Hey guys, my spouse and I met in Canada while studying at the same university on our individual study permits, and did not live together for the 4 years of our initial romantic relationship. After graduating, we applied for PGWP (post-grad work permits) separately from the same address, but still put "single" which should be fine since we had only been living together for 6 months at the time of submitting our PGWP applications. However, after receiving approval on our individual PGWPs in 2022, we applied for TRVs (temporary resident visas) based on those PGWPs. At the time of submitting the TRV application, we had become common-law since we had been living together for 1+ year by then, but we did not know this at the time so we mistakenly applied for separate TRVs with our marital status as "single."
We are applying for PR together under CEC class now, since my common-law spouse and I both have 2 years of Canadian work experience under NOC-A professions, and have been living together for almost 3 years. We will have my spouse as the primary applicant, and me as the dependent since that maximizes our scores compared to me being the primary. Unfortunately, we came across some info that our previous non-declaration of common-law status could be counted as "misrepresentation" and a ban from ever sponsoring your spouse, so we should try to write a letter clearly explaining how this was an accident, and we did not know about our common-law status at the time of submitting TRV applications.
We wanted to ask anyone in this forum who might have advice on how to proceed with this, and any tips on how to explain the situation in the letter - please do share your advice? We are really worried since we genuinely love each other and after almost 6 years of being together in Canada and working together on our dreams, the idea of not being able to get PR sounds like a nightmare. We are already engaged, and we are currently planning our marriage, which we will do after our PR is approved.
I also read in some forums that since we both are qualified, we can apply for PRs separately to avoid the risks of misrep, but how would that work? Should we just make separate EE profiles declaring our common-law spouses, but mark them as non-accompanying? That seems strange since we're both in Canada...
Thank you so much for your advice!
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P.S. My spouse's company is also offering LMIA for him with SOWP for me so that we can get extra points on the PR, but we are not sure if it would be a good idea to go for this since we already have PGWPs expiring next year. Will the SOWP also require us to explain the common-law mistake? Please let us know if you recommend this as well.
We are applying for PR together under CEC class now, since my common-law spouse and I both have 2 years of Canadian work experience under NOC-A professions, and have been living together for almost 3 years. We will have my spouse as the primary applicant, and me as the dependent since that maximizes our scores compared to me being the primary. Unfortunately, we came across some info that our previous non-declaration of common-law status could be counted as "misrepresentation" and a ban from ever sponsoring your spouse, so we should try to write a letter clearly explaining how this was an accident, and we did not know about our common-law status at the time of submitting TRV applications.
We wanted to ask anyone in this forum who might have advice on how to proceed with this, and any tips on how to explain the situation in the letter - please do share your advice? We are really worried since we genuinely love each other and after almost 6 years of being together in Canada and working together on our dreams, the idea of not being able to get PR sounds like a nightmare. We are already engaged, and we are currently planning our marriage, which we will do after our PR is approved.
I also read in some forums that since we both are qualified, we can apply for PRs separately to avoid the risks of misrep, but how would that work? Should we just make separate EE profiles declaring our common-law spouses, but mark them as non-accompanying? That seems strange since we're both in Canada...
Thank you so much for your advice!
---
P.S. My spouse's company is also offering LMIA for him with SOWP for me so that we can get extra points on the PR, but we are not sure if it would be a good idea to go for this since we already have PGWPs expiring next year. Will the SOWP also require us to explain the common-law mistake? Please let us know if you recommend this as well.