A few questions for my upcoming PR application.

[Falkala]

Hi,

My boyfriend of 6 years and I are getting married in just over 4 weeks. He is a Canadian citizen, and I am from the USA. I've been living in Canada for more than 4 years now on a student permit, and am awaiting my post-graduation work permit. (Applied 11 days ago, should be back within the week.) I had two major questions related to this;

First, will I still be able to apply outland while on a work permit in Canada? The thought of not being able to visit my family for more than a year while an inland application processes without jeopardizing my application worries me. I've never had any issues crossing the border before but I'd hate to risk anything.

Second, how much information should I strive to include in the application? I have a few pictures of us at family events throughout the years, letters from family vouching for our relationship, our engagement photos, and soon the wedding photos as well. I'm worried that won't be enough and should begin digging up more. We never declared common-law though technically could have 3 years ago. Will that hurt us at all?

 

[CutiePie92]

hey,

don't worry about the amount of proof you have. US citizens are not scrutinized so much compared to other countries. aditionally, you have a 6 year relationship - this sounds very solid proof to me. you won't have any problems, just gather some significant photos and you're going to be fine (the ones you mentioned are ok).

as for the work permit.. seniors know more about it but i think you can't have an OWP with an outland application. i'm not sure. let's wait until others can offer more specific advice.

 

[MilesAway]

You can apply outland, no problem there. Your work permit will not be affected, as it is not related to your application.

Your spouse should have declared himself as common-law on his taxes, not doing so can cause some problems with CRA. He will also have to submit an option C with his application, and if it shows him as single, CIC may have some questions.

As for the proof, quality over quantity. Show things that prove that you have been living together, maybe some e-mails or phone bills that show how often you communicate (although if you live together, that may not be applicable), and photos from various stages in your relationship. Given the length of your relationship, and that you are a US citizen, you should not have any problems.

 

[CutiePie92]

MilesAway, she said they want to get married, so why update status to common-law? i'm just curious, i don't understand.

 

[Rob_TO]

We never declared common-law though technically could have 3 years ago. Will that hurt us at all?

Yes this can be a big problem.

First with CIC. When you submit the Option C printout, it will show SINGLE status (I think Option C shows this, others who have recently got this doc can confirm). However you will be trying to claim on your PR application you've actually been living together past 3 years, so that should show COMMON-LAW status.

And second, with the CRA. By actually being common-law for 3 years but doing taxes as single, you have committed tax fraud for the past 3 years. It is mandatory that after 12 months of living togethter, you are officially common-law and MUST change your status with CRA to common-law and file taxes as a common-law couple. If they ever audit you and find out about this, you could face very heavy fines and back-payments.

 

[Falkala]

I have been filed as a dependent to my grandparents (who have paid for my schooling) until this year. We do not pay rent (family home) and do not share finances. I don't know if that changes anything. As a full time student I couldn't file any Canadian taxes (or so my school told me and directed me to US tax forms) but it seems I will need to look into this further in order to make this right.

 

[Rob_TO]

I have been filed as a dependent to my grandparents (who have paid for my schooling) until this year. I don't know if that changes anything. As a full time student I couldn't file any Canadian taxes (or so my school told me and directed me to US tax forms) but it seems I will need to look into this further in order to make this right.

What is more important, is if your Canadian citizen common-law partner has been doing his Canadian taxes as SINGLE for the past several years, when he was in fact officially common-law.

 

[Falkala]

Right. We will see about talking to someone at CIC to get this sorted out.

 

[Alurra71]

Right. We will see about talking to someone at CIC to get this sorted out.

If you are getting married, changing the status with CRA will reflect on your Option C. It wont matter with CIC about your common law past if you two are applying as a married couple. Your soon to be husband can backtrack with his taxes and have adjustments made to reflect his common law status for previous years to make sure he doesn't have a problem later on down the road.

 

[Rob_TO]

Right. We will see about talking to someone at CIC to get this sorted out.

It's not CIC you really have to worry about with tax fraud issues, it's the CRA. I recommend speaking to an accountant, and seeing if your partner can do re-assessments on his previous tax years to make them common-law in the years they should have been common-law.

If you are getting married, changing the status with CRA will reflect on your Option C. It wont matter with CIC about your common law past if you two are applying as a married couple. Your soon to be husband can backtrack with his taxes and have adjustments made to reflect his common law status for previous years to make sure he doesn't have a problem later on down the road.

Probably not, although if they claim in the PR application they have lived together for 3 years, but on the Option C is states SINGLE, the 2 don't quite add up. No it wouldn't affect status for PR if they are applying as married anyways, but it is something that a VO could notice and raise some questions as to why they weren't doing taxes together if they were a legitimate CL couple.

 

[Alurra71]

It's not CIC you really have to worry about with tax fraud issues, it's the CRA. I recommend speaking to an accountant, and seeing if your partner can do re-assessments on his previous tax years to make them common-law in the years they should have been common-law.

Probably not, although if they claim in the PR application they have lived together for 3 years, but on the Option C is states SINGLE, the 2 don't quite add up. No it wouldn't affect status for PR if they are applying as married anyways, but it is something that a VO could notice and raise some questions.

Raise questions, sure, but at the most it would cause them to get a condition 51 on the COPR as opposed to potentially not getting it based on relationship history. To me it just seems like a non issue in regards to the PR application portion of the conversation.

 

[Rob_TO]

Raise questions, sure, but at the most it would cause them to get a condition 51 on the COPR as opposed to potentially not getting it based on relationship history. To me it just seems like a non issue in regards to the PR application portion of the conversation.

You don't want ANY questions raised on your PR app. Whenever info from 1 form you submit clearly doesn't match another form, suddenly the validity of everything could be questioned. You should submit as clean an app as you can from the start.

 

[Falkala]

It looks like we can get tax things fixed but my in progress application states me as single not common law I imagine I need to get that corrected ASAP