Sponsoring my Venezuelan girlfriend - advice please

[Marco1010]

Hello all,

I am trying to access wether or not to engage a lawyer for advice. Here is a brief description of my situation.


My girlfriend is on a student visa which will expire September 2015. I want to sponsor her for permanent residency and I meet all the sponsorship criteria.

She moved into my home July 2014, which will make it a year in July 2015 that we have lived together. She does not share any bank accounts with me nor does she pay me rent. Would this hinder my ability to present proof of co habilitation?

My concern is that if I apply to sponsor her in July 2015 that there will not be enough time between the application review and approval and her tourist visa expiry which is September 2015.

Thank you

 

[canadianwoman]

You need proof of cohabitation for one year. What do you have? Is she on the lease? Dated photos and phone/email/texts/etc. can help but won't be enough. Mail addressed to both of you at the same address, or letters addressed to just one of you, but the same address, can be good proof. If that is basically all you have, you will need a lot of letters, ideally some from official sources, plus the envelopes to show the date. You can also get an affidavit from the landlord, any roommates, neighbours, family and friends stating you two have lived together for one year. At least one of these letters should be someone who is disinterested, like the landlord or a doctor/religious leader/other medical practitioner/whatever. Just letters from family and friends probably won't be enough.
You also need one year of proof.
If you have something like this, it might work. If not, start collecting things like this now, and apply a year later. Or get married.

 

[Marco1010]

Hello, thank you for the reply.

Really all we have are photos and some of Her mail comes directly to my address. I have nothing that is addressed to both of us.

My concern is that her student visa expires in September 2015 and even if we do apply for the common law PR, it will take too long to know the result.

So maybe she can apply for a work visa in the interm?

Do you suggest I contact a lawyer and have them sort this out? I just want to be sure I'm covered and she doesn't have to go back to Venezuela next year

 

[canadianwoman]

Photos and mail won't be enough. You also have to have mail spanning the year needed for cohabitation.
How long has she been in Canada?
If she can find someone to hire her who will be willing to go through the process needed (to get a labour market opinion), she could get a work visa.

 

[Marco1010]

She has been in Canada since September 2013 on a 2 year student visa.

She will be able to find a full time job as a dental assistant ( she was a dentist back home) but dental assistant is not a skilled worker so their are road blocks here also...if she has a full time offer as a dental assistant in hand is it guaranteed she will get the work visa?

It is frustrating because I love her but I don't know for certain that she will be able to stay here past September 2015, even though I want to sponser her

So difficult for hard working immagrant a in toronto.

 

[canadianwoman]

If you get married, you can sponsor her right away.
If she can find someone who will hire her as a dental assistant, they have to get a LMO. This is a document stating they have advertised the job, but no Canadian or PR applied or was suitable. In which case, they can apply to hire your girlfriend.