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dewert

Newbie
Apr 10, 2016
2
0
Hello,

I am currently working on sponsoring my common-law partner as a Permanent Resident in Canada after we have lived together in Vancouver for over a year. We have filled out almost all the application forms and have printed out most of the evidence and documents we need for our application. My common-law partner has just recently returned back to her home in Argentina to finish retrieving all the documents that she is going to need (birth certificate, criminal record check). Her plan was to is to send me the documents in the mail after she has gotten them, and I will submit the completed application for her “Outside of Canada”. She then planned on remaining at her home for 4 months before returning to Canada as she has wanted to spend time with family and friends after being away for so long.

We now have encountered a problem. We must have missed form IMM5409 when she was still here and we were completing all the forms. Now that I have discovered the Common-Law Declaration Form that we missed, it looks like we both need to be present to sign the form in front of a notary and we don't plan on being together again for 4 months, which kind of ruins our plan of applying as soon as I receive her documents in the mail.

Because of how long the process takes after we submit the application, we were really hoping to have this submitted as soon as possible. Besides her making the costly and lengthy flight to come back to Vancouver just to be present to sign this form, or for me take the same trip to go there to sign it in front of a notary in Argentina, is there any other options we have?

Any information you can provide would help.

Thank you!
 
For family class common-law sponsorship apps, the stat declaration of common-law is not a required document to submit with your app. It's only required when a co-signer is involved, which is not applicable to spousal apps.

Sometimes a visa officer will ask for this form later on in processing, but most times they don't (in our case we never submitted it, and were never asked for it). Some people submit it as an optional document for further proof of their common-law status. So just submit without it, and if they do ask for it later you can worry about it then.