2 statutory declarations of individuals supporting genuine relationship

[greenish]

The declarations that are apparently needed to prove the genuity of a relationship, is it preferrable to have them made by friends or family?
I was thinking to include 1 declaration from a member of my family and from a member of my partner's family. Should I replace one of them with a declaration from a friend? Or just add a third one from a friend?
What is preferrable and what did other people do? 

Also, our country specific instructions say that documentary evidence may include "notarized affidavits attesting to the fact and providing reasons for why you and your sponsor are/were living together without being married or unable to live together altogether". Is this similar to the statutory declaration of a common-law union? or is it advisable that I add something like this? Do I need to explain why we didn't get married?

[MDSB]

The declarations that are apparently needed to prove the genuity of a relationship, is it preferrable to have them made by friends or family?
I was thinking to include 1 declaration from a member of my family and from a member of my partner's family. Should I replace one of them with a declaration from a friend? Or just add a third one from a friend?
What is preferrable and what did other people do? 


Also, our country specific instructions say that documentary evidence may include "notarized affidavits attesting to the fact and providing reasons for why you and your sponsor are/were living together without being married or unable to live together altogether". Is this similar to the statutory declaration of a common-law union? or is it advisable that I add something like this? Do I need to explain why we didn't get married?

Hi greenish


We included 3 notarized declarations from family members but also included about 8 un-notarized from friends and other family members. 
The "notarized affidavits attesting to the fact and providing reasons for why you and your sponsor are/were living together without being married or unable to live together altogether" was not something we were asked to provide so can't advise you on that, but my thoughts are that this is different to the common law stat dec. 
In our application we did included the common-law stat dec plus we both included a version of "our personal story" describing our relationship and how we met... and our plans for the future. 
If I were you I would include everything they ask for and more! 
Good luck   

MDSB

[AllisonVSC]

We included 3 notarized declarations from family members but also included about 8 un-notarized from friends and other family members. 
The "notarized affidavits attesting to the fact and providing reasons for why you and your sponsor are/were living together without being married or unable to live together altogether" was not something we were asked to provide so can't advise you on that, but my thoughts are that this is different to the common law stat dec. 

Same here; well, we had 2 notarized (my brother and his best friend) and some un-notarized others. We were not asked for the other notarized affidavit attesting to our marital status or living arrangements (we were conjugal partners) either.

I wonder if this is a new requirement, or something country specific. Where are you applying from, greenish?

[greenish]

We're applying from Seoul, South Korea. I don't think it's a requirement though, the country specific instructions read that an affidavit to that effect MAY be included as documentary evidence.
While I was reading it I thought it sounds like we should justify why we haven't married yet. I never heard this affidavit being mentioned before, so I'm just wondering if anyone was ever asked to present this, or has presented it w/o being prompted. =)

[AllisonVSC]

If you are applying as common law I don't think you need to justify why you haven't married. You just have to prove that you meet the standard (at least one continuous year of co-habitation) and, as for all conjugal/spousal applicant categories, that your relationship is genuine and ongoing. I do not believe it would not be a negative to include this document up front either. If the VO ends up asking for it at a later date, it does have the potential to slow down your processing.

If you want more guidance on what to include in your app, check out this document, The OP 2 manual, specifically sections 5.25 and 5.26 where they give examples of the kinds of documentary evidence that could be provided in your application.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

[sidkrose]

If you are applying as common law I don't think you need to justify why you haven't married. You just have to prove that you meet the standard (at least one continuous year of co-habitation) and, as for all conjugal/spousal applicant categories, that your relationship is genuine and ongoing. I do not believe it would not be a negative to include this document up front either. If the VO ends up asking for it at a later date, it does have the potential to slow down your processing.

If you want more guidance on what to include in your app, check out this document, The OP 2 manual, specifically sections 5.25 and 5.26 where they give examples of the kinds of documentary evidence that could be provided in your application.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

That's true. If you are applying common-law, you do not need to justify why you are not married. You just have to prove that you are, in fact, a common-law relationship. I would definitely give the OP guide a read, it really helped to know what kind of evidence they were looking for, for a common-law relationship.

We provided 4 notarized letters, 2 from friends/family friends and 1 from each of our families. But I think that is probably overkill...we just wanted to be safe, haha. We also provided several un-notarized letters from friends and the Statutory declaration of common-law union. That was a good bulk of our evidence though, because we did not have any joint properties or financial accounts.

[greenish]

Yea I read a lot through the OP02 and the IP02 manuals but never encountered any info on this affidavit. The only place I ever saw it mentioned was in the country specifics. I guess it's not a big deal

The IP02 manual (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/ip/ip02-eng.pdf) has a lot of info on requirements for the sponsor btw. Just in case someone is following this thread and is interested.