Question regarding living together in a common law relationship

[laikayung]

Hi guy,

I have 2 questions that need your help.

1) Me and my girlfriend have been renting a room in an apartment suite together for 2 months. I wonder if it is necessary to show the government that we have our names in the ownership of this apartment? Because right now we are just tenants here and it doesn't have our names at this place. Or it would be enough to show the residence lease indicating both me and my girlfriends names?

2) We are planing to apply for common law one year later, however, I have not received my PR card yet. I am expecting I will in less than a half year ( I am on the PNP program) will it have impact to my application if I apply for common law after I just got my PR visa not long ago?

Thank you for your time to read this post. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[canadianwoman]

Definitely get some proof you are living together. You just started, so have time to get lots of evidence. Both of your names should be on the lease or the tenancy agreement or some kind of document that the landlord has also signed. You need 12 months of this proof. Also good would be some kind of proof showing you both were paying the rent.
Get both names on the utility bills, if possible. If not, you could at least get one cell phone bill in her name and one in yours, both going to the same address (again, for 12 months). Keep letters addressed to both of you, or just one of you, showing the same address.
Try to get a joint bank account and joint credit cards. If you can't, again, separate ones coming to the same address will be OK too.
You can also get affidavits from the landlord and other tenants saying they know the two of you were living there together for 12 months.

Make sure you don't have to declare her as your common-law partner before you get your PR, though. What province are you in?

 

[truesmile]

But if you DO end up being 'common-law' (being together one year) before you land, make sure that you DO declare her upon landing (or before).

 

[Rob_TO]

1) Me and my girlfriend have been renting a room in an apartment suite together for 2 months. I wonder if it is necessary to show the government that we have our names in the ownership of this apartment? Because right now we are just tenants here and it doesn't have our names at this place. Or it would be enough to show the residence lease indicating both me and my girlfriends names?

There is no 1 single proof that you must have, as every situation is different. In our case, I already owned a home before i even met my wife, so there was no way to add her onto the title or mortgage so her name was never on any lease or ownership. But we had lots of other proofs to show we had lived together 1 year.

What you should include is as many of the following as you can (some already mentioned in post above):
- both names on lease
- testimony letter from landlord that you are both living there
- testimony letters from friends/family/co-workers that are aware you're living together
- if you have employment health benefits, add your spouse to benefits plan as dependent after becoming common-law
- show official mail (tax returns, phone bills, bank mail etc) sent to each of you showing the same address
- joint credit cards/bank account. For credit card can just get the spouse added as supplemental cardholder.
- life insurance with each other listed as primary beneficiary
- after 12-months cohabitation change marital status with CRA to common-law

2) We are planing to apply for common law one year later, however, I have not received my PR card yet. I am expecting I will in less than a half year ( I am on the PNP program) will it have impact to my application if I apply for common law after I just got my PR visa not long ago?

As long as you "land" as a PR before you've reached 12 months of cohabitation, then there is no problem.

 

[laikayung]

Thanks for all of your replies!!! It's super helpful. I'm glad to see everybody on this forum helping each other out!
I will start collecting things according to what you guys said.

Thanks a ton again!!

 

[screech339]

Just remember this. Make you declare your 1 year common law begins after you landed. The reason I say this is I had someone telling me that this person had applied for commonlaw sponsorship, less than 1 year after landing. This cause a huge headache for this person. Almost got deported due to misrepresentation on his/her part on getting the PR since this person didn't declare the commonlaw before landing. Now after efforts done on his/her part, now managed to get to keep PR status but now got a record of mispresentation on the PR record.

 

[laikayung]

Just remember this. Make you declare your 1 year common law begins after you landed. The reason I say this is I had someone telling me that this person had applied for commonlaw sponsorship, less than 1 year after landing. This cause a huge headache for this person. Almost got deported due to misrepresentation on his/her part on getting the PR since this person didn't declare the commonlaw before landing. Now after efforts done on his/her part, now managed to get to keep PR status but now got a record of mispresentation on the PR record.

Thanks for your reply. I'm not quite sure how can I declare that me and my gf is in a common law relationship before we submit our application? can you be in a common law relationship( living together) before landing? does those time count?

I'm not sure how he misrepresented his situation, but it won't affect me getting my PR even if me and my gf are not together ( we both are legal to stay and work in Canada)

Would you please tell me more about that case? It kind of scares me..

