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Canadian with Mexican Girlfriend, hoping to establish Common Law

sbott

Member
Sep 5, 2023
18
4
Hello. I'm hoping to gain some clarity regarding the best path forward for me and my girlfriend. I am Canadian, she is Mexican. We have been living out of the country for one year, though not together. She has a valid visitor's visa for Canada.

At this point, we would like to enter Canada together with the intention of cohabitating and establishing common law so that I can sponsor her for PR. We are a bit confused on how to handle this, though.

From what I can gather, she will need to enter, stay for 6 months, and apply for a 6 month extension. If we are able to live together and prove that we have been cohabitating, we would qualify for common law.

My questions are:
1. How to go about her entering the country initially? Would she buy a round trip ticket for a 6 month stay and say that she's visiting, then apply for an extensive after ~5 months? Would we make it clear that she's staying with me or keep it to "visiting" at the border?
2. Since she'll be on a visitors visa, how is it possible to prove that we've been cohabitating? As far as I can understand she would need to be on a lease agreement with me and share many bills, joint bank account, etc. How is this possible if she is entering as a visitor?

Thank you in advance to anybody that can help.