Additional Information Request...help!

[kelly.]

Hi All,

I've been following this forum for some time throughout this process, flicking through has been so useful but now I need some specific help, and hope somebody can help me.

My partner and I are British Citizens, and he has PR status in Canada, we applied for common law sponsorship outland via london in December 2010, the first stage of our application was accepted by Mississauga and received by London on 02/02/2011.

Today I recieved a basic email saying..

"This e-mail is regarding your application for permanent residence.

 

Please be advised that you have provided insufficient documentation to prove that you and your sponsor have co-habited for a continuous 12 month period.

 

Please submit any information or documents which you consider might respond to this concern within sixty (60) days."

Problem is, we have no idea what else we can send them! We have been together for 2 years and lived together in england in a rented 1 bedroom house for 1 year, from Nov2009 to Nov2010. At the end of Nov2010 we both flew out to Canada together, and moved in with his parents. He is working here and I am on a visitors visa, which is due to expire on 25th May.

For proof of co-habitation we sent them our joint tenancy agreement in england, signed by both of us, and our landlord and dated for 12months exactly. We also sent them a joint council tax bill in both of our names for the periods we lived at the property and a letter from our landlord stating the 12month period we rented his 1bedroomed property together. We sent a letter from my mother verifying our relationship and the date I moved out of my childhood home and into the rented property with my partner too.

Unfortunately seeing as we were only renting we decided to keep important documents like driving liscences and bankaccounts registered at our parents addresses, purely because for ease as we didnt intend on living at that property for long and didnt want the hassle of changing everything when we did move into a bigger home.

But we did supply anything we had with our individual names on, sharing the same address and dated within the 12months we lived there such as water+electricity bills in my partners name, mobile phone contracts in my name, and storecard bills in my name. We paid our rent in cash, so there is no direct debts from our accounts, and we had seperate UK accounts anyway so were unable to send joint bank statements, which would have been useless regardless because as I said before, we didnt change our banking addresses from our parents homes.

When we arrived in Canada on 25th Nov we set up a joint bank account straight away, which is registered at the address we live at now together in Canada, so we sent copies of that showing our names and address. And because we are living with my partners parents at this address, we also sent a letter written by his father confirming that we live together there too.

I am at a loss as to what else I could supply them with. I thought the tenancy agreement and the joint council tax bills would be ok alone, but these along with everything else we sent obviously isnt enough. Does anybody have any advice?

[deepiv]

pictures..you guys took together?
letters from coworkers...
uhmmm birthday cards u gave each othrer...
its litle hard lol

[Love_Young]

Not sure if you have read the OP2 Manual but here are some examples:

"The following is a list of indicators about the nature of the household that constitute evidence
that a couple in a conjugal relationship is cohabiting:
• Joint bank accounts and/or credit cards;
• Joint ownership of residential property;
• Joint residential leases;
• Joint rental receipts;
• Joint utilities accounts (electricity, gas, telephone);
• Joint management of household expenditures;
• Evidence of joint purchases, especially for household items;
• Correspondence addressed to either or both parties at the same address;
• Important documents of both parties show the same address, e.g., identification documents,
driver's licenses, insurance polices, etc.;
• Shared responsibility for household management, household chores, etc.;
• Evidence of children of one or both partners residing with the couple;
• Telephone calls.

These elements may be present in varying degrees and not all are necessary to prove
cohabitation. This list is not exhaustive; other evidence may be taken into consideration."

I will try to find more if I can.

[kelly.]

We have sent pictures, letters, photos from special occasions, gifts we have made each other, things we have bought for birthdays etc to prove that our relationship is genuine, but from what I can gather of the vague email - it's not the relationship that is in dispute, it's our co-habitation, which is effectively them questioning the catagory which we have applied under?

Thank You Love_Young,

I have read through the manual, and we have definately sent everything that we have that has our names and address on it.

I'm not sure how we would go about proving expenditures, we rented a furnished property so there was no big purchases to speak of. The hardcopies of household bills that we sent them were payed by direct debt from my partners bank account - and I had a standing order to his account set up to cover my half of the bills. We took turns in grocery shopping, paying each week from our individual accounts.

I can't help but wonder whether some of the evidence that we have sent has gone AWOL, hence them saying there isnt enough. Does anybody know if you are able to speak with the immigration officer that is handling you're case directly?

[scylla]

What about a letter from your old landlord in the UK confirming you lived together for a full year?

[Love_Young]

Also, did you already fill out the "Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union"?
If not, I advise you do that. It is a great document to provide them with even if they didn't ask for it.

I also found this out another manual:

"In the case of a common-law partner, documentary evidence should include:
• a statutory declaration of common-law relationship (included in the
application package);
• proof of separation from a former spouse if either the sponsor or the
applicant were previously married; and
• evidence that they have been living together for at least one year (e.g.
documents showing the same address for both).  

Evidence may also include:
• documents from other institutions or other government authorities, such as
the Canada Revenue Agency, indicating a marital or common-law
relationship;
• documents indicating joint ownership of property (mortgages, leases);
• joint bank accounts; and
• insurance policies."

[kelly.]

Syclla - We had our old landlord write up a letter and sent that with the rest of the stuff, but thanks for the suggestion.#

Love_Young - Was that not a mandatory form? We scanned everything we sent with the application onto the computer anyway so I will have a look to see if we filled that out, I can't for the life of me remember. Thanks.

[Love_Young]

No it isn't a mandatory form but it is recommended.
Here is the form: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/kits/forms/IMM5409E.pdf
You need to get it notarized. I really think the document will help.

And you are welcome. I know I am not too much help but I am trying. 

