Common-Law sponsorship as an Inland applicant. Question on "Current Country of Residence" IMM0008

[sashi_2484]

Hi,

I'm a Canadian citizen and my boyfriend is a Spanish Citizen. He was on a Working-holiday Visa living in Canada with me from 2016 Sep 29th - 2017 Sep 29th. He went back to Spain after 2017 Sep and returned to Canada on 2017 Nov 12th as a visitor and is currently in Canada , living together with me of course. I'm working on his application to sponsor him as my common-law partner as an "Inland Applicant", since we would like to get an Open Work Permit for him asap.
I have a few questions regarding the IMM 1344 and IMM 008 applications and would really appreciate your help! Thank you in advance.
1) On IMM 1344,Question 8 b) the date we "entered the common law relationship" is the date we completed living together for 1 year correct? So in our case 2017 Sep 29th?

2) On IMM 0008 Question 10, since we are applying as "Inland" , Should we put the "Current country of residence" as Canada or Spain? The options I thought of is are below. Which option is the correct one?
Option 1, I thought was to put the current country of residence as Spain and for question 12 to put that we lived together in Canada for 12 months but logically this doesn't make sense if we are applying as "inland", I would assume this makes sense for sponsoring a common-law partner living outside of Canada.
Option 2, I thought was to putting Canada as the current country of residence,status visitor , in this case should the "From" date be the date when he came to Canada first on a work permit (2016 Sep 29th) or should it be the date he came in as a visitor when re-entered ( 2017 Nov 12th)?

3) On IMM 0008 Question 11, we just went to Spain together on Christmas holidays and came back on Dec 28th 2017, so do we put that date or do we put the date he entered to Canada as a visitor after his work permit for Nov 12th 2017?

Thank you!!

 

[KBH]

1) Yes, the correct date to write here is the date you officially reached the 12 month mark of living together.

2) A requirement to apply inland is that your partner be currently living with you in Canada. Even though your partner is in Canada as a visitor, he is still technically living with you in Canada. You would write Canada here. If you wrote Spain you would not be eligible to apply inland (plus it would not be true).

3) It asks for your "last" entry to Canada, so that would be his most recent entry on December 28.

 

[Bs65]

The OP should keep in mind that the downside of an inland application can be if the applicant leaves the country at any time CIC have a habit sometimes of cancelling the application. Hopefully does not happen here but something to be aware of and not to do too often..

 

[sashi_2484]

1) Yes, the correct date to write here is the date you officially reached the 12 month mark of living together.

2) A requirement to apply inland is that your partner be currently living with you in Canada. Even though your partner is in Canada as a visitor, he is still technically living with you in Canada. You would write Canada here. If you wrote Spain you would not be eligible to apply inland (plus it would not be true).

3) It asks for your "last" entry to Canada, so that would be his most recent entry on December 28.

Thank you so much KHB for the clarifications!!

Also for 2) above ,if we put Canada as the current country of residence and status as a visitor , should the "From" date be the date when he came to Canada first on a work permit (2016 Sep 29th) or should it be the date he came in as a visitor when re-entered ( 2017 Nov 12th)?

 

[sashi_2484]

The OP should keep in mind that the downside of an inland application can be if the applicant leaves the country at any time CIC have a habit sometimes of cancelling the application. Hopefully does not happen here but something to be aware of and not to do too often..

Very good point Bs65. We have only one trip planned to go down south together in February for one week, so let's hope that wont cause a cancellation in the application. Thank you for pointing this out!

 

[canuck_in_uk]

The OP should keep in mind that the downside of an inland application can be if the applicant leaves the country at any time CIC have a habit sometimes of cancelling the application. Hopefully does not happen here but something to be aware of and not to do too often..

To clarify, IRCC does not "have a habit" of cancelling the app if an applicant leaves Canada. Cancellation only happens in the VERY rare situation where an inland applicant leaves and is refused re-entry.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

1) On IMM 1344,Question 8 b) the date we "entered the common law relationship" is the date we completed living together for 1 year correct? So in our case 2017 Sep 29th?

