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Hi,
I applied for an appeal for residency obligation. My address on the form, while I was in Canada (8 months in 2024), is the same as my divorced wife's address (divorced for 10 years).
Is that a problem during the hearings?
We are having an arrangement with my ex-wife to stay in the basement with separate lives. I am only there to be close to my kids and support them. they are 19, 24 years.
Could it be accepted as an arrangment? Could it seen not proper? How to mitigate risk? We are not reconciling or having a romantic relationship. I know that "separated or divorced under one roof" is a recent accepted concept.
If keeping your PR status is a priority . . .
Main thing, obvious thing: talk to your lawyer; if you do not have a lawyer, get one.
Given your query, in particular, which suggests you are not well informed about what factors are relevant, let alone important, in making your case to the IAD, it appears you really need informed assistance.
Explanatory Observations:
If you have a lawyer assisting you in the appeal, which is highly recommended, best to ask your lawyer rather than rely on a forum rife with those who-know-it-all but who-really-know-rather-little (in some cases apparently deliberately, such as those who explicitly say they do not care to read, let alone bother with reading explanations about how things actually work, the TLDR crowd here who tend to mock or deride those who will do the homework).
If you do not have a lawyer, and keeping PR status is important to you, it is time (and approaching past time) to get one. I do not know whether you have access to alternative community based legal aid if you cannot afford a lawyer, but if you are serious about keeping PR status it appears you need more help than you will get here.
Even though it is common for some individuals to proceed with an appeal before the IAD without the assistance of a lawyer, even for those who are fairly well informed, and have a decent case, that usually increases the risk of losing the appeal by a lot.
Your query suggests you are not fairly well informed. Sorry if this is blunt; I do not mean to be rude but, well, I assume your appeal is relying on H&C relief for having failed to comply with the RO, and H&C cases are tricky, and a key trick is recognizing what matters versus what does not matter, preferably with a good understanding about why.
Beyond That . . . again assuming your appeal is relying on H&
C relief . . .
There are numerous threads in this part of the forum about H&C relief for inadmissibility due to a breach of the RO, including quite a bit of relatively good information that could help you better understand how to present your situation in a positive light to the IAD. Since recent changes to the forum have dramatically reduced the search functionality, it will take a good deal of effort to wade through the forum to find what could be useful for you. If you cannot obtain assistance from a lawyer, and again if PR status is a priority, it may be worth your while to do the homework, a lot of homework, real work, including plowing through a lot of stuff employing your best critical thinking skills (there's a lot of misdirection and more than a little misinformation here in addition to the more useful information).
The Propriety of Your Living "Arrangement" . . .
It is not likely your living arrangement would have any negative influence in terms of whether it is "
acceptable" in regards to what conforms (or does not conform) to conventionally accepted standards of behavior or morals.
It otherwise may have some influence in the H&C assessment, which could be negative or positive depending on other factors. As I said, and it warrants some emphasis, H&C cases are tricky. The very same circumstance can have a very different impact for different individuals depending on their other circumstances.
Without going into depth in regards to making a H&C case, some key factors are:
-- number of days in breach as of the decision you are appealing
-- reasons why you did not spend enough days in Canada to meet the RO
-- impact on family members, mostly minors (adult children somewhat, but only somewhat)
-- number of days in Canada lately
-- extent of settlement in Canada (including employment in Canada)
There is more. Cannot emphasize enough that the H&C case is tricky. Best to lawyer-up. At the least (if you are serious about saving your PR) do a lot of homework.
