Common Law Status

[mpuri]

Hi everyone.

I am glad I found a forum to help answer some of my questions.

1) When reading the common-law criteria, it states
you have been living together in a conjugal relationship for at least one year in an ongoing 12-month period (you are allowed short absences for business travel or family reasons)

I was wondering: what is the length allowed for Short Absences?

Thank you to anyone able to answer my question.

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi everyone.

I am glad I found a forum to help answer some of my questions.

1) When reading the common-law criteria, it states
you have been living together in a conjugal relationship for at least one year in an ongoing 12-month period (you are allowed short absences for business travel or family reasons)

I was wondering: what is the length allowed for Short Absences?

Thank you to anyone able to answer my question.

Most would say around 3 weeks more or less. However it's really at the discretion of the visa officer reviewing your application.

 

[mpuri]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply Rob_T!

I was not able to find any documented literature on the time allowed. Is there a source where I could find this information?

Also, could we qualify for conjugal common law after 6 months, due to the fact we can't be together because of expiration of a visa?

Cheers!

 

[scylla]

Thank you so much for your prompt reply Rob_T!

I was not able to find any documented literature on the time allowed. Is there a source where I could find this information?

Also, could we qualify for conjugal common law after 6 months, due to the fact we can't be together because of expiration of a visa?

Cheers!

The source of this information is the decisions we have seen CIC make for cases on this forum. Under three weeks and you should be fine. Three weeks or over and you risk having CIC say you broke continuous cohabitation and have to start counting again from scratch.

An expired visa doesn't qualify you for conjugal. Since you were able to live together, you don't qualify under conjugal and will be refused if you attempt to apply as such. Conjugal is for people who face real barriers to both marriage and common law.

 

[Rob_TO]

I was not able to find any documented literature on the time allowed. Is there a source where I could find this information?

There is no specific amount of time mentioned in any CIC documents. Only the vague "temporary and short". As I said, it's up to the discretion of the visa officer reviewing your file. Other people though have run into troubles with breaks 3+ weeks apart, others have been fine with up to 4 week breaks. This is why I mentioned the 3 weeks as a guideline, but really what you attempt to do and still qualify for common-law, is up to you.

Also, could we qualify for conjugal common law after 6 months, due to the fact we can't be together because of expiration of a visa?

There is no such thing as "conjugal common law". Common-law requires 12 full months and not a day less.

Conjugal requires a legal or immigration barrier to prevent you getting married or living together 12 months.
Did you apply for an extension of the visa to continue the cohabitation, and had it rejected? Is it legally impossible for you to get married? If not, most likely a conjugal app would be rejected.

 

[mpuri]

Thank you Scylla and Rob_TO,

We are trying to figure out the best way to live together (before marriage) in Canada, ultimately leading to sponsorship through marriage or PR (strengthened application via common law status?). I am Canadian and she is Japanese.

Can she come on a Visitor Visa and live with me for 6 months and then apply for an extension. And in the interim, she can look for a work permit or study visa?

Thank you again for all the help!

M

 

[Rob_TO]

Thank you Scylla and Rob_TO,

We are trying to figure out the best way to live together (before marriage) in Canada, ultimately leading to sponsorship through marriage or PR (strengthened application via common law status?). I am Canadian and she is Japanese.

Can she come on a Visitor Visa and live with me for 6 months and then apply for an extension. And in the interim, she can look for a work permit or study visa?

To sponsor her for PR you must be either married or officially common-law. Common-law doesn't "strengthen" a PR app, it's a requirement to apply if you're not married.

Sure she can come on visitor visa, and extend it as needed to stay in Canada.

She will only be able to work if she finds an employer willing to go through LMIA process to hire her on a closed work permit. This is usually very difficult to do unless she has some skill in high demand. Or she can look at applying for an IEC/working holiday visa that's available to Japanese citizens.

 

[mpuri]

Once again thank you Rob_To for your timely responses, your input/advice is very insightful for us.

Fortunately she does qualify as a Skilled Worker, but you are correct in finding a proper suitor will be hard due to the application and fees involved. Nonetheless, we do not want to waste time and want to live together to achieve common law status. Then we can apply for her PR or get married.

We don't want her to come here and she is not able to do anything, hence why I was wondering what would be our best option.

Is it worth it to speak to an immigration consultant?

 

[Rob_TO]

Once again thank you Rob_To for your timely responses, your input/advice is very insightful for us.

Fortunately she does qualify as a Skilled Worker, but you are correct in finding a proper suitor will be hard due to the application and fees involved. Nonetheless, we do not want to waste time and want to live together to achieve common law status. Then we can apply for her PR or get married.

You don't need to be common-law first before you get married. You can get married at anytime either in Canada or Japan, and then sponsor her for PR immediately.

We don't want her to come here and she is not able to do anything, hence why I was wondering what would be our best option.

Is it worth it to speak to an immigration consultant?

An immigration consultant can't really do anything. There are only a few ways she can work legally in Canada.

As I mentioned, has she looked into applying for an IEC working holiday visa for Japanese citizens? This would give her a 1 year open work permit. Although the IEC program is usually very hard to get an application in due to few spots available and tons of people applying. http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/iec/eligibility.asp?country=jp&cat=wh

 

[mpuri]

Thanks Rob_To,

Unfortunately she has already completed her Work Holiday Visa in Canada.

We are a new couple, and so marriage would be something we would consider down the road. Meanwhile, we thought at least we could live as common law together.

Are there any recruitment agencies available for obtaining foreign trained skilled workers?

Aside from IEC/working holiday visa, would tourist visa or study visa be the best option until we can solidify a job offer?