Common-law vs married

[MilesAway]

Hi everyone,

This is all still far in the future. I mentioned in my previous post that it's a bit of a complicated situation. My partner is waiting to finalize her divorce (wait times for the legal office I think, not sure how divorce works here). I digress.

My partner and I (same sex) are looking to file our application in the summer of 2013. We have two options, and I'm trying to figure out which one is best.

-Option 1, live together and apply as common-law. The problems here are that we will not have a joint rental agreement as we are in a country where same-sex relationships are not recognized (shunned actually). We cannot have a joint bank account for the same reason (also because I am not Russian). We do not get bills, as they all come to the apartment owner and we pay him. We don't get mail of any kind. So I'm not entirely sure how we would prove that we are common-law, other than signed affidavits from friends and colleagues.

-Option 2: Go get married somewhere, possibly Norway, Sweden or Denmark. A bit further-fetched is the USA (New York), but it would involve getting a visitor visa, which can be a challenge. I would like my family to be there, and that would be nearly impossible if we got married in Europe. I believe the documents take a while also in Europe, so that's another con, that we would have to wait a while and it would get expensive.

Anyone have any recommendations? I have no problem getting married in NY, as my folks could make the fairly short drive down. My partner's family is not really aware of our relationship, nor would they be particularly supportive.

Is one option better than the other for our immigration purposes? We've been together for just over 2 years now, and I moved to Russia to be with her, so I'm certain that we can prove the relationship is genuine, it's just a matter of finding other proof to use.

Please note that in no way would this marriage be just for the documents. We had originally planned on getting married in Canada, but have been unable to get her even a tourist visa, so that option is out. We could wait until she gets PR, but that goes back to option 1 and the problem of proving our commo-law status.

 

[bagelbagel81]

Hi there,

I am by no means a senior person on the topic, but I have a few suggestions for Option 1 (common-law) with respect to not receiving any mail/having joint bank accounts etc.

Is it possible to get print-outs of you and your partner's bank transactions/credit card statements, for the duration of time you have lived together? I did this for the period of time that my partner and I weren't on a lease or had joint bank account together. I highlighted the transactions that were made for gifts for my partner, social outings we had together, transactions made back and forth for rent/bills/miscellaneous, and transactions we had made together for things like joint payment of household appliances/groceries and other household goods.

I had a small key that stated which category the transaction fell under (as sometimes the transaction descriptions were quite vague) Then if you need to clarify what the purchases were you could follow up with a brief explanation of each of the highlighted points. Which can add weight to how your relationship developed.

Hopefully the bank will let you print these out quiet easily, (I was able to do mine from online) and from a while ago, (like 2 years) which makes it more official the exact dates that certain things happened.


Hope this helps!

 

[Isometry]

You might also be able to use things like individual bank statements/phone bills that show each of your addresses individually, with the address for each of you being the same.

If you choose to go the marriage route, something that many people do is to have the courthouse 'legal' wedding first, then have the 'real' wedding where you have the fancy dresses and invite your family after PR has been approved. Whether you'd want to consider something like that's entirely up to you, but it might be an option.

 

[MilesAway]

Thanks for the replies!

A few problems to add.
-I do not have a bank account in Russia. It's on the to-do list. My partner has an account, but it's registered to her "legal" address, which is her mom's house. There is a bit of a bizarre system of registrations here, so most people never bother to actual change that when they move. As well, everything is cash-based. It's slowly gaining popularity, but cash is still king. I get paid cash at my work.
-I have nothing with my current address. Nothing. No bank account here, no credit card here (not sure that's even possible for a non-resident to obtain here),

I am hoping that when we move to a bigger apartment in October, the landlord/owner/trustee (whatever the case may be) will let me add my name also. Then we'll have to find some proof for the 3 or 4 months preceding that. Signed affidavits might be my only hope for that part.

I have considered doing the legal wedding first, but that still involves a lot of cost since we have to travel no matter what. Neither of us actually wants a big fancy wedding, so we'd rather just do a simple wedding once. One of the Scandinavian countries could be fine for the legal ceremony, but still exceedingly expensive due to the time involved in getting it all done.

Anyway, food for thought I suppose.

Much appreciated folks! I figured I would start the planning now so that the process will go smoothly (hopefully...)