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Hello!

New to this site, as me (Canadian) and my partner (British) had applied for a conjugal sponsorship and had thought we had selected the visa that fit best for us, as we hadn't lived together continuously for 12 months at the time of our application was sent in.

He had lived in Canada on a Youth Mobility Visa (we had dated long distance for a year previously) , but could not get a job in his field so we decided for him to move back to the UK and I followed him 4 months later with my own Working Visa. We applied for a conjugal sponsorship 6 months after me moving to the UK because we hadn't been common-law and the processing times at the time of our application were 12-18 months and we did not want to have my visa run out and not have an answer of if he could move back and work in Canada or not. We have gotten a reply back from the High Commissions this week saying that they are not satisfied that we maintained a conjugal partnership for at least one year, and that we don't meet the interdependent economically or physically. The evidence for our romantic relationship is sufficient, however they need to be satisfied of our conjugal relationship.

We have now lived together for over a year, are sending 2 lease agreements, bills from our old apartment and our new apartment. A joint bank account, however we had that previously when we sent our documents in but it had a insignificant amount of money in the account. We have now put more money into the account, however not a huge amount to show we are interdependent economically because it is a savings account and immigration is expensive! We have printed bank statements of bank transfers to each other, as my partner had most of the bills in his name and I would just send him money for my share.

Retrospectively I now know conjugal sponsorship is difficult to obtain and we should have waited for us to be common law but we wanted to make sure we had everything organized and trying to be proactive.

My question is can/will they change our application to a common law, and will the new lease, bills and bank statements be enough to prove we are physically and economically interdependent?

Any help or answers would be greatly appreciated! Thanks

You're guaranteed to be refused under conjugal since there are no real immigration barriers preventing you from living together / getting married. You've actually added complexity and processing time by applying under conjugal rather than waiting until you were common law.

You can certainly try asking CIC if they will change your application to common law. It will be up to CIC if they agree to do this or not. If they don't, you should withdraw the conjugal application asap and reapply again under common law.
 
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It takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks. Once you get the correspondence you will be able to link online. Try not to stress too much :)
Does linking the application make processing faste
 
Sorry about that. Do youlinking the application make processing faste
No it's not mandatory to link. We never linked ours. We simply use ecas and all communications come through email from CIC. If you link it's simply a portal with updates and a place to upload additional documents or information if needed, but it doesn't speed up processing time.
 
Yes, she can extend her status by applying for visitor extension, the max they give each time is 6 months and i believe it still costs a 100 CAD. If you file for those and you can back it up by showing you have enough money to support her and that she can live with you etc. they will almost certainly issue her one. You can do this a couple of times but after a while they will say enough is enough and send her back to her own country. If you file an inland spousal sponsorship application and include an application for an open work permit at the same time she will have implied status until she hears back from CIC, she will need to have valid status when applying though. I heard that they usually issue these open work permits after 4 months or so, if she gets that she can just stay and work until your sponsorship has been processed.
thank you john013 for your response,
Do you know of any specifics as to what meets the criteria in the eyes of Cic (or whatever organization is responisble) in demonstrating that i have enough money to support her to have a visit extension? im not below the poverty line by any means, i have a steady and reasonable income. but as i am 26 yrs old, have mortgage and vehicle payments, and havent won the 6/49 yet, you can say that my savings account is a little lack luster. i would hope that these considerations would be taken into account.

(im only asking these questions because i havent got a clue what the expectations are or what all the rules and exceptions are, i apologize in advance. i usually learn things the hard way but in this situation i would rather avoid that)

also, in the event her family was to send her money (which in reality wouldnt need to happen anyway) would that help the situation by providing that information for the extension application? thank you for your time.
 
thank you john013 for your response,
Do you know of any specifics as to what meets the criteria in the eyes of Cic (or whatever organization is responisble) in demonstrating that i have enough money to support her to have a visit extension? im not below the poverty line by any means, i have a steady and reasonable income. but as i am 26 yrs old, have mortgage and vehicle payments, and havent won the 6/49 yet, you can say that my savings account is a little lack luster. i would hope that these considerations would be taken into account.

(im only asking these questions because i havent got a clue what the expectations are or what all the rules and exceptions are, i apologize in advance. i usually learn things the hard way but in this situation i would rather avoid that)

also, in the event her family was to send her money (which in reality wouldnt need to happen anyway) would that help the situation by providing that information for the extension application? thank you for your time.

A steady monthly income, and even a small savings account will be sufficient. Provide some proof of your mortgage/house and youre good to go. Her family could write a letter that they would financially support her if it was necessary. In the end they dont really make a big thing out of a visitor extension. I stayed in Canada on a visitor visa for several years and everytime we just showed them our bank statement, my wifes job contract etc. Was always approved. In the end i was told to go back to my own country but hey that was like 4 years later. It was a mistake to wait so long with applying for sponsorship. If you guys start the sponsorship process early there should be no problem whatsoever, apply for that Open Work permit with the inland sponsor app and it should all work out easy.
 
If someone can help me clear my doubts on the sponsorship questionnaire

The question is " are we living together"

Now I am getting married end of this year outside of Canada and plan on traveling back to Canada with my new wife. Now, I am a Canadian citizen and she is not. She will be coming here on her TRV visitors visa. I will be sponsoring her (outland) and sending in her PR application after we get back.

Now should I let CiC know that that she is now living with me or should I give them the impression that she is still living outside Canada and she is only her on visitors visa. Clearly the intention is to stay together, and not leave the county once it nears her visas expiry date.
 
Curious to know if any of you subscribed for the pilot text message program - where you'll receive a text once your application is opened in the mailroom. Fedex confirmed my application was received in July 12, but I haven't received a text. Just wondering how reliable to pilot program is and if I should be worried. Thanks!
 
Curious to know if any of you subscribed for the pilot text message program - where you'll receive a text once your application is opened in the mailroom. Fedex confirmed my application was received in July 12, but I haven't received a text. Just wondering how reliable to pilot program is and if I should be worried. Thanks!
Not reliable nowadays. Some claim they subscribed and never got any text, some got a text after several days.
 
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Thank you. That is good to know. It is amazing how easy it is for the mind to start worrying that it's lost! Appreciate the information.
No worries.
Expect an AOR1 after 30 days up to 60(?). You should be fine. And if you don't hear anything after a month, start calling them to ask. Two things could happen if you don't receive an AOR early in the process: 1. It's just a delay. 2. Your app package is on its way back to you becauae you missed to include a thing or two. Hope you get it on time though. Good luck.
 
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No worries.
Expect an AOR1 after 30 days up to 60(?). You should be fine. And if you don't hear anything after a month, start calling them to ask. Two things could happen if you don't receive an AOR early in the process: 1. It's just a delay. 2. Your app package is on its way back to you becauae you missed to include a thing or two. Hope you get it on time though. Good luck.
Helpful - thank you!
 
Hi guys, hubby and I sent in our application for yesterday July 14th, applying from Roseau, commonwealth of Dominica, my v.o is Trinidad & Tobago. We also applied for our son citizenship. The waiting has begun
 
Cic asked me to submitt new passport sized photos as the old ones are rejected. Shall I send them by mail or online upload would be enough? Thanks