sponsorship of common law partner

[Paulmori]

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time user on forums such as this, but due to serious lack of knowledge i need help. Myself and my girlfriend met in Australia about 22 months ago and have been living together for 20 of these months. I am Irish and she is a Canadian citizen. Both are visa's were running in Australia so we made a decision that we'd come to Ireland for a holiday to visit my family and apply for a working holiday visa for Canada. Unfortunately, when i applied to the CIC it was not long when a refusal email came back saying i had spent longer that 18 months of the last 3 years out of Ireland and so i was ineligible.

My partner is now in Canada applying for her working holiday to come back to Ireland to me. All things going well with that, i need to know what my best options are. Can we apply for sponsorship for me when we are both in Ireland? Staying here is not really an option as i am a town planner (fully qualified but no work experience) who cannot get a job becuase of the impact of the economic downturn here in Ireland. will do almost anything to go to Canada with my girlfriend and make a suitable life for both of us....

Please can anyone let me know what my best options are to do in this process, even thinking now of going on a visitor visa and trying to get a some contacts in Vancouver in the planning industry and hopefully get a job offer to make the process smother but this is a serious long shot considering my lack of work experience within this sector!!!

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated

 

[mdna]

Hi everyone,

I'm a first time user on forums such as this, but due to serious lack of knowledge i need help. Myself and my girlfriend met in Australia about 22 months ago and have been living together for 20 of these months. I am Irish and she is a Canadian citizen. Both are visa's were running in Australia so we made a decision that we'd come to Ireland for a holiday to visit my family and apply for a working holiday visa for Canada. Unfortunately, when i applied to the CIC it was not long when a refusal email came back saying i had spent longer that 18 months of the last 3 years out of Ireland and so i was ineligible.

My partner is now in Canada applying for her working holiday to come back to Ireland to me. All things going well with that, i need to know what my best options are. Can we apply for sponsorship for me when we are both in Ireland? Staying here is not really an option as i am a town planner (fully qualified but no work experience) who cannot get a job becuase of the impact of the economic downturn here in Ireland. will do almost anything to go to Canada with my girlfriend and make a suitable life for both of us....

Please can anyone let me know what my best options are to do in this process, even thinking now of going on a visitor visa and trying to get a some contacts in Vancouver in the planning industry and hopefully get a job offer to make the process smother but this is a serious long shot considering my lack of work experience within this sector!!!

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated

Hi,

I suggest you start reading http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/sponsor/index.asp, there you will find most of the answers you are looking for. Your partner is able to sponsor you, and you can read there to find out which category.

 

[Paulmori]

Thanks for your reply. I have been on this website so much i'm thinking of making it my homepage, ;D. I was just wondering if my girlfriend is in Ireland with me, can we apply for the sponsorship of a common law partner from there and if the visa has not been processed by the time my partners Irish visa is up can i go to Canada with her and wait for the process to be finished from there? Or am i better off waiting to get a working holiday visa for Canada, and when we arrive apply for the family class visa from within Canada?

Hope you can shed some light on the best avenue to take,

Thanks

 

[CharlieD10]

As a citizen, she can sponsor you while living outside Canada, she just needs to show she has concrete plans to re-settle in Canada when you are approved for PR.

If you decide to come visit until your PR is completed processing, do remember to use the word "visit" at your point of entry, you're not moving in just yet!

You qualify as common-law partners, as you've had at least 12 months cohabitation already. Start working on proving that, if you don't have a lease together, get something from your landlords or whoever was housing the both of you attesting (preferably in affidavit form) that you have been cohabiting together for whatever time they are aware of it. Start also looking into the processes for your various police records, you'll need one from Ireland, one from Australia and also any other country you've spent 6 months consecutively in since you were 18.

If you have questions, come back and ask them, this is a great resource.

 

[marcopolocan]

HI Paulmori,

Just remember that the term common-law means that the 12 mths starts after you have been together for that long NOT when you first met. So the key thing is to have details of your relationship together from OZ and then communication (phone, email, skype) logs to support ongoing relationship while apart. I would think your best bet is for her to stay in Canada and sponsor you. If you were to go to Canada and apply INLAND it may be difficult with work and the timeframes are much longer. The other option may be to have her move to Ireland and sponsor OUTLAND. But the key point is to support your claim of a common-law relationship and when it actually started. I believe immigration would take into account the fact that you were forced apart by visa issues but as long as you can support with proof then its a matter of going through the process.
Good luck

 

[wt1]

The other option may be to have her move to Ireland and sponsor OUTLAND.

Just a clarification, the sponsor does NOT have to move outside of Canada in order for you to apply Outland.

As a potential alternative to common law partner application, have you considered trying to apply for a job under either the provincial nomination programs or applying for jobs in high need areas like the Alberta oil sands or businesses up North that have trouble recruiting Canadians given the weather? They seem to need people in many different fields (and there may be something you are qualified/interested in even if it is not your trained field) and this way you may be able to get a work permit, get in-country with a paying job, and be able to better coordinate your futures. You may not be in the same city/province, but arranging for visits is so much easier when you are just dealing with airlines and highways instead of CIC.