Adding a common-law partner to my application

[beaverthief]

Hi. My girl-friend and I applied for permant residence as skilled workers. We used separate applications and didn't put the other's name on the application because it looked as if we would both be accepted. Even though we are together for a couple of years, we wanted to be on the safe side with two independent application. Just in case if we separated while waiting for the approval.

Since the legislation for skilled workers has changed in November, I won't have the chance to get my permant residence this way anymore. My job isn't on the list. Meanwhile my girl-friend, an accountant, has received the invitation to hand in the supporting documentation.

Would it be possible to add me as her common-law partner at this time? As far as I know this would be acceptable. However, I´m wondering if we might face difficulties when we say that we are together for several years now after we haven't put this on our first separate applications. We have plenty of evidence to proof that we have been living together for some years. What is your opinion or experience with this?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Hi. My girl-friend and I applied for permant residence as skilled workers. We used separate applications and didn't put the other's name on the application because it looked as if we would both be accepted. Even though we are together for a couple of years, we wanted to be on the safe side with two independent application. Just in case if we separated while waiting for the approval.

Since the legislation for skilled workers has changed in November, I won't have the chance to get my permant residence this way anymore. My job isn't on the list. Meanwhile my girl-friend, an accountant, has received the invitation to hand in the supporting documentation.

Would it be possible to add me as her common-law partner at this time? As far as I know this would be acceptable. However, I´m wondering if we might face difficulties when we say that we are together for several years now after we haven't put this on our first separate applications. We have plenty of evidence to proof that we have been living together for some years. What is your opinion or experience with this?

Many thanks in advance.

This should be fun, you both misrepresented your c/law status on both application by claiming to be single, now you expect CHC to believe that you have been in c/law relationship for years? To me, if you are unlucky, it could be they decide that your spouse misrepresented her status and they may be harsh and ban her for 2 years.

PMM

 

[Leon]

Get married and have her add you as a husband. Then you don't need to explain how long you have lived together.

 

[eduardoF]

Get married and have her add you as a husband. Then you don't need to explain how long you have lived together.

Yes, that's the solution. You were in a relationship (don't mention "common law" anywhere), and thought it would be a good idea to apply. Then, you decided to get married, and did so.

Alternatively, read what this blog says: http://www.entercanada.ca/blog/2005/07/conjugal-partners.html

 

[eduardoF]

Thank you all for your input.
It seems stupid now that we didn't want to put each other on a single application as common-law partners. We don't want to get married at this point even though if that looks as a simple solution to many of you.
What we will probably do is to wait if she gets her permant resident visa and marry later then.
Many ways leed to Rome

yeah, true, that would be an option.

 

[Leon]

What I´m always wondering about is the actual make-up of new immigrants to Canada. Half of them have low skills, can barely speak English and work in poorly paid jobs. How did they get in? The answer will mostly be the family class and sponsorship. The criteria for well-educated, fluent English speakers with Canadian experience (we´ve already worked in Canada for 8 months) are quiet strict compared to anyboy applying in the family class. I don't see the sense in this if Canada wants to benefit economically from its immigration policy.

I don't really know what percentage is low skill but not everything is about economy. Canada takes in a certain number of refugees too so some of them may be low skill. As for families, some of them may be sponsored spouses of Canadian citizens. I think it's hard enough to bring a spouse in even if there is not a requirement for them to have a degree and speak perfect english.

 

[PMM]

Hi

Thank you all for your input.
It seems stupid now that we didn't want to put each other on a single application as common-law partners. We don't want to get married at this point even though if that looks as a simple solution to many of you.
What we will probably do is to wait if she gets her permant resident visa and marry later then.
Many ways leed to Rome

The following is more off-topic and political but maybe worth a though in this context:
What I´m always wondering about is the actual make-up of new immigrants to Canada. Half of them have low skills, can barely speak English and work in poorly paid jobs. How did they get in? The answer will mostly be the family class and sponsorship. The criteria for well-educated, fluent English speakers with Canadian experience (we´ve already worked in Canada for 8 months) are quiet strict compared to anyboy applying in the family class. I don't see the sense in this if Canada wants to benefit economically from its immigration policy.

Before you make blanket statements of the skill/language level of Immigrants you may wish to read Facts and Figures Immigration published in 2008. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/facts2007.pdf
If you look at page 45 you might see that of the 188,000 Immigrants over the age of 15 admitted in 2007 81,000 had Bachelor degrees or better, that is 43% and don't forget this included sponsored Immigrants. In the skilled worker category, 39,981 Immigrants of 53,780 admitted had Bachelors or better about 74%

PMM

 

[eduardoF]

Before you make blanket statements of the skill/language level of Immigrants you may wish to read Facts and Figures Immigration published in 2008. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/facts2007.pdf
If you look at page 45 you might see that of the 188,000 Immigrants over the age of 15 admitted in 2007 81,000 had Bachelor degrees or better, that is 43% and don't forget this included sponsored Immigrants. In the skilled worker category, 39,981 Immigrants of 53,780 admitted had Bachelors or better about 74%

PMM

of the 188k, 43% had "bachelor degrees or better", that means 57% had less than a bachelor degree... so I guess the guy wasn't too off when he said that about 50% of immigrants were low-skilled. of course, that is assuming a bachelor degree is entry-level nowadays.

 

[Leon]

Looking at the age of PR's in 2007 (PMM's link) it turns out that 37,879 were aged 15 to 24. Since most people will not be getting a degree until they are age 22 or so, we should subtract the ones who are younger to correct the numbers. We can guesstimate that 70% or 26,515 were under age 22. That cuts the number of immigrants who are at an age where they could have an education from 188,480 to 161,965.

Trades people are also considered skilled as well as many other people who don't have a degree. If you look at the numbers of educated people including tradespeople, you are up to 112,030 out of the 161,965 total. That is 69%. Out of the rest, some of them may be skilled also even though they don't have a degree. It also doesn't speak for their level of English.