Common-law partner: how to prove

[digits]

Hi all,

I've been reading the CIC website and this forum, and I was wondering how you can prove the "common-law partner" relationship. We are both living in Belgium.

The situation is as follows:
- in december 2011 I met my girlfriend. I have a job, she's still studying
- I bought a house in april 2012 and she moved in with me. Unofficially, since she's still studying. But we are living together
- Since the new FSW program will only open in may 2013, we will have been living together for a year by then.

Will this be accepted or do we need an official document or similar to state that we have been living together ?

Things we can provide:
* written testimonies of our friends
* facebook screenshots
* a few letters adressed to both of us, not much (greeting cards etc)
* any other ideas ?

Since I own the house and she doesn't have an income (for now), all bills are only adressed to me.

Or would it be better to apply 'single' and get my girlfriend into Canada in some other way (student, arranged employment, work & travel, ...). The goal would be to land in Canada july 2014.
I'm gratefull for any advice any of you may have.

Kind regards,
Digits

 

[Karwa Sach]

Hi all,

I've been reading the CIC website and this forum, and I was wondering how you can prove the "common-law partner" relationship. We are both living in Belgium.

The situation is as follows:
- in december 2011 I met my girlfriend. I have a job, she's still studying
- I bought a house in april 2012 and she moved in with me. Unofficially, since she's still studying. But we are living together
- Since the new FSW program will only open in may 2013, we will have been living together for a year by then.

Will this be accepted or do we need an official document or similar to state that we have been living together ?

Things we can provide:
* written testimonies of our friends
* facebook screenshots
* a few letters adressed to both of us, not much (greeting cards etc)
* any other ideas ?

Since I own the house and she doesn't have an income (for now), all bills are only adressed to me.

Or would it be better to apply 'single' and get my girlfriend into Canada in some other way (student, arranged employment, work & travel, ...). The goal would be to land in Canada july 2014.
I'm gratefull for any advice any of you may have.

Kind regards,
Digits

u will have 2 provide documents that prove that you and your common-law partner have combined your affairs and have set up your household together in one home. This could include:

Joint bank accounts or credit cards;
Joint ownership of a home;
Joint residential leases;
Joint rental receipts;
Joint utilities (electricity, gas, telephone);
Joint management of household expenses;
Proof of joint purchases, especially for household items; OR
Correspondence addressed to either person or both people at the same address.




http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/manuals/op/op02-eng.pdf

according to OP2

OP 2 Processing Members of the Family Class

In the M. v. H. decision, the Supreme Court adopts the list of factors that must be considered in
determining whether any two individuals are actually in a conjugal relationship from the decision of
the Ontario Court of Appeal in Moldowich v. Penttinen. They include:
• shared shelter (e.g., sleeping arrangements);
• sexual and personal behaviour (e.g., fidelity, commitment, feelings towards each other);
• services (e.g., conduct and habit with respect to the sharing of household chores)
• social activities (e.g., their attitude and conduct as a couple in the community and with their
families);
• economic support (e.g., financial arrangements, ownership of property);
• children (e.g., attitude and conduct concerning children)
• the societal perception of the two as a couple.
From the language used by the Supreme Court throughout M. v. H., it is clear that a conjugal
relationship is one of some permanence, where individuals are interdependent – financially,
socially, emotionally, and physically – where they share household and related responsibilities,
and where they have made a serious commitment to one another.
Based on this, the following characteristics should be present to some degree in all conjugal
relationships, married and unmarried:
• mutual commitment to a shared life;
• exclusive – cannot be in more than one conjugal relationship at a time;
• intimate – commitment to sexual exclusivity;
• interdependent – physically, emotionally, financially, socially;
• permanent – long-term, genuine and continuing relationship;
• present themselves as a couple;
• regarded by others as a couple;
• caring for children (if there are children).
People who are dating or who are thinking about marrying or living together and establishing a
common-law relationship are NOT yet in a conjugal relationship, nor are people who want to live
together to “try out” their relationship.
Persons in a conjugal relationship have made a significant commitment to one another. A married
couple makes the commitment publicly at a specific point in time via their marriage vows and
ceremony, and the marriage certificate and registration is a record of that commitment. In a
common-law or conjugal partner relationship, there is not necessarily a single point in time at
which a commitment is made, and there is no one legal document attesting to the commitment.
Instead, there is the passage of time together, the building of intimacy and emotional ties and the
accumulation of other types of evidence, such as naming one another as beneficiaries of
insurance policies or estates, joint ownership of possessions, joint decision-making with
consequences for one partner affecting the other, and financial support of one another .

 

[ReWirra]

is it a proof the IMM5408(Statutory declaration of common law) ??