Hi,
Apologies in advance for the long message - I've spent so much time trying to research but can't find anything which resembles our situation so I figure I should juts start from scratch.
I'm looking for some guidance on whether there's feasibility to my partner applying for an open work permit successfully as my common law partner. I am from UK, and have been in Canada on a IEC Working Holiday since Nov 2018, currently working in a NOC B position which I've been in for the last 6 months. Whilst my permit is for 24 months, my partner's WH permit was for 12 months as he's Swedish, expired in Oct 2019 and he activated a visitor status on his ETA for 6 months at that point. We were going to go with a recognised organisation to get him a second WH permit when they open in a few weeks but have just found out he could get a OWP as my common law partner for the remainder of the duration of my work permit. It would save us upwards of $5000 to go through this route instead of the RO, but having looked into the common law requirements I'm worried it'll be rejected as we have a somewhat unconventional common law period.
We met here in Canada as housemates in early Nov 2018, and I guess because we were living together already then everything moves so much faster than a usual relationship would. I had moved into his room by December and we were being a 'married couple' in the eyes of our friends and housemates. We cooked and ate together, spent every evening together etc. and I introduced him to my mum when she came to visit in early January and we all spent a bunch of time together. My mum made numerous comments about how 'domesticated' we were and how we've obviously found our life partners which we completely agreed with at the time and still now. Not only do we completely rely on each other emotionally, we buy things together often and we bought a car together in March. We renewed our leases for the house in May to share a room and again in October of this year. We are going home together for Xmas to meet each other's families and friends properly.
My worry is that is tricky for us (and therefore the immigration officer who looks at it) to put a date on us becoming a 'cohabiting couple' as we were already living together? I would say we definitely were at that point when my mum came on Jan 08th, so would say we are common law as of Jan 8th, 2020. But how do I prove this! The other part is that it obviously must look so 'fast' to be basically a married couple equivalent having only met each other 2 months prior?
Evidence I have to show us together for this time:
- our lease agreements since Oct/Nov 2018, and our landlord has said he's happy to create these into joint leases from when we shared a room and write a letter to attest to us being cohabiting from Dec 2018. We dont' pay bills as they are all included in our rent cost.
- a letter from my mother of her experience of us together in Jan, meeting my partner and how we've been since etc (and include him coming to UK for Xmas when it happens)
- we have a joint bank account which we recently opened (and now pay rent from together) so could provide a recent bank statement
- a letter from my best friend in canada and previous housemate explaining how our relationship progressed from the perspective of living with us
- etransfers between us for things purchased together etc. - this includes the car as I paid it upfront and it's in my name only (as my driver's license transfers over without having to retake a test) but he transferred me half the cost
- postcard from his grandma addressed to us both at our address
- pay stubs showing us both at the same address throughout the year
- photos throughout the year of us together (which will include photos of us with each other's families in Dec)
- a statutory declaration signed by a notary for becoming common law one year after Jan 08, 2019 (the date which makes the most sense to me to say was the official point)
- I am eligible for benefits at my work at my 6 month point (Jan 01) so will add him as my dependent then too.
I will also have to provide my NOC B job pay stubs and contract etc as well as my work permit to show his eligibility for the open work permit on this premise, I'm sure that part will be fine it's just the common law proof which I would like confirmation on.
The other point to make is that we did both go home for 2-3 weeks in June - we were planning to visit each other at this point hence why we overlapped by my stepmum was diagnosed with cancer right around when we were organising it so we vetoed doing it then so i could focus on spending time with her. I'm hoping this counts as a short break on the premise of family illness etc but we did still have our lease together so I don't see an issue with it?
Any advice you can provide to substantiate our common law would be much appreciated, as well as any honest opinions of whether you think this would be successful.
Thank you!
Apologies in advance for the long message - I've spent so much time trying to research but can't find anything which resembles our situation so I figure I should juts start from scratch.
I'm looking for some guidance on whether there's feasibility to my partner applying for an open work permit successfully as my common law partner. I am from UK, and have been in Canada on a IEC Working Holiday since Nov 2018, currently working in a NOC B position which I've been in for the last 6 months. Whilst my permit is for 24 months, my partner's WH permit was for 12 months as he's Swedish, expired in Oct 2019 and he activated a visitor status on his ETA for 6 months at that point. We were going to go with a recognised organisation to get him a second WH permit when they open in a few weeks but have just found out he could get a OWP as my common law partner for the remainder of the duration of my work permit. It would save us upwards of $5000 to go through this route instead of the RO, but having looked into the common law requirements I'm worried it'll be rejected as we have a somewhat unconventional common law period.
We met here in Canada as housemates in early Nov 2018, and I guess because we were living together already then everything moves so much faster than a usual relationship would. I had moved into his room by December and we were being a 'married couple' in the eyes of our friends and housemates. We cooked and ate together, spent every evening together etc. and I introduced him to my mum when she came to visit in early January and we all spent a bunch of time together. My mum made numerous comments about how 'domesticated' we were and how we've obviously found our life partners which we completely agreed with at the time and still now. Not only do we completely rely on each other emotionally, we buy things together often and we bought a car together in March. We renewed our leases for the house in May to share a room and again in October of this year. We are going home together for Xmas to meet each other's families and friends properly.
My worry is that is tricky for us (and therefore the immigration officer who looks at it) to put a date on us becoming a 'cohabiting couple' as we were already living together? I would say we definitely were at that point when my mum came on Jan 08th, so would say we are common law as of Jan 8th, 2020. But how do I prove this! The other part is that it obviously must look so 'fast' to be basically a married couple equivalent having only met each other 2 months prior?
Evidence I have to show us together for this time:
- our lease agreements since Oct/Nov 2018, and our landlord has said he's happy to create these into joint leases from when we shared a room and write a letter to attest to us being cohabiting from Dec 2018. We dont' pay bills as they are all included in our rent cost.
- a letter from my mother of her experience of us together in Jan, meeting my partner and how we've been since etc (and include him coming to UK for Xmas when it happens)
- we have a joint bank account which we recently opened (and now pay rent from together) so could provide a recent bank statement
- a letter from my best friend in canada and previous housemate explaining how our relationship progressed from the perspective of living with us
- etransfers between us for things purchased together etc. - this includes the car as I paid it upfront and it's in my name only (as my driver's license transfers over without having to retake a test) but he transferred me half the cost
- postcard from his grandma addressed to us both at our address
- pay stubs showing us both at the same address throughout the year
- photos throughout the year of us together (which will include photos of us with each other's families in Dec)
- a statutory declaration signed by a notary for becoming common law one year after Jan 08, 2019 (the date which makes the most sense to me to say was the official point)
- I am eligible for benefits at my work at my 6 month point (Jan 01) so will add him as my dependent then too.
I will also have to provide my NOC B job pay stubs and contract etc as well as my work permit to show his eligibility for the open work permit on this premise, I'm sure that part will be fine it's just the common law proof which I would like confirmation on.
The other point to make is that we did both go home for 2-3 weeks in June - we were planning to visit each other at this point hence why we overlapped by my stepmum was diagnosed with cancer right around when we were organising it so we vetoed doing it then so i could focus on spending time with her. I'm hoping this counts as a short break on the premise of family illness etc but we did still have our lease together so I don't see an issue with it?
Any advice you can provide to substantiate our common law would be much appreciated, as well as any honest opinions of whether you think this would be successful.
Thank you!