Thanks!

PS: I don't think I should add my gf as a dependant of mine in my PR application.. should I?

 

[Rob_TO]

PS: I don't think I should add my gf as a dependant of mine in my PR application.. should I?

You ONLY need to declare your gf as a spouse, if you are officially common-law at the time you do your PR landing. This means that you must have lived together for 12 continuous months.

If you have lived together say 10 months at the time you do your PR landing, then you don't need to declare her on the application.

 

[laikayung]

You ONLY need to declare your gf as a spouse, if you are officially common-law at the time you do your PR landing. This means that you must have lived together for 12 continuous months.

If you have lived together say 10 months at the time you do your PR landing, then you don't need to declare her on the application.

Thanks for your input!
So which means the guy that got in trouble is because he had been living with his gf for more than 12 months in a common law relationship, yet he didn't declare her gf as his spouse on his application for PR. Then after he got his PR visa, he applied for common law stating that he had been in a common law relationship for more than 12 months even before he submitted the PR application.

That's how he got in trouble, am I right?

 

[scylla]

Thanks for your input!
So which means the guy that got in trouble is because he had been living with his gf for more than 12 months in a common law relationship, yet he didn't declare her gf as his spouse on his application for PR. Then after he got his PR visa, he applied for common law stating that he had been in a common law relationship for more than 12 months even before he submitted the PR application.

That's how he got in trouble, am I right?

Yes - that's right.

 

[Rob_TO]

Thanks for your input!
So which means the guy that got in trouble is because he had been living with his gf for more than 12 months in a common law relationship, yet he didn't declare her gf as his spouse on his application for PR. Then after he got his PR visa, he applied for common law stating that he had been in a common law relationship for more than 12 months even before he submitted the PR application.

That's how he got in trouble, am I right?

I think what he was saying, is that sometimes CIC tries to claim people were common-law, even though they weren't. There have been cases where people have gotten PR as a single person, and then shortly after that completed the 12-months of cohabitation to become common-law... and then applied for PR for their now-common-law spouse. However CIC incorrectly got the impression that the couple was in fact common-law BEFORE the sponsor landed and got PR, even though that was not the case. In other words they try to claim that you were living together before and lied about it. They then force the sponsor to submit proofs they weren't living together with the applicant before.

Its rare this happens though so i wouldn't worry about it.

 

[laikayung]

I think what he was saying, is that sometimes CIC tries to claim people were common-law, even though they weren't. There have been cases where people have gotten PR as a single person, and then shortly after that completed the 12-months of cohabitation to become common-law... and then applied for PR for their now-common-law spouse. However CIC incorrectly got the impression that the couple was in fact common-law BEFORE the sponsor landed and got PR, even though that was not the case. In other words they try to claim that you were living together before and lied about it. They then force the sponsor to submit proofs they weren't living together with the applicant before.

Its rare this happens though so i wouldn't worry about it.

That's really informative, I doubt it would be my case. I haven't even met my gf when I submitted my PR visa.. but thanks tho! I will keep that in mind!

 

[Rob_TO]

That's really informative, I doubt it would be my case. I haven't even met my gf when I submitted my PR visa.. but thanks tho! I will keep that in mind!

Keep in mind it's not about your status when you apply... it's your status when you land. The reason CIC is sometimes suspicious, is because people may be single when they apply for PR, but their situations change and by the time they are ready to do the official landing and get their PR status, they have gotten married or become common-law. In this case they are supposed to tell CIC their status has changed, and add their spouse as a dependent. But since this can delay the PR landing by a long time, some people try to lie to CIC and still land as single.

Again though... these cases are rare. As long as you haven't been cohabiting for 12 months before you land as PR, you should be fine

 

[laikayung]

Keep in mind it's not about your status when you apply... it's your status when you land. The reason CIC is sometimes suspicious, is because people may be single when they apply for PR, but their situations change and by the time they are ready to do the official landing and get their PR status, they have gotten married or become common-law. In this case they are supposed to tell CIC their status has changed, and add their spouse as a dependent. But since this can delay the PR landing by a long time, some people try to lie to CIC and still land as single.

Again though... these cases are rare. As long as you haven't been cohabiting for 12 months before you land as PR, you should be fine

Thumbs up to that! hopefully I will get my PR soon.. I'll definitely keep that in mind! thanks!