

 

[solanah]

Are there any website that will support this? Because It's hard to call the CIC call center every time. They were always busy. Because some of my friends in Canada have different opinions about it. Some told me that they should be separated with the ex spouse for 10-years. Some said that sponsorship is not possible.I'm just confuse.

 

[QuebecOkie]

There's no requirement that he be separated from his past partner for a set period of time. If they have lived together for at least 12 consecutive months (and they can PROVE it, they need to be able to show things like both names on the lease/mortgage, and other ties such as joint bank accounts, being beneficieries on each other's insurance, etc. - the more they have that can show when they started living together/joining their lives financially, the better it will be), they qualify as common-law.

If he can get a visitor visa to Canada, he can visit your friend while she is sponsoring him, but he won't be able to work. If they file inland and he stays in Canada with her, he will be eligible for an open work permit (OWP) after stage one, which will likely take 10-11 months. If they file outland, he will not be able to work until he's a PR. If he can't get a visitor visa to come to Canada, they will simply have to be separated during the process, as PRs MUST be in Canada during process to sponsor a spouse/common-law partner.