So I'd like to sponsor my common law/ partner who is from the United States. He travels every weekend here except when I can go there to visit his family. He currently works Full time there and does not want to give that up as he has bills (don't we all). We've researched the government site for the proper forms however before we go through with the submission and fees we want to make sure we put the proper papers in as we cannot afford to lose money over rejection of something missing etc. I've reached out to local political reps for assistance with no luck. If anyone can help with this matter it would be greatly appreciated as with the 3-4 commute every week has finally taken a toll on both of us as well as my daughter missing him. He is a very hard worker and not lazy whatsoever so employment won't be a problem once he gets here. Also I'm not sure what the actual difference between conjugal and common law as we are together every weekend and some but he stays with a family member during the week. If I have missed any details I'll be happy to answer any questions and whatever information anyone can provide would be amazing thanks in advance for helping I'm at a loss and soooo confused over the government site.
Common Law/conjugal relationship sponsorship
- Thread starter Wingfan
- Start date
I'm not sure if this helps but to apply you must qualify for one of the three of the following:
1) you're married
2) you're common law, and you've lived together for a continuous period of at least 12 months when you apply
3) conjugal, where marriage nor common law are feasible due to immigration/legal barriers
You will not qualify for a conjugal application, as there is nothing stopping you from getting married. If you research you will see a common conjugal application example would be when an individual is from the Philippines where divorce is illegal and a someone with a previous marriage is unable to get a divorce granted. There are a number of threads around this on the forum that might be helpful
You will almost certainly only be able to apply as a married or common law couple (and only common law if you meet the cohabitation requirement I put above).
Additionally, this is where you will find the information to get you started:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse.asp
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/spouse.asp
So to be clear, someone else may weigh in, but if he is only home on weekends and lives elsewhere during the week I do not know that you will qualify for common law. He has bills, etc - it sounds like he has his own residence in the US.
So then it sounds like you need a find a way to apply common law after living together continuously for a minimum of one year
You do not qualify as conjugal so don't even think about this option. There are no legal/immigration barriers to living together or marrying, not doing so is your personal choice.
You also do not qualify as common-law, since you are not cohabiting right now. Spending 5 out of 7 days apart per week will definitely not count as cohabitation. You need to live together continuously for 12 months, which you technically haven't started to do yet so getting common-law status is over a year off starting from when he will no longer need to commute every week.
So your only feasible option is to get married and then apply. Attempting a conjugal or common-law app will almost certainly end in rejection.
Agreed with the above. You don't meet the requirements for either conjugal or common law. You'll need to get married if you want to apply.
Yes he needs to be living full time with you, so that means 7 days a week on average, for a full 12 months. Short/temporary trips apart are allowed, but they should not happen too often over the 12 months.
If he wanted to work in Canada to live here with you and qualify for common-law, there are basically only 2 ways:
1. Get a job offer for a job that qualifies under NAFTA. His education/work experience must match the NAFTA job.
For a list of jobs qualifying under NAFTA, look at section 3.8 here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/temp/work/international/nafta.asp
2. Get an employer to go through LMIA process to hire him on a closed work permit. Typically this is very difficult unless he has skills that are unique and in high demand so a Canadian can't be found for the role
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No - a job offer doesn't change the sponsorship requirements. You either need to get married or meet the requirements for common law in order to be able to sponsor him.