2) On IMM 0008 Question 10, since we are applying as "Inland" , Should we put the "Current country of residence" as Canada or Spain? The options I thought of is are below. Which option is the correct one?
Option 1, I thought was to put the current country of residence as Spain and for question 12 to put that we lived together in Canada for 12 months but logically this doesn't make sense if we are applying as "inland", I would assume this makes sense for sponsoring a common-law partner living outside of Canada.
Option 2, I thought was to putting Canada as the current country of residence,status visitor , in this case should the "From" date be the date when he came to Canada first on a work permit (2016 Sep 29th) or should it be the date he came in as a visitor when re-entered ( 2017 Nov 12th)?

3) On IMM 0008 Question 11, we just went to Spain together on Christmas holidays and came back on Dec 28th 2017, so do we put that date or do we put the date he entered to Canada as a visitor after his work permit for Nov 12th 2017?

Thank you!!

Did your partner leave on the day you became common-law? Do you have cohabitation proofs covering the entire 365 days?

1. Yes, Sept 29th, 2017.

2. You can put that he has been residing in Canada since his entry in Nov.

3. The last entry date in Dec.

 

[sashi_2484]

Did your partner leave on the day you became common-law? Do you have cohabitation proofs covering the entire 365 days?

1. Yes, Sept 29th, 2017.

2. You can put that he has been residing in Canada since his entry in Nov.

3. The last entry date in Dec.

Thank you very much for the clarifications canuck_in_uk!
Yes he did leave on the day we became common-law as his work permit ended . We had applied for an extension of his status as a visitor and he had implied status to stay longer but he needed to attend a family obligation, so he left on the 365 mark and returned back after 4.5 weeks.
We do have cohabitation proofs covering ALMOST the entire 365 days. For instance, his SIN number issued by Service Canada has our home address in Canada, this was 4 days after he landed, so we have proof for 361 days.
Would this be an issue?
I read on the cic link below that "you’ve been living together continuously for one year, without any long periods apart,if either of you left your home it was for family obligations and the time spent away was temporary"
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=346&top=14

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Thank you very much for the clarifications canuck_in_uk!
Yes he did leave on the day we became common-law as his work permit ended . We had applied for an extension of his status as a visitor and he had implied status to stay longer but he needed to attend a family obligation, so he left on the 365 mark and returned back after 4.5 weeks.
We do have cohabitation proofs covering ALMOST the entire 365 days. For instance, his SIN number issued by Service Canada has our home address in Canada, this was 4 days after he landed.
Would this be an issue?
I read on the cic link below that "you’ve been living together continuously for one year, without any long periods apart,if either of you left your home it was for family obligations and the time spent away was temporary"
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=346&top=14

It really should say "you can PROVE that you've been living together continuously for one year". Common-law is a legal status requiring 365 days of continuous cohabitation, so only having proof for 361 days would be an issue. This is why it is always recommended to have a buffer. Do you rent? Would your landlord be willing to sign a notarized statement confirming the dates your partner lived there? Can you get notarized statements from neighbors/family/friends confirming the dates?

 

[sashi_2484]

It really should say "you can PROVE that you've been living together continuously for one year". Common-law is a legal status requiring 365 days of continuous cohabitation, so only having proof for 361 days would be an issue. This is why it is always recommended to have a buffer. Do you rent? Would your landlord be willing to sign a notarized statement confirming the dates your partner lived there? Can you get notarized statements from neighbors/family/friends confirming the dates?

I own the property , so a letter from the landlord wouldn't be an option .
We are also submitting IMM 5409 (Statuary Declaration Of Common-Law Union) which is notarized. Would this help?
I have letters from friends validating our relationship, but what I would do now is to ask them to update the letters stating that he did move in on the day he landed to show a complete 365 days together, I plan to get those letters notarized as well. I really hope this would be sufficient :/

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I own the property , so a letter from the landlord wouldn't be an option .
We are also submitting IMM 5409 (Statuary Declaration Of Common-Law Union) which is notarized. Would this help?
I have letters from friends validating our relationship, but what I would do now is to ask them to update the letters stating that he did move in on the day he landed to show a complete 365 days together, I plan to get those letters notarized as well. I really hope this would be sufficient :/

Submit what you can. No guarantees but notarized letters have been enough for other people.

 

[sashi_2484]

Submit what you can. No guarantees but notarized letters have been enough for other people.

Thank you for all the tips!