Need advice: same-sex sponsorship

[am-al]

Hi,

I am new in this forum and I'm glad to have found this great site.

I moved to Toronto last year as a Skilled Worker.  Since "common-law" partner is not clear and is confusing for me during my skilled worker application, I did not declare my girlfriend nor mentioned her name in the application.  My GF is still in the Philippines and we do not know how to best approach the sponsorship.

I read some of the sponsor's requirements in the cic.gc.ca website and it looks like it could be questionable if I will sponsor her as a common-law partner when in fact i never mentioned her in my immigration application.  I do not know if it would be best to get married here first (she will come here as a visitor and get married) then I will sponsor her as my spouse. 

The thing with marriage though is the implication of technically changing the marital status and for someone new to this country, I do not know how to approach awkward situations pertaining to same-sex marriage.

As much as possible, I would like to sponsor her as a common-law partner but I am stuck with the fear that the Visa officer might find my previous declaration inconsistent.  I believe the sponsorship forms require my immigration information (ie PR card #, or immigration id) and background check or verification will surely be conducted as part of the process.  Oh by the way, we lived together (under the same roof) for more than 1 year in the Philippines.

Anyone in the same situation or was in the same situation as mine?

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

[scylla]

You're in a very difficult situation. Since you lived with your GF for more than a year - she was your common law partner and should have been declared as part of your application. Since she wasn't declared, technically you can never sponsor her through family class. You also technically committed misrepresentation (were not truthful in your application) because you failed to include her. This could create problems for you/your PR status if CIC ever finds out.

I don't see how you can sponsor your GF as a common-law partner at this point. And getting married won't fix the problem. If you do submit an application to sponsor your GF, you risk having CIC figure out that your GF wasn't declared on your application which would not only lead to a refusal of the application but could put your own PR status at jeopardy.

Can your GF qualify to immigrate independently as a skilled worker? This would likely be the best way to go at this point.

[Leon]

If you had lived together in a common law relationship for a year at the time you applied and got your PR, you definitely committed misrepresentation and can never sponsor her.  If you did not live together for a year yet at the time you applied and at the time you landed, you had broken up as you were moving to Canada, that could explain why you did not declare her without making you guilty of misrepresentation but it might be a hard sell to immigration.

Other than admitting that you were common law at the time you immigrated, you could try to sponsor her as a conjugal partner but like scylla said, you might have to answer some hard questions about how long exactly you lived together etc.

[am-al]

Thanks for your replies.  The thing with our situation is that the Philippines does not really recognize such legal relationship. Unlike in the states where from what I know, "common-law" is recognized for same-sex partners.  It is very complicated when the involved country, in our case - the Philippines, is not really into that kind of thing.

Can you imagine how my gf have to answer an insurance agent in the Philippines when she wanted to make me a benficiary?  The agent said only family members or spouse is allowed.  That being said, it is very complicated for us to define what "common-law" partners mean.

If common-law sponsorship sounds complicated now, can we just get married?  She's in the process of getting a visitor's visa and we plan to get married soon. 

I was thinking that we could totally trash the point that we lived together since we do not have any asset where both our names appear.  Even the apartment was only under my name.  We have joint bank accounts though but the fact of living together would be hard to prove anyway.

So what do you  think?

[scylla]

I was thinking that we could totally trash the point that we lived together since we do not have any asset where both our names appear.  Even the apartment was only under my name.  We have joint bank accounts though but the fact of living together would be hard to prove anyway.

So what do you  think?

If you do this, your GF will have to flat out lie in her application. Lying to CIC is always a bad idea (in my opinion).

[am-al]

I fully understand. But i realized that to be a "common-law" partner, we have to prove that we lived together.  We did but now I realized that we do not have means of proving it.  We were using different addresses even when I was in the philippines.  I use my apartment's address, while she uses her permanent address.  Her bills, her income tax returns, etc are being sent to her own address not in my apartment's address. 

Life is too complicated back home.  We can not even be "open" in the public.  We hope that we could get the freedom and respect we deserve here in Canada so I hope marrying would be the ultimate answer.

If she comes here, get married, then she go back in the Philippines, I process the spouse sponsorship, you think that would work out?

[Leon]

The common law mistake is a common thing also among hetero couples but it still does not protect them from the consequences.  Ignorance of the rules is no excuse.  If immigration finds out that somebody was living together common law before immigrating and they did not declare their partner, even if they did not know what common law means as they don't have it in their country, that still means they committed misrepresentation, can not sponsor their spouse and may even lose their own PR.

However, in many cases where people do not have proof of living together, they would not be believed if they said they were common law anyway.  Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

Anyway, even though lying is bad and can bite you in the butt later on, since you already did, I don't see a way to get out of it for you.  At the very best, you already committed misrepresentation and must hope they never find out so if you take that further and say that this living together for one year never happened, then you can sponsor your partner as conjugal or if she gets her visit visa, you could marry.