Hello from the UK!
I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on quite a complex situation? Myself and my partner (we're both male) have been together for 9 years. We had been living together in a relationship in the UK (both names on lease agreement etc) for 4 years when he was offered a job at a tech startup in Montreal. He was given a work permit and I was granted one too. I however didn't move to Canada with him to use it as I'd just been offered literally my dream job in the UK on a 2 year contract. We decided that despite the distance, we'd give the long distance thing a shot until I was ready to move over, we didn't know at that stage that he'd stay in Canada after the 2 years either. I travelled over every few months for a week here and there and he came back to the UK every other few months also (we still have flight tickets and confirmation emails). It's been really tough but we've made it work for almost 4 years now for the sake of our careers and growing as professionals. Fast forward to the end of 2018 and he was offered another amazing job within Canada so decided to take it and apply for permanent residency so he could buy a house. He was advised at the time to say that he was 'single' on his PR application as despite still being in a long distance relationship, we hadn't 'lived' together for 2 years which meant we didn't 'legally' count as 'common-law' partners anymore. To save delaying his application he did what he was advised to and was granted PR. At this point my work permit (which I'd never used) expired and I didn't renew it as I assumed he could sponsor me when the time was right.
The thing is, my contract has now finished here in the UK and I'm at the stage where I'm ready to join him in Canada. I've got a lot of experience in my field of work and I've already had a couple of informal chats with some contacts during my last visit and I know that I'd be able to pick up work fairly quickly. The only issue is they won't employ me until I have a work permit or PR. In order to get those I would need my partner to sponsor me as a 'common-law' partner, but on paper we no longer qualify as the last time we 'co-habit-ed' was back in 2016.
I am really stressed out with it all, and wondered if anyone had any advice? We can prove that we're in a 9 year relationship with texts, calls, holiday photos and still have all the documents from when we lived together between 2012 - 2016 (joint lease documents, joint credit card statements). All of these got me my original work permit, but I'm just worried that because my partner put 'single' on his PR application, immigration will have deemed the relationship to have ended.
Do you think if we explained the situation they may look favourably on us? As I say we can absolutely prove the 9 year relationship and reassure them it's not just 2 room mates trying to abuse the system etc. If we can't, I just don't know what to do. The long distance thing has already been going on long enough and without me being able to stay in Canada longer than 6 months on my tourist ETA (which I've never used for more than a week or so at a time), how are we supposed to live together for a year again just to satisfy the requirements of ''common-law?''
I did say it was quite a complex situation! Hahah!
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thank you & stay safe.
John
I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on quite a complex situation? Myself and my partner (we're both male) have been together for 9 years. We had been living together in a relationship in the UK (both names on lease agreement etc) for 4 years when he was offered a job at a tech startup in Montreal. He was given a work permit and I was granted one too. I however didn't move to Canada with him to use it as I'd just been offered literally my dream job in the UK on a 2 year contract. We decided that despite the distance, we'd give the long distance thing a shot until I was ready to move over, we didn't know at that stage that he'd stay in Canada after the 2 years either. I travelled over every few months for a week here and there and he came back to the UK every other few months also (we still have flight tickets and confirmation emails). It's been really tough but we've made it work for almost 4 years now for the sake of our careers and growing as professionals. Fast forward to the end of 2018 and he was offered another amazing job within Canada so decided to take it and apply for permanent residency so he could buy a house. He was advised at the time to say that he was 'single' on his PR application as despite still being in a long distance relationship, we hadn't 'lived' together for 2 years which meant we didn't 'legally' count as 'common-law' partners anymore. To save delaying his application he did what he was advised to and was granted PR. At this point my work permit (which I'd never used) expired and I didn't renew it as I assumed he could sponsor me when the time was right.
The thing is, my contract has now finished here in the UK and I'm at the stage where I'm ready to join him in Canada. I've got a lot of experience in my field of work and I've already had a couple of informal chats with some contacts during my last visit and I know that I'd be able to pick up work fairly quickly. The only issue is they won't employ me until I have a work permit or PR. In order to get those I would need my partner to sponsor me as a 'common-law' partner, but on paper we no longer qualify as the last time we 'co-habit-ed' was back in 2016.
I am really stressed out with it all, and wondered if anyone had any advice? We can prove that we're in a 9 year relationship with texts, calls, holiday photos and still have all the documents from when we lived together between 2012 - 2016 (joint lease documents, joint credit card statements). All of these got me my original work permit, but I'm just worried that because my partner put 'single' on his PR application, immigration will have deemed the relationship to have ended.
Do you think if we explained the situation they may look favourably on us? As I say we can absolutely prove the 9 year relationship and reassure them it's not just 2 room mates trying to abuse the system etc. If we can't, I just don't know what to do. The long distance thing has already been going on long enough and without me being able to stay in Canada longer than 6 months on my tourist ETA (which I've never used for more than a week or so at a time), how are we supposed to live together for a year again just to satisfy the requirements of ''common-law?''
I did say it was quite a complex situation! Hahah!
Any advice would be gratefully received.
Thank you & stay safe.
John
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