Hi, I have a couple questions about the process for my partner (US citizen) and I (Canadian citizen). We've been in a very long LDR (9 years now) but haven't lived together yet because we met online when we were teenagers, and since then we remained in our own countries to complete our undergrad degrees. In the last few months, we've each graduated, gotten married, and I found a well-paying job in Toronto to support us.
However I'm still worried about things like the proof of relationship section (in IMM5533e) because they seem geared for people who were living together. The requirements for us specifically would be...
"Select at least two of the following four options and provide the documents requested for each
- Important documents for you and your spouse showing that you are recognized as each other's spouse (such as employment or insurance benefits)
- Documentary evidence of financial support between you and your sponsor, and/or shared expenses
- Other proof that your relationship is recognized by your friends and/or family (e.g. Letters from friends/family, social media information showing a public relationship, etc.).
- Proof of past cohabitation, if you are not currently living together but did at one point in the past
If you did not check at least two boxes above:
- I am unable to provide documents from a minimum of two of the above sets of options. I am instead submitting a written explanation for why these are not available. I am also providing any other evidence I have to demonstrate that my relationship is genuine."
It seems to me like at the current moment we can only fill the 3rd requirement (asking family/friends to write letters and demonstrating our relationship was public). Since we don't live together and we've been students for the past few years, we've had no reason to combine finances in any way, and that's only something we'd be looking at now that we
do have the ability to save up. If we start on that process now, would that be accepted in our application? e.g., if we went and tried to get a joint bank account or something, would that be considered "genuine" or would they reject it based on it being opened so close to our application? Are there any other ways we can fill out these requirements? If we can't, what sort of evidence and written explanation should we provide?
Has anyone else been in this sort of situation? It feels like because we grew our relationship as students and not adults with financial obligations and entwinement in how we deal with those, we're coming in at a disadvantage for evidence.
