SWAP to common law marriage to PR?

[KL0718]

Hi. I'm a student currently in my second year at a two year college and living in the USA as a US citizen. I have been in a relationship with a Canadian for 3 now years long distance and we have mutually decided that Canada is the best place for us to be. It is a legitimate relationship and we plan on getting married, but for sentimental reasons we don't want a quick elopement and would like to wait until after I graduate university.

Currently I have two routes open. Route one is I applied to university in his city to finish my B.A. as well as some scholarships that would fully cover my tuition and living expenses. The plan in this case is to go to university, move in with him, get common law status, and apply for PR. If I recall correctly I'll be able to work during it because I'll be on a student visa. However unless I get the scholarships I won't be able to go, because I have no credit score and the only people who can cosign have been through financial troubles and no bank will give us a loan.

The second route is to apply for SWAP, which will give me a work visa for a year. I then immediately move in with him, and we work and save together until my temporary work visa expires. By that point we will have lived together for 12 months and will qualify for as common law partners and I can apply for PR status based on that. However I would rather not take that route because then I will be unable to work or study for 12-24+ (I'm not sure, someone told me if I sent in a work visa with my PR application I could work after 12, but reading the website makes me think it will be longer than that) and life will be hard on one income.

Am I getting anything wrong here? Sometimes I wonder if we may have conjugal status because I could not move because of financial reasons but I doubt it. Is 12 months exactly enough time to apply for common law status, or do they prefer longer? This is all just really confusing. I hope this made sense. Thank you.

 

[scylla]

Zero change you would be approved under conjugal. There are no real barriers to the two of you getting married or becoming common law (financial barriers are not considered real barriers for immigration purposes).

If you're not willing to get married right now, then you'll have to become common law before you can be sponsored. I would definitely apply using the outland method (not inland). It's typically much much faster for Americans.

 

[Statix]

Exactly 12 months is okay for common law. Our case was 12 months + 2 weeks. My partner got approved without issues, but we did have an interview. They never mentioned having any issue with the 12 month time period though, and the interview was mostly because they thought our rental contract might not be legitimate (contracts in China are not very standardized).

 

[Rob_TO]

Is 12 months exactly enough time to apply for common law status, or do they prefer longer?

Exactly 12 months of living together is fine for official common-law status. You would also be submitting proofs of the relationship right from the beginning before you started living together, so the actual relationship you will be showing is much longer than 12 months.

 

[KL0718]

Exactly 12 months of living together is fine for official common-law status. You would also be submitting proofs of the relationship right from the beginning before you started living together, so the actual relationship you will be showing is much longer than 12 months.

Thank you. What kind of proof do they ask for? I have plane/bus ticket stubs, photos of us together from my trips, and our friends and family all know that we're together (and have been for 3 years) and I've seen people talk about submitting like 500 pages worth of chat logs and I'm wondering if I'll have to submit them all because there's a LOT of it (3 years worth of almost daily messages spread out over 4 accounts), and some of it is pretty personal and I'd rather not submit our fights and intimate moments to the CIC. :-[

Exactly 12 months is okay for common law. Our case was 12 months + 2 weeks. My partner got approved without issues, but we did have an interview. They never mentioned having any issue with the 12 month time period though, and the interview was mostly because they thought our rental contract might not be legitimate (contracts in China are not very standardized).

Thank you. I'm expecting an interview as well because we are on the younger side but I'm just worried about getting rejected initially because we were common law for the minimum amount of time.

Zero change you would be approved under conjugal. There are no real barriers to the two of you getting married or becoming common law (financial barriers are not considered real barriers for immigration purposes).

If you're not willing to get married right now, then you'll have to become common law before you can be sponsored. I would definitely apply using the outland method (not inland). It's typically much much faster for Americans.

I figured, thank you anyways. Outland doesn't seem faster though. On the website it says outland will take ~23 months (34 days to assess sponsor + 22 months to process at the NYC office or 15 at the Ottawa. Both are the same distance to me). Inland is 19 (11 months + 8 months), and correct me if I'm wrong but I'd be allowed to stay in Canada during it instead of going back home.

 

[Rob_TO]

Thank you. What kind of proof do they ask for? I have plane/bus ticket stubs, photos of us together from my trips, and our friends and family all know that we're together (and have been for 3 years) and I've seen people talk about submitting like 500 pages worth of chat logs and I'm wondering if I'll have to submit them all because there's a LOT of it (3 years worth of almost daily messages spread out over 4 accounts), and some of it is pretty personal and I'd rather not submit our fights and intimate moments to the CIC. :-[

All that is good for proofs. No need to submitt ALL your chat logs. Just takes samples from the beginning, middle, to most recent time. Maybe a chat per month or something to show the ongoing communication. It's up to you what you want the visa officer to see of your chats.

For common-law you should also show some joint finances. Get a joint rental/lease agreement, joint utility bills, shared bank account, credit card with spouse as supplementary card holder, life insurance on each other etc etc.

Thank you. I'm expecting an interview as well because we are on the younger side but I'm just worried about getting rejected initially because we were common law for the minimum amount of time.

If you do a strong application, I doubt you'll have an interview. You have a long relationship and will be able to prove your cohabitation. Plus it's very rare for US citizens to get interviews.

Outland doesn't seem faster though. On the website it says outland will take ~23 months (34 days to assess sponsor + 22 months to process at the NYC office or 15 at the Ottawa. Both are the same distance to me). Inland is 19 (11 months + 8 months), and correct me if I'm wrong but I'd be allowed to stay in Canada during it instead of going back home.

These days all US resident applications go to CPP-Ottawa office. For Ottawa, 15 months is NOT an average time, it means 80% of applications are done in 15 months or less... meaning most are done in less time. Based on actual times people in Ottawa are seeing today, the actual time is around 8-10 months. For US applicants, outland is almost always the better choice.

If you apply inland you can stay in Canada the entire time, but you are also not supposed to leave Canada the entire times. Even for a vacation. If you apply outland then you can stay in Canada as a visitor during the processing time.