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stella.mi

Member
Oct 21, 2017
17
0
Hope I am posting this in the right forum.

I'm in a sort of catch 22 situation. I am currently in Canada on a Work and Holiday visa, which expires on August 14. I moved in with my boyfriend (Canadian citizen) on the same day, so we have been living together for almost 10 months now.

I will apply for a PR through sponsorship, but I can't apply for that until we have lived together for a minimum of 12 months (then becoming common-law), so I have to apply for an extension of my stay instead:

(https://www.canada.ca/en/immigratio...on-change-conditions-extend-stay-visitor.html)

When I get approved (hopefully) to stay, I can apply for a PR. So far, so good, I think.

But when I'm looking at the application form for an extension, a few things are making me confused:

"Your current marital status"

Here I have to declare if I am single or in a common-law relationship, and here is the catch 22. By law, we are not common-law for another two months, but the whole reason why I want to extend my stay is to apply for a PR through sponsorship (common-law), so I have to mention my partner in this application either way.

Do I choose the option single? Since my reason for an extension is to later on apply for a PR through my boyfriend, is it still correct to choose the option single, and therefor leave out the info on my boyfriend (name, if he's a canadian citizen or not, etc).

And, do we not fill out the Statutory Declaration of Common-law Union (IMM 5409) because of this?

My worry is that I will not get approved, simply because I'm not in a common-law relationship yet. Is there any room to explain my situation outside this form? Where I can explain more in detail what the purpose of my extension is?
 
Hi,

Your current marital status is single. To say anything else would be misrepresentation.

You will not fill out the common-law declaration.

Applying to extend your stay in order to meet the common-law requirement is an incredibly common reason IRCC receives these applications. They would not deny you because you are not yet in a common-law relationship. This has no bearing on an extension application.

You can (and should) include a letter of explanation stating why you'd like to stay, if you're applying by mail you can just include it in the package, if you're applying online there is a slot to upload any additional information.
 
Thank you!

I don't know if you can answer this, but I may have an opportunity to apply for a work visa (this is another story). Can I have two different applications pending, meaning, one application for an extension, and one for the work permit?

That way, if time runs out for the work permit, I will have my extension to fall back on.
 
Thank you!

I don't know if you can answer this, but I may have an opportunity to apply for a work visa (this is another story). Can I have two different applications pending, meaning, one application for an extension, and one for the work permit?

That way, if time runs out for the work permit, I will have my extension to fall back on.

Yes, absolutely, you can have two applications with no issues.