Common Law Relationship

[Bona64]

Hello all

I have my permanent Canadian residency and I am now looking to move back to my home country of Australia with my Canadian girlfriend. To keep my residency I need to not be out of the country for more than 2 years in a 5 year block. However, if I am with a Canadian citizen outside of the country this is classed as days in Canada. The question I have is what do I have to do to show the Canadian government that we are in a common law relationship?

 

[Rob_TO]

Hello all

I have my permanent Canadian residency and I am now looking to move back to my home country of Australia with my Canadian girlfriend. To keep my residency I need to not be out of the country for more than 2 years in a 5 year block. However, if I am with a Canadian citizen outside of the country this is classed as days in Canada. The question I have is what do I have to do to show the Canadian government that we are in a common law relationship?

You will need to show evidence that you are officially common-law, so have lived together for 12 consecutive months. I would suggest at minimum:
- copy of shared residential lease/rental agreement
- Statutory Declaration of common-law
- both of your CRA tax returns showing taxes filed as common-law, and/or CRA status/effective date as common-law (can get from online CRA "myaccount" site)
- any copies of shared finances (i.e. life insurance policies, joint bank, credit card, phone, etc accounts)