SPONSORSHIP HELP - PARTNER FROM NEW ZEALAND HERE ON A WHV

[jalilatequila]

I need some guidance in regards to my sponsorship application.

I will give you a brief history of our relationship. I (23 years old) moved to Australia on a WHV in April 2010, he is a NZ'er (27 years old) who was living in Australia. We started dating in April 2010 and are still going strong. We lived together from July 2010 until now but not in one place for 12 months. Basically we lived together in Australia in three different places (lived in short term rentals) and paid cash (so we have no lease just bank statements) then we went to NZ for three months (maximum time for me to be there as a visitor) then we came to Canada for 5 months (lived with my parents) then back to NZ for two months and now he is back here on a WHV for a 11 months ( aircraft carriers will only let you book 11 month return ticket)

We have two joint bank accts, we are living together in Toronto (with a signed lease agreement) and we have shared bills (hydro,cable & rent)

We are both working fulltime and intend on spending the rest of our lives together.

So my main questions are : Are we considered conjugal or commonlaw? If we applied under one of those status do you think we have a good chance of him getting approved?

Do you think we should just get married to better our chances of getting approved (we wanted to wait until we had more $$ to fly his family over to have a proper wedding thus why putting off marriage)

If the application can take up to a year can he extend his WHV without returning to NZ, or can he apply for an extension and just have to give up working for a little while..

I hope someone can help me so we can move forward with the application , I just dont want to screw anything up because if we get refused then we will have to move back to NZ or Australia to be together.

Replies are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

 

[Sweden]

Hello, and welcome to the forum!
I need some guidance in regards to my sponsorship application.

I will give you a brief history of our relationship. I (23 years old) moved to Australia on a WHV in April 2010, he is a NZ'er (27 years old) who was living in Australia. We started dating in April 2010 and are still going strong. We lived together from July 2010 until now but not in one place for 12 months. Basically we lived together in Australia in three different places (lived in short term rentals) and paid cash (so we have no lease just bank statements) then we went to NZ for three months (maximum time for me to be there as a visitor) then we came to Canada for 5 months (lived with my parents) then back to NZ for two months and now he is back here on a WHV for a 11 months ( aircraft carriers will only let you book 11 month return ticket)

We have two joint bank accts, we are living together in Toronto (with a signed lease agreement) and we have shared bills (hydro,cable & rent)

We are both working fulltime and intend on spending the rest of our lives together.

So my main questions are : Are we considered conjugal or commonlaw? If we applied under one of those status do you think we have a good chance of him getting approved? you are not conjugal. Conjugal is considered only when two people can not live together for immigration reasons, and can not get married either, so not for you.

You might be able to apply as conjugal is you can prove that you have lived together. You can always try. Write a detailed timeline of where you lived, where you were together, and all the proofs. Explain why you didn't have a lease. Include as much proofs as possible, leave no space for doubts, and if you have lived together for 12 months ( not in the same place, but always lived together) and you have some kind of proofs, then you can apply for common law.

Do you think we should just get married to better our chances of getting approved (we wanted to wait until we had more $$ to fly his family over to have a proper wedding thus why putting off marriage) I personally don't think that you should get married for the sponsorship, but it depends on how much proofs of living together for 12 months you have. Try and gather everything you have, an try to see it with an external eye - would it be convincing that you have been living together for 12 months? try and get letters from people where you rented places, even if it was in cash you might be able to get some kind of contract, proofs of lease, signed agreement etc...

otherwise maybe getting married is an option, maybe you could have a small casual ceremony (take pictures!) and then a bigger one later on. And explain in your application that you had a small ceremony because of the money problem and you plan to have a bigger one later on.

If the application can take up to a year can he extend his WHV without returning to NZ, or can he apply for an extension and just have to give up working for a little while..I am not familiar with WHV so I am not sure you can get an extension. But I think you can change from WHV at the end of his visa to visitor visa (change of status) - make sure that you do it before it expires... once on a visitor visa, he can not work indeed - and no health care either. But as he is from a visa exempt country, then he can stay as a visitor. Plus - you would be goign through Sydney office, which so far is really really fast, so you might have your visa quite "quickly"

I hope someone can help me so we can move forward with the application , I just dont want to screw anything up because if we get refused then we will have to move back to NZ or Australia to be together.

Replies are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!
good luck with your application, and don't hesitate to come back with questions if needed!
Cheers,
Sweden

 

[rachiy]

Sweden, I think you meant common law, instead of conjugal in your reply. Small typo, but just wanted to clarify for OP


I also think you would be able to apply as common law, as long as you gather as much documentation as possible and explain why you did not have a lease in Australia. Also, do you have any mail that was addressed to you at those addresses, it is fine if it is separate i.e phone bill for him, christmas card for you, but at the same address around the same time.

Bulk up your application with statutory declarations from friends and family (get them notarized/signed off - in NZ they can go to a JP for free, in Canada they can go to a Commissioner of Oaths for around $20 per signature, otherwise notarization is around $80 which adds up quickly!!)
There are quite a few threads with details about what else to use for evidence of your relationship so I will not repeat them all here, but Sweden has given you a good idea too.

I am from NZ, I also came here on the WHP for one year. They used to offer a second years visa, but they changed the rules and decided not to offer it any more in 2010 - I was the first group of WHPer's they did this to which totally messed up my plans. You are now not able to get an extension on this, so if he is going to stay he will need PR through you, or a work permit through his employer, or ideally both - the WP will buy him time, maintain his health care, driver licence and ability to work while he waits for PR.

I am not sure how much time your partner has left on his WHP, but there are a few things you can do which will help him a lot. Firstly, look into whether his current employers can sponsor him. If he can get a work permit before you start the PR process that will save you a lot of grief if your application gets delayed. It is a time consuming process (PR and WP!) and he will need an LMO first. You can find more info on this on the CIC website and this forum. Taking into consideration how long his employer will need to advertise his job, LMO processing and then WP processing it can take four months to get this. Depending what job he is doing and where, the LMO may be denied - you need to be realistic about this as it all depends on the current job market not only in your area but also across Canada if there are people applying out of province.

It is great that you already have joint bank accounts, you could also both get an RSP and list each other as beneficiaries. Same with life insurance. I have done both of these through TD and they had no problem giving me either as a foreign worker. I doubt they would do this for someone without status.

Also, if a work permit is not an option, just make sure that he applies for a change in status to that of visitor before his working holiday ends. He does not need to leave the country, he can do this online or by paper. I would recommend paper as this takes longer to process and will buy him more time. He may have to stop working for a while, so be prepared for this. He will also lose his health care, so travel insurance is a must! I used nomads - they were the only company I could find who would cover me from overseas without going back to NZ first - they were also very cheap which is great as I only needed basic coverage.

Good luck!