COMMON-LAW Partner Questionnaire - question 22, 23

[missmini]

hello all,

i'm still debating on what to answer to these questions: why we did not have a common-law reception/ceremony i didn't even know that this kind of ceremony exists 

in the country where we r common-law is not even legally recognized, it does not exist as official status, so how could we have a ceremony for that? in front of everyone (except government offices) we present ourselves as married

our common-law status is just temporary: we both believe in marriage, we know we will get married, but we want to get married in a place familiar for both, in a place where we can be with our families (or at least the family of one... MINE ); where we r now it's not our birth country for any of us, we have a few friends but no family also, we need to b a little better financially and to have some savings before we get married and we r not at that stage yet

still, i don't know how to answer these questions: if i would answer as i said before maybe in 1-2 years when the process is almost ready they will ask me why we didn't get married yet or who knows...

please advise me how u have answered or how u would answer...thaaaaaaank u!!

[missmini]

also, what's a common-law ceremony? i have never attended to one...does it have to be performed by a government/municipality official, or by a judge?

the reception is the party after that right?

loool we are really newbies to this stuff...thank u again

[kelKel]

Our consultant put that this type of ceremony is not a normal practice in either of our cultures when entering a common law relationship.

I don't know anyone that has one when they start living together,  unless someone has a house warming or something.

[FleetingDasein]

Ugh. I hated answering those questions. They are clearly directed at married couples, not common law unions.

In my case, I put that we intended to get married in a few years. So basically, we haven't had a ceremony because we are waiting until we can afford a proper wedding.

[missmini]

i seeee....thanks both we could see our case in both these answers... for me too, it feels so weird to answer these questions 

housewarming is nice idea, we actually had that, we could use it like a small private reception

FleetingDasein can i ask u if later they wanted to know if u really got married and if not why not yet? initially we also replied like u said but then i read someone who received from CIC question like why their marriage did not occur yet...i'm not sure if that couple applied as common-law and answered like we r or as married but they had only their civil marriage done

good luck!

[FleetingDasein]

i seeee....thanks both we could see our case in both these answers... for me too, it feels so weird to answer these questions  

housewarming is nice idea, we actually had that, we could use it like a small private reception

FleetingDasein can i ask u if later they wanted to know if u really got married and if not why not yet? initially we also replied like u said but then i read someone who received from CIC question like why their marriage did not occur yet...i'm not sure if that couple applied as common-law and answered like we r or as married but they had only their civil marriage done

good luck!

They haven't asked, and I don't think they will. We recently got our initial assessment saying that an interview wouldn't be required, so I assume they were satisfied with our answer. Regarding the reason why the marriage hasn't occurred yet, I think it depends on your situation. My fiance and I are both in our early 20s, and we're also full time students, so a wedding at this moment is practically impossible. We tried to be as honest as possible....

I'm sure as long as you let them know that you plan to get married and explain why you haven't been able to do so, you'll be fine. Good luck!

[missmini]

thanks so much for the additional input...we r in the late 20s and finished our studies but we do have other strong reasons of why we did not have a wedding yet...initially i put them down, now i don't know....some things r just too private...u all the time think how much should u say, is being too honest playing against u or for u in the future...unfortunately the VO where we'll b applying is one of the slowest out there so it's hard to know how everything will weigh on us in 1-2 years time

maybe Kelkel answer is more on the safe side

good luck, it looks that u r almost there!!

[Canooknic]

We are in the same situation, we have decided to wait to get married.  I wrote in my 'additional information' that our priority was to get settled in Canada and then to look at getting married.  We were lucky because my fiance proposed at Maligne Lake, so I could also use the fact that we would like to get married in Jasper as part of our reasoning.
The common-law ceremony is a mystery to me, I'd never heard of it...but it sounds kinda good - like a wedding warm-up!  I wonder if you get gifts?!? 

[Jen85]

I had never heard of a common law ceremony either.  Thought maybe it was something that was done in other cultures?

Canooknic...Maligne Lake...Jasper ...what a beautiful place to get married!!

[Canooknic]

I had never heard of a common law ceremony either.  Thought maybe it was something that was done in other cultures?

Canooknic...Maligne Lake...Jasper ...what a beautiful place to get married!!

Fingers crossed we can sort it out !!  We have twin 2yr old boys and spent their 1st birthday there too, it's become our special place.  I went to Jasper a lot as a kid and have always loved it so I can't imagine getting married anywhere else...and its a bigger incentive to make our friends & family come over from the UK !!

Unfortunately, things like finally landing (!) and finding a house have to take priority for a little bit longer ! 

[missmini]

The common-law ceremony is a mystery to me, I'd never heard of it...but it sounds kinda good - like a wedding warm-up!  I wonder if you get gifts?!?  Grin

it seems that noone have heard of this kind of ceremony...me neither, but it's still in their questionnaire i wonder from where CIC heard of it and maybe it's just a question where they could have a good laugh abt people's supernatural efforts to answer coherently 

i don't know the city u r talking, didn't have the chance to visit a lot of Canada or UK hope when we finish all this we'll have the chance to travel more

[AlieW]

I also found this questions strange.

I didn't give it much thought (I probably should have been more carefull with my answer) but I basically put down that we would like to get married, however are unable to do so where we currently live (there are no civil unions - only religious ones - and since I'm not of the same religious back ground as my partner we can't get married). I included that we are waiting to return to Canada in order to have a wedding with our friends and family. We are also younger (mid/late 20s) and my partner is still a student but i didn't think to include this.

I was thinking that since we can't get married where we currently live it was a no brainer - and since we do want to get married I wrote that I didn't see much point in having a common-law ceremony.

On an aside - I have been to several 'weddings' (white dress, walking down the aisle, flowers, food, presents the whole nine yards) which would technically count as common-law ceremonies as the wedding was not a religious ceremony and thus technically the marrage isn't recognized and the couple is living as common-law.

It may also be a term used for same sex celebrations/ceremonies in countries where same sex marriage is not recognized.

[missmini]

yeah AlieW, i also thought of the type of ceremonies u said

we also have religious barriers here: we have the same religion but different then the majority here (Christians in Muslim country), so it would be almost impossible to get a religious ceremony as we would like and are used; also, here too there r no civil unions for Christians, only specific ones for Muslims; so, yeah good points

thanks and good luck!