Common Law Partner

[Meiz]

The definition of common law partner is a couple who live together for almost 1-2 years. How am I goin to prove the canadian embassy that my bf and I have been in a serious relationship, living together for some time while we dont really have any papers to prove this? I dont understand, as far as I have is only pictures of us together. We didnt use to share bills, even when we did the bill would not show our both names. We live in a house that belongs to his parents. I am so confused how to prove it. My boyfriend is in Calgary and now is applying for the PR and would like to sponsor me as a common law partner. I am still in my country at the moment.   

Any information that may help is very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jasmine

[BCguy]

Hi
I just helped a couple do the paper trail for common law,Here goes open a joint back account together,get insurance policies with each other as beneficiaries,Make a lease agreement with his parents with a token lease say 100-200 dollars amonth to help cover utilities with both your names on it,Get a joint Costco Membership,Get a joint membership in your local community center,get couple plan on your mobile phones.Then your done Cheers

[Meiz]

Hello,

Thanks so much for your suggestions. They are great. But our problem is that we are not staying together for almost 2 years already as he is in Cad already n Im still in my country, busy with our own work. So his plan is actually to get a PR in Cad and sponsor me so we can get back together very soon. So if we should open a joint bank acc n do things like u say which result is promising now, we will need to wait for at least 1 year rite to convince the embassy that we have been living together... Wat do you suggest? How can we prove that we are actually a common law partner w/o having anything to show :-( It seems that this way is impossible.

Jasmine

[RobsLuv]

Sounds like you will probably have a difficult time adequately demonstrating yourselves as common-law partners according to CIC's definition.  You have to have been living together, in a marriage-like relationship, continuously for at least one year.  You have not been living together now for almost 2 years - so that already works against you. 

However, you don't say how long you did live together, or where (I'm assuming it was in your country), and whether your bf is a Canadian PR and required to come back to Canada in order to sponsor you.  If that's the case . . . in other words, you lived together for a qualifying period of time in your country but he had to come back to Canada in order to be eligible to sponsor you because he is a PR, you might be able to convince CIC that you qualify as common-law partners and are only separated because of the immigration requirement.  Still, you don't have any "physical" evidence of shared expenses, shared housing, insurance policies naming each other as beneficiaries back to the start of your relationship, joint bank accounts or credit cards, etc.  And, if you actually were common-law partners as far as living together, and he had to come back to Canada to sponsor you, why has he waited 2 years to get around to it?  All of this will work against you.  Believe me, you do not want to waste time and money filing an application that you cannot stand behind - you'll just end up starting over again, or worse yet, you'll file an appeal against a refusal and it will take even more time and more money to resolve than simply filing a new application.  Don't go into this with a question about whether or not you even have a qualifying relationship.  There's only one relationship that stands up easily to the scrutiny: marriage, because it is a relationship established by law, not by circumstances.  So your easiest solution - get married.  If you can't do that, you might qualify in the conjugal partner class - but that's even more difficult than common-law because it requires that you prove that you're not able to get married or live together (to qualify as common-law partners) because of an immigration barrier, or due to threats/persecution resulting from the nature of your relationship. 

[dorz]

Hello,

Thanks so much for your suggestions. They are great. But our problem is that we are not staying together for almost 2 years already as he is in Cad already n Im still in my country, busy with our own work. So his plan is actually to get a PR in Cad and sponsor me so we can get back together very soon. So if we should open a joint bank acc n do things like u say which result is promising now, we will need to wait for at least 1 year rite to convince the embassy that we have been living together... Wat do you suggest? How can we prove that we are actually a common law partner w/o having anything to show :-( It seems that this way is impossible.

Jasmine

hello Jasmine,

more or less we are of the same situation, its just that in my case i got two kids with my boyfriend,we are cohabiting for 17long years, in short we are "married" less the wedding and that i am here in canada while he is still in the philippines with our children.....as far as my understanding is concern with how cic declared its definition of the "common-law-partner", i suppose the very fundamental of that law is at least "living-together-for-two-years" and not living together during and within the procurement method of your application......in my own opinion, i would say that should you have completed the 24-months "living-together" PLUS the supporting ducuments, then i would say that you two guys got the chance!

[juana17]

The definition of common law partner is a couple who live together for almost 1-2 years. How am I goin to prove the canadian embassy that my bf and I have been in a serious relationship, living together for some time while we dont really have any papers to prove this? I dont understand, as far as I have is only pictures of us together. We didnt use to share bills, even when we did the bill would not show our both names. We live in a house that belongs to his parents. I am so confused how to prove it. My boyfriend is in Calgary and now is applying for the PR and would like to sponsor me as a common law partner. I am still in my country at the moment.   

Any information that may help is very much appreciated.

Thanks,
Jasmine

Thank you for sharing the definition of common law partner. Know e know that it is a couple who live together for almost 1-2 years. How great!



_________________
California Orange County Lawyer

[Kristi]

Originally, my husband and I were going to apply as common-law, and we had a ton of friends and co-workers do a statutory declaration at the embassy (we were in Korea at the time), declaring that they had known us for two years and saw us living together. Because we were living in Korea, ALL our bills were paid by the school or were in one of our names, not the other. We also did not have join accounts, so basically we had NOTHING in both of our names. We also had our school write a letter declaring that they had us live in the same apartment for two years, etc. We got married in the summer, but still put all those letters in our application and we had NO problems with CIC. In fact, I got AIP and Decision Made at the same time(six months after applying). Because we got married so soon before applying, we could have had questions asked, but we didn't. I truly think those statutory declarations made ALL the difference. (they were even done by Canadian citizens) Maybe see if you can do something similar to prove your relationship!!

[Meiz]

Hi Kristi,

Your answer really enlightened me a bit here. I was thinking no way to go by common law, but there might b a chance to pass since you yourself pass by statutory declaration made by your frens n coworkers. How many of frens did you bring at that time just for my ref. cos Im from Indonesia and to apply for a PR I have to go to Singapore, which means my frens have to go along for this..

And is it bcos u have your marital document so they dont ask you further? I mean just by a marital letter they will pass you even without statutory declarations..

It is actually a bit risky cos if I get rejected, it would record my refusal and it is really useless in the end. RObluv has his point about this matter.

I await your reply. Thanks!