Should I marry my girlfriend before starting apply Intra-Company Transfer work permit?

[itnewbee2020]

Hi all,

I am in the process of applying for an Intra-Company Transfer work permit and my girlfriend wants to travel with me. Due to time constraints, having the wedding before applying for the visa is a bit difficult for us.
I read that Canada has the concept of "common law" but it requires some supporting documents such as joint insurance, which is not common in my country and we couldn't prepare it right away.
My girlfriend and I have been living together for 3 years now and I'm not sure if we should use the common law to apply. We could also consider registering the marriage first but postponing the wedding (I'm not sure if this would have a negative impact on the visa)
Any suggestions are welcome.

 

[armoured]

Hi all,

I am in the process of applying for an Intra-Company Transfer work permit and my girlfriend wants to travel with me. Due to time constraints, having the wedding before applying for the visa is a bit difficult for us.
I read that Canada has the concept of "common law" but it requires some supporting documents such as joint insurance, which is not common in my country and we couldn't prepare it right away.
My girlfriend and I have been living together for 3 years now and I'm not sure if we should use the common law to apply. We could also consider registering the marriage first but postponing the wedding (I'm not sure if this would have a negative impact on the visa)
Any suggestions are welcome.

Not familiar with how you are applying (work permit) so you should check carefully on this as to what is needed under that program. Note that this forum is for those applying under family sponsorship, where one spouse is a PR or Canadian citizen (amongst other family sponsorship types). You may want to look in the other sub-forums here such as the one I've linked.

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/forums/foreign-workers.10/

12 months of living together is technically sufficient to be common law, but can be more difficult to demonstrate/prove. Getting married and having a marriage certificate does remove at least one level of difficulty (only one document to show, the marriage certificate, for entering under immediate familly exemption). The fact that government recognises common law in this way does not mean all other institutions will, for things like getting a bank account.

Are you and your spouse from visa waiver countries (do not need visa to enter Canada)?

Register/civil marriage/'wedding': what country are you living in? If e.g. most places in Europe, where civil ceremony / registration is separate from the religious ceremony, the civil marriage will be sufficient and you can have 'wedding' whenever you like. Generally whatever is a full legal wedding in one country will be recognised in Canada - some exceptions like not-physically-present weddings, polygamy, etc.

(Note: these comments about type of marriage do NOT apply to all countries. More importantly, may NOT be the best or recommended approach for those undertaking family sponsorship and applying for permanent residence, where demonstrating the bona fide marriage with a ceremony and family attending may be very important).

 

[itnewbee2020]

Hi armoured,

Thank you for your detailed sugguestions.
We are from P.R.China which is not a visa waiver country for Canada. Civil marriage is simple and quick here. However, people usually gather their families for a massive wedding ceremony, and we most likely don't have enough time for that.
We planed to apply for PR after 1 year.
I'm not sure if it would negatively affect the ICT visa and the PR apply if we do the civil marriage without ceremony before submiting ICT apply.
Compared to civil marriage, If we try to apply as common law partner, will it become more difficult for me to apply the ICT visa and PR?

Thanks again for your valuable feedback.

 

[armoured]

Hi armoured,

Thank you for your detailed sugguestions.
We are from P.R.China which is not a visa waiver country for Canada. Civil marriage is simple and quick here. However, people usually gather their families for a massive wedding ceremony, and we most likely don't have enough time for that.
We planed to apply for PR after 1 year.
I'm not sure if it would negatively affect the ICT visa and the PR apply if we do the civil marriage without ceremony before submiting ICT apply.
Compared to civil marriage, If we try to apply as common law partner, will it become more difficult for me to apply the ICT visa and PR?

Thanks again for your valuable feedback.

I warn I do not know much about the requirements for the ICT visa, and covid makes things a bit different.

But the way I would think about approaching, is that there are two different tasks: getting sufficient documentation to allow your spouse to accompany you under the ICT visa, and the later task of applying for PR. I believe (but cannot say for certain) that having the marriage certificate will make things easier.

For PR application - from countries where 'traditionally' large ceremonies are more common, it helps the PR evaluation to see that it is eg. not a fictitious marriage. Long periods living together (eg common law before marriage) and other factors can have more weight and outweigh these cultural aspects if credible. (And I do not know China well)

BUT: lots of people have had to curtail the types of ceremonies due to covid, or their cultural milieu (for lack of a better term) is different than traditional - lots of time working/travelling abroad, etc, marriages between different faiths, people who effectively have a western lifestyle (studied met or resided abroad), etc.

A short, factual letter of explanation can go a long way in explaining such things - if credible. ("We ddid not have large family ceremonies because of covid but did the following instead...")

My suggestion - get as much input as you can from others - is to do the civil ceremony and get marriage certificate, and at least some family events with pictures. (i.e. demonstrate your families have met and approve, know about your marriage, etc.). Even just dinners with parents is better than nothing.

I suspect that if you end up being able to travel to Canada and reside together the entire time before you apply for PR (under whatever program) the question of the bona fides of your marriage will not come up at all.

Just my opinion, of course, YMMV.

 

[YVR123]

If you are under a work permit (as previous reply, this is a family sponsorship section, so we are not so familiar with work permit), your spouse and common law partner can apply for a SOWP (not sure if all WP holder can do that...). But it's not garanetee that he/she will be approved for it.
Regardless, do not hide your common law relationship when you apply for your own work permit. If you try to hide it, the relationship history will not be consistant eventually when you apply for PR.

Again, it's better to post such question at the foreign worker section. And for PR application, in the section that fits the stream that you will apply.

It's definately not family sponsorship.