We’d be claiming June 2024 to June 2025. For that year we have been together the whole time. Even when she leaves. As I said my son and I go with her and we have flight itineraries to show that. No, I am the Canadian Citizen.
Same sex conjugal partner PR application refused - 2nd time
- Thread starter sunluvr
- Start date
Let's go back to first steps: is there any reason you can't just get married in Canada?
Because then the steps are fairly easy: get married; wait for marriage certificate (6-12 weeks in most provinces I think?); spousal sponsorship application; apply for work permit once AOR received. (If needed, can apply to extend visitor status in there)
This will be FAR easier than the other approaches, as all your time together will be taken as proof of relationship, and not scrutinized for the time together (where the 12 months really is a solid requirement).
If you really wish to apply sooner (which doesn't seem priority), get married, apply as common law with info about marriage, submit marriage certificate later - they MUST take it into account.
Yea I know this would be easier. Which we are also planning to do this. We just wanted to see if there was any other way to go about it. Without having to wait another 3-4 months. We spoke to an immigration consultant and she was saying we could maybe put in common law for now and then update it with our marriage certificate after because it’s taking longer than usual to get the license. Not sure if that’s true. Just wanted to see what our options looked like.
Don't do that. It could just delay your file. Get married and file for spousal PR.
Yes. Just realized that you said what the immigration consultant also said. Alright. Thank you so much for your response. It has definitely helped to give me an idea of what makes sense and what doesn’t.
Yes, it is true that you can apply now and provide the marriage proof later. Just be advised that in the interim they will be asking for proof of cohabitation for all those periods (and I agree that just flight itineraries would be a bit thin, but if you have other evidence, sure).
The issue is that they'll be doing the analysis of the common law evidence (somewhat subjective of course so more resource intensive). Do not bother with detailed explanations of plans to get married - they'll give it approximately zero weight until you have the evidence of the legally-performed marriage, and while they may look at the docs given you by the officiant, only the marriage certificate will serve as proof of marriage.
Whether it will in practice save much time depends on specifics and I don't want to guess. Given your timeline, I'd roughly say the chances of rejection before you complete marriage are pretty low, and that should at least get you the AOR so your spouse can apply for the work permit.
I have mild disagreement with you on this. I'm not clear that it's going to help - but it is 100% documented that IRCC 'shall' (read: must) accept info on marriage subsequent to application (and will for purposes of the app treat 'as if' applied as married, as long as marriage valid and docs in order.)
Again - it might just confuse things and not be worth it / not save much time. But it shouldn't harm, as long as not rejected quickly (which is fairly rare actually, IRCC delays with rejections).
('Better' remains getting married early enough to make applying easier without worrying about this stuff - but that ship has sailed.)
[I'd avoid conjugal in this case although technically not all that different from applying as common law, they'd have to take subsequent marriage into consideration, but why complicate things. That's only my guess though.]
The issue for me is that I don't think OP can prove common law if flight itineraries is the only proof. If IRCC starts to review the file and shows no proof of cohabitation then could be an issue
Yes that makes a lot of sense and is duly noted. In my initial question, I stated that we have a joint bank account and that’s usually how the utilities and bills are paid. I also filled out the statutory declaration of common law union but wasn’t sure if it would help. She also has a second phone line on my account and Costco membership dated back to June 2024, not sure if those are useful.
It's a reasonable perspective. As noted, I agree itineraries are not enough, but (charitably) assumed more could be found.
My guess is that in most cases (almost all?), if initial analysis is that common-law docs are weak, it would take several months (AOR + some) to get back to sponsor with PFL/request for more information. 30 days to respond to that. Another 1-3 months or so to evaluate whatever is sent, probably longer if the (tentative) decision is to move towards refusal (higher-up sign-offs needed).
So if the propsect of getting married and having certificate soon-ish is real, not much risk - IMO. And even then - refusal is not the end of the world (lost fees of course and start over), but not the end of the world - either reapply or consider appealing.
Is it worth it / does it save time? I don't know. Some specifics apply, some guesses about how it all goes / luck of the draw too.
Those are all evidence of relationship (well, maybe not costco membership) and useful, but do not speak to your cohabitation.
First point of cohabitation: being in the same country at the same time. Short divergences (like 1-2 weeks) where one is travelling or similar, fine - but if you're counting on time together /while abroad/, you're going to need to show residing together - more than itineraries.
That said, I can't say how specific or detailed they want. Some here have shown residing together while 'travelling the world' for 12 months together, with daily accounts of where residing. Others have only had to account for eg one trip where obviously resided together. The onus is on you to demonstrate, and IRCC decides whether it's enouhg.
(Advantage is I think they would be slow to refuse in these circumstances)
Note: I've said this without knowing how many trips/how long. You'll have to use your judgment. If it's only, say, two trips of a few weeks, it may not matter much. More complicated is more complicated. (Pictures that clearly show you together might help a bit, depending on details too)
