Common law/ conjugal relationship?

[seabright]

Hello,
We are discovering more and more grey areas as we endeavour further into the forms.
We are unsure whether we should claim common-law or conjugal. Here is the situation. We have been living together for two years however, that time was divided between Ireland and Canada. I am Canadian but legal to work in Ireland so that's no problem, but while my partner was in Canada, he was only a visitor. Can we claim that as 'living together'? Because he was not working and not on the lease I am assuming, he was not technically living there. Can we still claim Common-law status or do we fall under another bracket.   
Does the fact that we are engaged and planning to get married this summer come into play at all? We want to send the application before we are married to get the process going. Any suggestions?
Thanks again.

[AlieW]

I think you need to apply either as Common-Law or wait until you are married and send the application after your wedding.

Conjugal is only for those who can't get married, or live together. It's extreamly difficult to get approved as conjugal.

Since you lived together (in Ireland and you were legally able to work there) and are going to get married in the summer I don't think you would qualify as conjugal.

As for living together in Canada while he was a visitor-that isn't a problem. Also, you only need to have lived together for 1 year - you said in your post you lived together for two years so again you should be fine.

You will however have to prove you lived together - if his name wasn't on your lease in Canada you will probably have to get statutory declarations from friends/family - maybe even your landlord - saying you lived together. You will also need to provide other proof to show you are common-law and not simply roommates.

[seabright]

"You will also need to provide other proof to show you are common-law and not simply roommates."- Any idea what kind of proof that might be? We are planning on sending in  all kinds of photos, letters etc to prove the relationship anyway. is that enough? Also we will be able to find addressed envelopes to Canada with his name on them but nothing official.
And finally, when I said we have lived together for two years, each year was divided almost equally in between Ireland and Canada so that we haven't been in one lease for longer than 6 months a year and then while in Canada, we were staying rent-free in a cottage.
Thanks so much for your help.

[AlieW]

No Problem.

It doesn't matter where you lived together (if you spent the entire year in Ireland, or split it between several countries) -it just needs to have been continuous (aka no huge gaps in the time line).

As for the proof - you can send the following:
Joint Bank Accounts
Lease in both our names or joint ownership
Government ID with the same address on it
Utility Bills with both names on it
Visa's to each others country
Pensions naming each other
Letters addressed to both or you at the same address
Receipts from joing household purchases
Joint Ownership of a car
Vet Bills with both names on them if you have a pet
Wills naming each other
Insurance policies naming each other

We also included photo copies of all our passport stamps as we spent 6 months travelling together. Copies of our tickets to and from Canada to visit my family, letters we wrote to each other, emails, phone bills, photos, letters from friends and family.

Obviously send what you have, (we didn't have everything on the list above, and a lot of what we did have wasn't in english so we sent a sampling - including the lease and joint bank accounts as they were the most important) if you don't have a lot of the official stuff then get more statutory declerations from friends, family, bosses on both sides.

[Baloo]

..........  
Does the fact that we are engaged and planning to get married this summer come into play at all?

Not really, see below

We want to send the application before we are married to get the process going. Any suggestions?

If you apply common law and then get married, you will have to provide extra information to immigration.
Providing that update may add confusion, or introduce delays.
All the effort of proving "common law" would have been pointless if you get married during the process.

You may want to get the application ready and then apply as soon as you are a married couple.

[rjessome]

Sorry Baloo but I disagree.

Getting married after applying as common law will not cause problems or delays.  Yes, if they get married they need to inform the visa office by supplying a copy of the marriage certificate.  That's pretty much all UNLESS the VO was iffy on the proof submitted for the common-law application.  Then they are also going to be iffy on the marriage too.  But otherwise, they change the coding and process in terms of the new relationship.  See OP Manual 2 Section 5.51.  http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

[Baloo]

Sorry Baloo but I disagree.

Getting married after applying as common law will not cause problems or delays.  Yes, if they get married they need to inform the visa office by supplying a copy of the marriage certificate.  That's pretty much all UNLESS the VO was iffy on the proof submitted for the common-law application.  Then they are also going to be iffy on the marriage too.  But otherwise, they change the coding and process in terms of the new relationship.  See OP Manual 2 Section 5.51.  http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

No problem with agreeing or disagreeing - I was unsure if it would cause a delay, hence my use of the word "may".

[rjessome]

No problem with agreeing or disagreeing - I was unsure if it would cause a delay, hence my use of the word "may".

 

Any delays would have been their in the first place. So getting married won't "help" an application that was already on shakey ground.  Thinking about it full circle, if an applicant put together a shoddy application or was in a fraudulant relationship and thought to enhance it by getting married, then it could give the VO even MORE reason to be suspicious.  So we're both right, depending on the intent of the applicant.

I have this nasty habit of looking at all applications through rose-coloured glasses and thinking every one is genuine until I have an opportunity to dig deeper.  This OP sounds perfectly genuine but, realizing that lots of people read these forums (and never post), and may have wicked intent, I should be more careful.

[missmini]

it all depends also where u apply and how long it takes to officially change to married status; i'll explain: if u get married u need to update the embassy; now depending on the embassy they will either continue processing u as common-law or they will process u as married and they will ask u to provide the necessary official proofs: official marriage certificate and other documents where u r declared officially as married (some areas in the world do need lots of documents do be updated ); they could put on hold ur application until they get these new documents and in some places (the more bureaucratic and corrupt) it could take up to 6 months...hence the big delay and Baloo's advice...also maybe they will ask u to update ur forms, resubmit them, submit additional proofs (wedding invitations, receipts, photos, etc) and hence other delays...

i think some VO r more iffy from the beginning than others....if urs is not that iffy then just send the application now if u r ready; if not, prepare and send once u r married

i would b curious what others think also