Conjugal Partner Application - Advice sought

[Dean2017]

Hello, any advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

My girlfriend (a Canadian citizen) and I (South African) have applied for a conjugal partner sponsorship to get me into Canada as a permanent resident. We both currently live and work in Japan. The application process has not happened quite as quickly as we had hoped, our last contact with the Manila office advised that they were not convinced that our application met the requirements of a conjugal partnership. We replied to their letter with what evidence etc we could and have now been waiting for over a month for a reply.

We have been together for over two years and can document our relationship. (In hindsight, the conjugal category may not have been the best category to apply under).

Our contracts in Japan are coming to an end now at the end of the year and we obviously want to stay together and not have to be apart from each other while our application is finalized or we at least get some clue as to what will happen next with our application.

The advice that I am seeking is as follows:

1) Is there a way for me to obtain an open work permit while we wait for the final decision. The website indicates that people applying under the spousal or common law category are eligible to apply for such a work permit.

2) We intend to get married as soon as possible, regardless of the outcome of the application. Would it be better to cancel our conjugal partner application, for me to enter Canada as a tourist, we get married and then apply for permanent residence while in Canada?

Any suggestions would be appreciate. Thank you in advance.

 

[Buletruck]

Personally, I would withdraw the conjugal application as you don’t meet the definition (your already common law)and apply as common law. Applying either inland or Outland is possible, but that would depend on your ability to get into Canada. Being as you are in the system as having applied conjugal, I can see a TRV, if applicable, being a possible road block. You may have to face the reality that you may have to be apart for a while while an application is processed.

 

[scylla]

1) No - not possible. The open work permit is only available to those who are applying inland (from within Canada).

2) Your conjugal application has no chance of being approved - you don't meet the criteria and face no barriers to getting married or becoming common law. Yes - I would definitely withdraw and resubmit once you are either married or common law (have lived together continuously for at least a year and can prove it). Yes - if you have a tourist visa to Canada you can come her and she can sponsor you inland.

 

[Dean2017]

Thank you for your help scylla and Buletruck.

Perhaps you could assist with a little more insight then as to what will happen after I cancel the application.

1) Will my medical information, criminal check etc still be on file or will I need to start everything from scratch?
2) Do you perhaps know how much of the initial application fee will be refunded, if any?
3) Could canceling and then reapplying jeopardize our application in any way?

Thank you again for your help!

 

[scylla]

1) You'll need to redo everything unfortunately.
2) If you paid the landing fee, that will be refunded. I don't believe anything else will be.
3) No - it won't jeopardize your new application.

Note that you cannot have two family class applications in progress at one time. So you will have to withdraw this one before submitting another (or wait for it to be refused).

 

[Rob_TO]

As mentioned, you do not even come close to qualifying as conjugal, so you never should have filed that app to begin with. Your current app is guaranteed to be refused.

Alternatively to cancelling the app (or waiting for it to be rejected), you could make a request to the visa officer to change the category of your app to common-law (only if you've lived together for 12 consecutive months). It would then be at discretion of visa officer if they would consider the change.

If the app is cancelled or rejected, then you will need to start over from scratch with a brand new application and re-do all forms, medical exam, etc, this time either as common-law or married.