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Spousal Sponsorship

samjp

Member
Aug 12, 2019
18
5
I am a Canadian Citizen and am in the process of finishing up the application to sponsor my common-law. He moved to Canada from the states to live with his grandmother in 2015 (he was 16 at the time) on a student visa. We met in high-school started dating in 2017. I lived around 14 hours away at the time so we were long distance. I moved back in April 2018 and we officially moved into an apartment together in August 2018.
I am worried about proving we are in a "marriage like relationship" because we are both young (21 year old) students. We rent an apartment with his cousin. We have plenty of proof of our same address as well as a shared utility bill and a shared bank account (that we don't keep a lot of money in as we each contribute a bit of money too each month to cover utility/internet bills and groceries). We are financially independent and supported ourselves for the past year however we don't have any insurance policies together nor are we listed as a spouse or beneficiary on any documents as we just reached a year of living together and only work part-time jobs to support ourselves through school. Any advice for this?
We also don't have a lot in terms of text message conversations as we communicated via text/facetime calls and those were all lost when we got new phones last year. We are together all the time now so we don't really text that often. We did include lots of photos throughout our relationship, social media posts, letters from family, and travel documentation from visiting each other while we were long distance as well as the two vacations we went on together.

We want to do this application because we are talking about getting married and starting a family in the next couple years (we finish school next year) but he is only here on a student permit so he will have to leave or apply for a work permit when he finishes. We both have reservations about bringing a child into the picture with his temporary status and don't want the added stress about worrying if he will have to leave the country when he is finished school. I feel like we kind of have a unique situation as he moved to Canada and established his life here before we even met. He truly feels like Canada is his home and after 4.5 years of consequetively living here, contributing, paying taxes, etc. we both just want him to have some kind of permanence in his status so we can confidently move forward with our relationship
 
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canuck_in_uk

VIP Member
May 4, 2012
31,558
7,196
Visa Office......
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App. Filed.......
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I am a Canadian Citizen and am in the process of finishing up the application to sponsor my common-law. He moved to Canada from the states to live with his grandmother in 2015 (he was 16 at the time) on a student visa. We met in high-school started dating in 2017. I lived around 14 hours away at the time so we were long distance. I moved back in April 2018 and we officially moved into an apartment together in August 2018.
I am worried about proving we are in a "marriage like relationship" because we are both young (21 year old) students. We rent an apartment with his cousin. We have plenty of proof of our same address as well as a shared utility bill and a shared bank account (that we don't keep a lot of money in as we each contribute a bit of money too each month to cover utility/internet bills and groceries). We are financially independent and supported ourselves for the past year however we don't have any insurance policies together nor are we listed as a spouse or beneficiary on any documents as we just reached a year of living together and only work part-time jobs to support ourselves through school. Any advice for this?
We also don't have a lot in terms of text message conversations as we communicated via text/facetime calls and those were all lost when we got new phones last year. We are together all the time now so we don't really text that often. We did include lots of photos throughout our relationship, social media posts, letters from family, and travel documentation from visiting each other while we were long distance as well as the two vacations we went on together.

We want to do this application because we are talking about getting married and starting a family in the next couple years (we finish school next year) but he is only here on a student permit so he will have to leave or apply for a work permit when he finishes. We both have reservations about bringing a child into the picture with his temporary status and don't want the added stress about worrying if he will have to leave the country when he is finished school. I feel like we kind of have a unique situation as he moved to Canada and established his life here before we even met. He truly feels like Canada is his home and after 4.5 years of consequetively living here, contributing, paying taxes, etc. we both just want him to have some kind of permanence in his status so we can confidently move forward with our relationship
If he is still studying, I'm assuming he applied for a new study permit to attend college/university? Is he taking a program that qualifies for a PGWP?

You can apply for sponsorship. I suggest you give a few months buffer instead of applying as soon as you become common-law.

Read the checklist. Text/communication proofs are only required for couples NOT living together and you can only send 20 photos.
 

samjp

Member
Aug 12, 2019
18
5
Yes he applied for a new permit and just renewed the permit again this year. He would be eligible for a PGWP however as I explained we’re hoping to get away from the temporary status. He also would like to return back to trades school after a year or so of working in which case he wouldn’t be able to get another PGWP when he finishes.

We do have less then 20 photos but I’ve been doing a lot of research and see that people have hundreds of pages of proof and 10+ notarized letters etc. Even though we have at least the minimum of what they ask for I’m worried it’s not enough
 

YVR123

VIP Member
Jul 27, 2017
6,614
2,523
Yes he applied for a new permit and just renewed the permit again this year. He would be eligible for a PGWP however as I explained we’re hoping to get away from the temporary status. He also would like to return back to trades school after a year or so of working in which case he wouldn’t be able to get another PGWP when he finishes.

We do have less then 20 photos but I’ve been doing a lot of research and see that people have hundreds of pages of proof and 10+ notarized letters etc. Even though we have at least the minimum of what they ask for I’m worried it’s not enough
20 photos is a new guideline. Older applications did not have that limit.
Just remember quality is more important than quantity.
 
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