[kelly.]

All the help I can get is realllllllllllly appreciated.

If there was going to be a problem with our application, we really didnt think it would have been thiis part!

Do you think its likely that they will request us for an interview, even if we can manage scrape together any additional information

[canadianwoman]

I'm not sure how we would go about proving expenditures, we rented a furnished property so there was no big purchases to speak of. The hardcopies of household bills that we sent them were payed by direct debt from my partners bank account - and I had a standing order to his account set up to cover my half of the bills. We took turns in grocery shopping, paying each week from our individual accounts.

Did you send proof of this transfer from your account to his? Are the grocery bills on credit cards and obviously from a grocery store? Or on your debit card and also obviously from a grocery store? If you had all the bills from the year, each week alternately from you and him, they might take that as evidence you were sharing the food bills.

[Love_Young]

Also, do you have proof of depositing the cash from your account to pay rent or bills at your address?
If you do I would get a statement from your previous landlord saying the term of your stay and how much your monthly rent was and get it notarized as well. Then provide the proof of you depositing the amount you were to owe on rent every month and highlight it. Same goes for specific bills. Also, did your pictures have any dates on it? If they show proof of pictures throughout the year that would be great. (I know you already sent pictures but I thought I would suggest it). Also, any email, chats, FB messages, that are from friends and family talking about you living together, hanging out with you, or visiting your apartment? That would be good.

[missmini]

aaah so sorry, that's scary (really hope it won't happen to us  )...

ok first don't assume that what u showed already is with them and it's clear to them: so send again the proofs u sent already, including letter from ur first landlord (notarized) and the landlord right now; show how u declare urself common-law in anything (taxes, other applications); make sure in the letters from ur friends/family they emphasize since when u live together; did u have a house-warming party when u moved in together (send pictures from that)

canadianwoman and Love_Young advise is very good: show how u share ur food bills, electricity etc; if those bills are paid directly from ur common account it's even better....also any bills with appliances for ur home - fridge, cooker, washing machine, carpets, curtains, sofa, bed, vacuum cleaner, etc...

back in Britain, were u both working while living together, or where u financially supporting the other? if u were one income couple, it could b another proof maybe

as for the pictures: 1) the date could be photoshoped so even if u do show for a length of time maybe they won't believe i read a case where the couple (also from Britain) made a notarized declaration that all the dates presented in pictures, chats, anything are true; 2) pictures are very good proof for the relationship but they don't really proof anything about cohabitation UNLESS u have pictures from ur home with yourselves, ur friends/family during different occasions;

try to think of any correspondence (FB, emails, sms) u had with ur friends/family abt inviting them to ur home, or after-party messages at your home, talking abt ur home, stuff like that

everything u give just explain it very well: write a relationship timeline where it shows clearly when u started to live together, the proofs u have for that, the pages where they can find these proofs

also the common-law declaration form should b must send now even if it's not mandatory (it will b a legal act and one more proof )
 
what's strange to me and maybe someone could help: if they don't believe in ur common-law shouldn't they say that from Missisauga (first stage, something like u do not qualify for family class (common-law)? i ask cuz i read one case to whom it happened like that so i thought if u pass first stage than it means it's all good 

best of luck!!

[gagansingh]

Not sure if you have read the OP2 Manual but here are some examples:

"The following is a list of indicators about the nature of the household that constitute evidence
that a couple in a conjugal relationship is cohabiting:
• Joint bank accounts and/or credit cards;
• Joint ownership of residential property;
• Joint residential leases;
• Joint rental receipts;
• Joint utilities accounts (electricity, gas, telephone);
• Joint management of household expenditures;
• Evidence of joint purchases, especially for household items;
• Correspondence addressed to either or both parties at the same address;
• Important documents of both parties show the same address, e.g., identification documents,
driver's licenses, insurance polices, etc.;
• Shared responsibility for household management, household chores, etc.;
• Evidence of children of one or both partners residing with the couple;
• Telephone calls.

These elements may be present in varying degrees and not all are necessary to prove
cohabitation. This list is not exhaustive; other evidence may be taken into consideration."

I will try to find more if I can.

i agree with you.....

[kelly.]

Thanks for the help everybody, I think we are going to get the statutory decleration filled in and notorized and pray that's enough. Although I am slightly sceptical because it seems that when this is required, they come right out and ask for it seeing as it's one of their offical forms.

Think I will write them a letter with a clear timeline and put all the supporting docs we already had in again, highlighted and in order. Perhaps the immigration officer just couldnt make sense of it all or something? I don't know.

It would be lovely if they would just tell me what they need, or how close we are to having the right amount of proof. What if we are way off!

Again, does anybody know if you can call them and actually speak to somebody, I've sent a case specific email but I doubt that will get a response?

Thanks again everybody, it's been really helpful

[valy79]

Besides what others have said - did you send support letters from friends/family? (including 2 of them which have to be notarized, as asked for in the application package)

We included letters from our employers for example, who stated that they knew about our joint apartment (and also had been there for dinner parties; we also included a photo of that), and letters from friends who had regularly visited us in our apartment (we specifically asked them to mention the fact that they have been there many times over the course of the 1 1/2 years).
I have also seen people include letters from people such as their family doctors....

I also get a feeling that it might be about the "1 year exact". Are you 100% sure your tenancy agreement covers the 1 year exact with the dates?
You might want to re-emphasize that you co-habited for the one year in UK PLUS the time in Canada. You might be right and the IO might have mis-interpreted something...maybe send a letter explaining your periods of cohabitation once more and cross-referencing all the evidence you have for it.