Statement of Declaration - advice on notarization please!

[British Matt]

Hi

I'm currently putting my visa application together.  I'm applying for family class, being sponsored by my Canadian partner.  We both live in the UK (I am British). 

With regard to the Statement of Declaration to confirm our common law relationship, I know I have to take the form IMM5409 to a notary lawyer and have this notarized.  However, all the guidance I have at my disposal tells me I need at least 2 other statements of declarations from other parties who can confirm my relationship with my partner.  It does not say however whether these statements have to be notarized or not by a laywer.  Do they have to be or can they just be signed letters by the people concerned?  Obviously this is going to have cost implications.  I was quoted by one lawer yesterday between £80 and £100 for half an hour of their time to do this!  Seems very extortinate.  Is there a standard cost or does each lawyers prices vary?  Also, the notary lawyer I spoke to said they would not draft up any statements of declarations, only notarize them.  Do I use the templates that can be found via Googe or is there a set way of doing this?

Any help with this would be massively appreciate.  Thanks in anticipation

Matt.

[British Matt]

Bounce!

Can you help?

[whoopi83]

Hi

You don't need the IMM5409 unless there is a co-signer (i.e it would apply where the sponsor and spouse/partner were sponsoring another; parent etc. )  It does no harm to send it anyway but it is not a requirement.

[whoopi83]

Also, so far we have had letters written by parents, friends etc and they have not been notarized either.  Seems a little rude to ask all these people to trek to the notary with us!

Also as to content, we just asked people to title the letter something like "Letter in support of the application of X to sponsor Y and Y's subsequent PR application."  We asked them to honestly describe how they became aware of the relationship, when they were told, when they met each of us and how they view the relationship.  All turned out really nice letters!

[British Matt]

Thank you whoopi !

That's helpful and kind of you.  However, I have read and re-read the documentation and I am struggling to get my head around the concept of a 'co-signer'.  It says on the guidance:

The "Statutory Declaration of Common-Law Union" form (only required where the Sponsor's co-signer is a common-law partner);

Who would be the 'co-signer'?  Am I not a co-signer as my partners common law husband??  If she is sponsoring me is there no co-signer???

Sorry if I'm sounding dumb, but it is confusing me!!

Cheers

[British Matt]

Any further help anyone in explaining who or what a co-signer is and how it affects my application?

Thanks in advance.

[lesintheuk]

As whoopi said:  a co-signer would apply where the sponsor and spouse/partner were sponsoring another; parent etc.  You are not a co-signer, you don't need one.

[British Matt]

Thanks lesintheuk!

Much appreciated.

[whoopi83]

Hi Matt - sorry I missed your message.

Hope all is ok, luckily lesintheuk was more responsive.

I remember that form and the confusion, we read it over and over for weeks... anyway, we did not send it.

Keep us all posted with your application timeline and the website trackitt.com is quite good for seeing all other applications and the sort of time you may be waiting.