Question about Canada Immigration is there a phone number?

[ronandchrissy]

Is there a phone number you can call and get a "real person" for to help you with your immargation paper work? Like some of questions i have a few questions i want to ask but not sure if i should just post them here or just ask someone over the phone? Does anyone know of any phones number i can call were i can ask someone about questions about the application because i am filling it out now and i am not sure about a few questions, My wife is sure about some of them but some are quite confusing..

When it says Family name does it mean she has to put down her last name what is mine or last name what is her before marriage name? or after marriage name we are not sure if we should just wait to have her name changed if we do now we dont want to have the paper work mess up or something? does anyone know this question too..

She was in a common law relationship she needs proff of having already seprated from it? How can she get that and could anyone give me any helpful information about geting it? Do we need a laywer to get the cort to sign a common law relationship sepration paper? 

[RobsLuv]

You can probably ask just about any question here -  

As far as the family name: the instructions say that the name on the application is supposed to be the same name as on your wife's passport or her travel documents.  So, her "family name" would be the surname that is listed on her passport or travel doc - whether it's her married name (yours) or her maiden name.  If her passport is not in her married name yet, that's not a big deal.  She can get it changed while the PR ap is in process and then send CIC a copy of the new passport, or she can wait to file the application until after she has her new passport.

Basically, because you are married she does not need proof of separation from her former common-law partner because your marriage is a legal union as soon as it happens (terminating the common-law relationship by law), whereas, if you were applying as common-law partners, the qualifying period of that relationship is dependent on the date the former common-law partnership ended.  In other words, a person cannot have two common-law partnerships at the same time - so the "idea" behind the declaration of separation is that the new common-law relationship qualifying period can only begin after the former relationship ends.  For example: if you and your wife were applying as common-law partners and you said you had lived together from August 2007 until now (thereby meeting the qualification period), CIC wants to verify that the former common-law relationship ended prior to August 2007, and they would do that through a statutory declaration from the former common-law partner attesting to the date the former relationship ended.