We didn't want to rush a marriage. We would rather do it in our own time, but from what I've been hearing and seeing it seems to be the easier course of action
It's up to you.
for marriages under 2 years you need to provide as much of a connection and a relationship history than if you were living together for 1 year.
This is not true. Demosntrating common law is ALWAYS an additional requirement, because it is a yes or no legal test that must be met - and in addition, a subjective one, as opposed to the more objective legal question for a married couple, is the marriage legally valid and recognized or not?
Like for like, the married couple application vs common law is ALWAYS an easier one, as the relationship info has to be there in both cases. Legally valid marriage plus relationship info > common law plus relationship info.
For some cases the married vs common law differential may be very small - eg a couple living together for ten years or more with children will be an easy common law application in this respect - but the married one is not difficult to evaluate either.
Just establish your common law relattionship on paper - strongly- joint bank accounts, name on a lease or very detailed reciepts or acknowledgement of paying rent, re route your mail, sign up to a local gym as a couple, EVERYTHING you can do to prove you are living in the property together.
A couple that does the above AND presents a legally valid marriage will still be easier to evaluate/less likely to have issues. And more than likely sufficient well before the 12 months of cohabitation is complete. (Indeed I'd say applying right at 12 months is going to get additional scrutiny for being on-the-edge, but dependent on whether any other red flags).
Or as applies to OP here: if they got married relatively soon, give it 2-3 months for marriage certificate and collection of docs, and document as well as you've suggested - that's six months or so of cohabitation plus legally valid marriage - it would be a fairly straightforward application. [Granted, somewhat contingent on other factors I don't know about]
With AOR and OWP, the principal applicant would likely be legally working in Canada 3-9 months earlier than under common law, and possibly before the common law application could even be submitted - a consideration for those with budget constraints (most of us).
