Common law outland while being in Canada. Term for explaining "living together"

[amhel26]

Hi, i was hoping to find more people that share my situation and maybe someone that have been successful in their applications.

I am sending soon an outland application for common law. I am in Canada and had been here for a year, first as a tourist, then applying for an extended visa for "exploring our relationship" that was approved.

So now finally we have the year living together and we decided to apply outland since waiting time is faster and i have to be able to leave canada for business purposes.

Anyway, since i came here i always had to be careful in explaining that i was just "visiting", that i had no intentions of living here or moving in with my partner.

Now that is one year i have to proof that i have been living with him for a year. I was hoping to get some advise in how to deal on explaining this situation in our proof of relationship papers.

For example, our landlord letter should said that i have been living with him for one year, that i have been visiting him for a year, is there any concept i should use? Im worried letters will contradict that im not supposed to be living in canada, so how i proof that im living with him?

One of the papers the application asks is a residential lease, which im not able to sign since im here as a tourist, so all i can get is a letter from landlord, has anyone else face this situation? How they dealt with it?

Even in our own letters, or family and friends declarations of support..how do we explain proof of one year together without contradicting that im not living in canada, just visiting. do we have to be very careful with the words? or can my family write they moved in together a year ago?

Hope someone can give me advise. Thanks again!!

 

[Alurra71]

You don't need to 'mince' words with CIC. You can indeed call it 'living together', 'cohabiting' whatever term you choose. If you choose to use 'visit' then expect CIC to require more information and documentation from you to prove a 'marriage like relationship'. The only time you need to worry about using the term 'visiting' is with CBSA when crossing in and out of the Canadian border The two are exclusive of one another.

 

[Rob_TO]

You will need to prove to CIC that you were living/cohabiting with each other for 12 continuous months with no breaks.

You can include proofs like:
- letter from landlord attesting to this
- letters from friends/family about your relationship and living together (for most country guides 2 letters need to be notarized/certified)
- show mail delivered to both of you, going to same address
- get added as supplemental used on credit card
- get joint bank account
- get life insurance on each other
- Your partner should change status with CRA from single to common-law, effective the date you reached 12 months