**Common law partner - inland application**

[hemlock2015]

Hi there,
i am from Australia and have been living with my same sex partner since April 2018.
I applied for PR through common law sponsorship. Basically we just received a Ietter from CIC requesting additional evidence of cohabitation from the date (September 18, 2018) as we sent in our application sept. 18, 2019.

we have joint lease agreement for our current place (beginning April 2019) and a bunch of other proof, insurance benefits, joint bank statements (beginning December 2018)

We were together the entire time, however i had to finish out my one year lease, so we spent some time at that apartment, however most of the time we stayed at her house.

basically, my partner has a bunch of Documents back dating to before September 2018 with that address. The problem is, the only documents I can provide that dates back to before September 2018 are: payslips with the same address, personal mail sent to me at that address, a 2018 t4 to that address from the same employer. I have a bank statement in the address starting oct 4.

I have written a letter of explanation explaining our address situation and provided as much mail in each of our names showing the same address as I could.
We also have a cat, which I provided emails and bookings with the spca from November 2018.

In our original application: we provided letters from friends and family, photos etc. everything to meet requirements
can anyone let me know if you think this is enough to get over the line???
Stressing a little

 

[hemlock2015]

Also, Some of the mail included sex toys.. I had to use it because it was one of the only pieces of mail I had.. shows a relationship is conjugal I guess...

 

[scylla]

Hi there,
i am from Australia and have been living with my same sex partner since April 2018.
I applied for PR through common law sponsorship. Basically we just received a Ietter from CIC requesting additional evidence of cohabitation from the date (September 18, 2018) as we sent in our application sept. 18, 2019.

we have joint lease agreement for our current place (beginning April 2019) and a bunch of other proof, insurance benefits, joint bank statements (beginning December 2018)

We were together the entire time, however i had to finish out my one year lease, so we spent some time at that apartment, however most of the time we stayed at her house.

basically, my partner has a bunch of Documents back dating to before September 2018 with that address. The problem is, the only documents I can provide that dates back to before September 2018 are: payslips with the same address, personal mail sent to me at that address, a 2018 t4 to that address from the same employer. I have a bank statement in the address starting oct 4.

I have written a letter of explanation explaining our address situation and provided as much mail in each of our names showing the same address as I could.
We also have a cat, which I provided emails and bookings with the spca from November 2018.

In our original application: we provided letters from friends and family, photos etc. everything to meet requirements
can anyone let me know if you think this is enough to get over the line???
Stressing a little

The 2018 T4 doesn't help you since it won't have been issued until 2019 and what you need to prove is cohabitation since September 2018. Same goes for the bank statement unfortunately since it's dated October. The payslips are good. The mail is good as well. However if you only have the payslips and mail that goes back to September 2018, that's quite light on evidence to prove the full year of common law. Is there anything else you can think of? Normally I would suggest that your landlord sign an affidavit stating you've been living there since September 2018 - however not sure how feasible that's going to be due to COVID-19. Any utility statements that date back to September 2018? Any chance you added your partner to workplace benefits on or before that date and you can get evidence to support that?

 

[hemlock2015]

Other than mail and the payslips, don’t have much really dating back before then. I was renting through a coworker, so never signed a lease or anything (I wrote that in my letter)
My partners residence was her mother’s rental (who lived in Hong Kong- comes to visit and stays there) but she is renting it so my partner was just paying a small amount of rent.
We have emails of flight bookings and hotel bookings receipts from July/ August... I included that.
But because we were Kind of living in two locations I have mail in both address etc.

all the bills were in my partners name, I transferred money to her, which you can see transactions in her bank statements provided...

Thanks for your help

 

[hemlock2015]

I opened my bank account with her address on September 29, 2018... so close but I guess I’ll just have to hope for the best. I also recently submitted a work permit extension for my current open work permit.. dont know if I’ll receive that before I get an answer on my PR.
If the answer is no, what are my options?

 

[scylla]

Other than mail and the payslips, don’t have much really dating back before then. I was renting through a coworker, so never signed a lease or anything (I wrote that in my letter)
My partners residence was her mother’s rental (who lived in Hong Kong- comes to visit and stays there) but she is renting it so my partner was just paying a small amount of rent.
We have emails of flight bookings and hotel bookings receipts from July/ August... I included that.
But because we were Kind of living in two locations I have mail in both address etc.

all the bills were in my partners name, I transferred money to her, which you can see transactions in her bank statements provided...

Thanks for your help

Did you have two different actual residences at the same time? The place you were renting through a coworker and your partners place that belonged to her mother? Was this still true in September 2018 or later?

 

[hemlock2015]

Due to me moving in with a coworker in January 2018, I had agreed to move in for a year, however I met my partner in February 2018 and we entered began living with each other from April onwards - sharing both addresses. One for convenience (downtown Vancouver) and the other for a home base - this being the one we received mail etc at. So we Shared two different addresses from April 2018-essentially October 2018.

 

[hemlock2015]

However we only have a lease agreement for our new place, which began in April 2019.

 

[scylla]

Due to me moving in with a coworker in January 2018, I had agreed to move in for a year, however I met my partner in February 2018 and we entered began living with each other from April onwards - sharing both addresses. One for convenience (downtown Vancouver) and the other for a home base - this being the one we received mail etc at. So we Shared two different addresses from April 2018-essentially October 2018.

My honest opinion is that is pretty messy and will make it complicated to prove you were common from September forward. It basically looks like each of you had your own address for this period and just spend time at each other's places. That's not common law. Common law requires you to have a single address you share. I'm really not sure IRCC will accept this. It would have been ideal to wait until November or December 2018 to apply - but you can't go back in time.

Anyway - not much you can do now. Submit what you can and hope for the best. Good luck.

 

[hemlock2015]

thanks anyway!
I also have my partners mother (who rents the address, which is how we lived at her address) she is willing to write and sign a letter saying we lived there since April 2018, etc.