Conflicting advice!!! Thank you to all of you who have offered your opinions and ideas! I know it is not official legal advice, but it helps to hear what others have to say. I find the application and information very overwhelming!
Tuyen, Why would we be twenty times less likely to be approved on a conjugal application? Seem it is the only real option, especially if we got denied on a common law application. At $1500+ per application, I'm not interested in doing more than one over an arbitrary detail that is equivalent to two return flights!
Seems the consensus is to just go ahead and apply common law but it seems doomed if we cant even live together more than 6 months at a time. Would my 2 month visits to Canada negate the 1 year minimum time limit? We technically have shared a total of 12.5 months living together since 2010, just not consecutively.
Lilismael: We are not able to live together for the specified time period (1 year) due to mexican immigration laws - though we are cohabitants and have combined affairs in Mexico.
I don't think this is a valid consideration but: I am separated and married and unable to obtain a divorce due to Icelandic requirements and my ex's refusal to provide his passport to them for those purposes, could be resolved but I don't have the thousands it would cost to do so using lawyers. Doesn't prevent me from being common law with my current partner, I am just reluctant to marry in case it becomes a case of marriage fraud.
Cempjwi, Yes, we have not been able to reside together for a year straight due to Mexico's visitor visa limit of 180 days (6 months), so there are circumstances preventing us from meeting the common law eligibility. He was denied a visa to visit us in Canada due to financial reasons, and of course if we could we would live together! Hence my confusion over whether to apply common law (we don't meet the definition or time requirements and cannot change those circumstances due to immigration laws and financial considerations).
We will take your advice and seek the advice of a lawyer. The law in Mexico is 5 years living together to qualify as common law, I think 3 years if you share a child in common, (I believe that child must be born in Mexico) but the only benefit is that the children and partner can share the medical coverage of the other, and the foreigner can apply for working papers (fm2) and after 8 years can apply for citizenship, which is rarely granted. To get Mexican citizenship for my daughter is slightly easier, though nearly as costly, we are working on that as well, so she can have more options as se grows older.
The onus has been entirely on me to go to the trouble and expense of travelling back and forth with an infant multiple times a year, trying to maintain my citizenship in Canada as well as my relationship with my fiancé and allow my daughter to know her Mexican relatives. It is really difficult (& totally worth it) being a complete family in one country and a single mother in the other, putting strain on my sisters and mother to host and support us emotionally.
Neither reality seems very real and I have not been able to settle into any sort of routine or commitment due to the impermanence/unpredictability/legal uncertainty of straddling what feels like two lives... I am running out of $$$ so looks like we will be separated indefinitely in 2013, but I have tried really hard to establish sufficient evidence that we are in fact an authentic family engaged in a legitimate congugal relationship despite the barriers of poverty, borders, distance, economics, politics and finances. I feel so very fortunate to have 1) love in my life 2) a healthy daughter and 3) the good fortune to be with her full time for her first two years.
Time to spring into action! =) I suppose a lawyer is prudent before submitting the application, or choosing a category.
Tuyen, Why would we be twenty times less likely to be approved on a conjugal application? Seem it is the only real option, especially if we got denied on a common law application. At $1500+ per application, I'm not interested in doing more than one over an arbitrary detail that is equivalent to two return flights!
Seems the consensus is to just go ahead and apply common law but it seems doomed if we cant even live together more than 6 months at a time. Would my 2 month visits to Canada negate the 1 year minimum time limit? We technically have shared a total of 12.5 months living together since 2010, just not consecutively.
Lilismael: We are not able to live together for the specified time period (1 year) due to mexican immigration laws - though we are cohabitants and have combined affairs in Mexico.
I don't think this is a valid consideration but: I am separated and married and unable to obtain a divorce due to Icelandic requirements and my ex's refusal to provide his passport to them for those purposes, could be resolved but I don't have the thousands it would cost to do so using lawyers. Doesn't prevent me from being common law with my current partner, I am just reluctant to marry in case it becomes a case of marriage fraud.
Cempjwi, Yes, we have not been able to reside together for a year straight due to Mexico's visitor visa limit of 180 days (6 months), so there are circumstances preventing us from meeting the common law eligibility. He was denied a visa to visit us in Canada due to financial reasons, and of course if we could we would live together! Hence my confusion over whether to apply common law (we don't meet the definition or time requirements and cannot change those circumstances due to immigration laws and financial considerations).
We will take your advice and seek the advice of a lawyer. The law in Mexico is 5 years living together to qualify as common law, I think 3 years if you share a child in common, (I believe that child must be born in Mexico) but the only benefit is that the children and partner can share the medical coverage of the other, and the foreigner can apply for working papers (fm2) and after 8 years can apply for citizenship, which is rarely granted. To get Mexican citizenship for my daughter is slightly easier, though nearly as costly, we are working on that as well, so she can have more options as se grows older.
The onus has been entirely on me to go to the trouble and expense of travelling back and forth with an infant multiple times a year, trying to maintain my citizenship in Canada as well as my relationship with my fiancé and allow my daughter to know her Mexican relatives. It is really difficult (& totally worth it) being a complete family in one country and a single mother in the other, putting strain on my sisters and mother to host and support us emotionally.
Neither reality seems very real and I have not been able to settle into any sort of routine or commitment due to the impermanence/unpredictability/legal uncertainty of straddling what feels like two lives... I am running out of $$$ so looks like we will be separated indefinitely in 2013, but I have tried really hard to establish sufficient evidence that we are in fact an authentic family engaged in a legitimate congugal relationship despite the barriers of poverty, borders, distance, economics, politics and finances. I feel so very fortunate to have 1) love in my life 2) a healthy daughter and 3) the good fortune to be with her full time for her first two years.
Time to spring into action! =) I suppose a lawyer is prudent before submitting the application, or choosing a category.
