Thread for Common-Law Sponsorship! Share your Proof of Relationship...

[silverbee]

I thought I would start a thread for Common-Law Sponsorships! I want to get an idea of what kind of Proof everyone sends in.



I'm just about to mail in my application.

I just have a question about the Proof of Relationship for a common-law relationship. My boyfriend who is Canadian is sponsoring me - we've been living together for 2.5 years and dating for 3.5.

I am including:
A 25-page document with pictures inserted (in Word) with captions with about 50-60 pictures total that has an outline narrative of our relationship.
Joint Lease
Joint bank account
Joint adoption for our dog (no kids...)
Joint travel: E-tickets (and only two boarding passes from him - who keeps these?)
TONS of mail to our address together, including government, bank, phone, friends, cards to each other, bills, hydro, etc.
Phone Records shoring our correspondence the few times we were away and also when we were together
Emails between the two of us
List of gifts

Plus a Cover Letter which includes a relationship narrative with names of friends/family met, etc. and when I came to canada, etc., plus a table of contents to all addendums.

We are also including TWO Statutory Declarations and two additional emails from friends/family supporting our relationship. Is that enough?

I guess my question is, does my sponsor need to include something, too? There are no more pictures left of the two of us that I have not used so I'm not sure what he should do. Should he write a narrative, too?

Thank you for your help!

 

[AE0626]

Hi, Saw your post and was wondering how you arranged all your Proofs? Were they loose, did you put them in a clearbook? Pasted into a white paper and fastened into a folder?

Just curious as I want to make sure we are able to properly showcase proofs of our relationship.

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[silverbee]

I used those large paperclips that divided them into sections, like "Emails" "Cards" and "Mail" and a Table of Contents of all Addendums.

 

[Aroundtown22]

We just came from our lawyer reviewing our app.

A couple of things he said to include that you've missed are joint utilities (I think you'll have this covered off if your utilities are addressed to both of you) and signed letters from friends or family members. He said that the letters should have contact information on them (not sure why, but he is the immigration lawyer not me!)

 

[waitingintz]

We had a lot of the same stuff but had some challenges as it is pretty difficult to get some of the more conventional proofs here: for example, utilities are pay-as-you-go here so no joint utility bills. Also, had a problem getting the joint account sorted out and was taking too long so couldn't include that. We did however include the following:

Registration for me under my partners medical plan (through his company)
Mail to same PO box
Emails/Mail/Cards from family/friends to both of us (or from his fam to me and vice versa)
A couple of receipts in both our names (art we bought together)
Join travel evidence (car rental in both names, etc)
Lease agreements in both names
Two phone bills (one from 2008, one recent - and I highlighted my phone number every time it appeared)
Vet card for our dog with both our names on it
Bank statement showing transfer from my account in canada to his account here and showing my salary depsotied into his account (which we were both using)
About 100 photos with captions

We also did the 2 stat declarations and 2 additional statements.

We organized everything by what it was proving - cohabitation, joint travel, communication etc - and I wrote a narrative at the beginnnig with a timeline of key relationship moments like moving in together, traveling together, meeting family, etc

Obviously you need to provide evidence for each element but I definitely don't think you need TONS of evidence.

 

[Aroundtown22]

Our situation is a little similar... For the utilities here, they mostly asked me to do a credit check when we first signed up. Since my partner doesn't have a SIN number, she can't get her credit checked. So I left her off the television bill but she is listed as an alternate contact on the power account. Do you think it is still worth it to try and get her name on the mailed bill before we submit? We'd have to wait another week or so before the bills come but then we would at least have one of each to put in.

We don't call each other very often but we text a lot. Unfortunately, texted numbers don't show up on your phone bill here so we included each others phone bills (both under my account) and highlighted each time each others phone number came up. I am a little worried about this because I had a phone number with another area code for the entire time we've been living together. I tried to change it when she first moved in with me, but the phone company jerked me around multiple times and I just got fed up with dealing with them so I let it sit with a different area code for a year. I finally got around to changing it and included the evidence of that.

 

[canadianwoman]

Do you think it is still worth it to try and get her name on the mailed bill before we submit? We'd have to wait another week or so before the bills come but then we would at least have one of each to put in.

It's only another week, so I would try for a common-law application. If you can't get it, don't worry though. If you have lots of other proof it is just one small addition.

We don't call each other very often but we text a lot. Unfortunately, texted numbers don't show up on your phone bill here so we included each others phone bills (both under my account) and highlighted each time each others phone number came up. I am a little worried about this because I had a phone number with another area code for the entire time we've been living together. I tried to change it when she first moved in with me, but the phone company jerked me around multiple times and I just got fed up with dealing with them so I let it sit with a different area code for a year. I finally got around to changing it and included the evidence of that.

As long as you included an explanation of all this, and any proof of it, with the application it should be fine.

 

[canadianwoman]

A couple of things he said to include that you've missed are joint utilities (I think you'll have this covered off if your utilities are addressed to both of you) and signed letters from friends or family members. He said that the letters should have contact information on them (not sure why, but he is the immigration lawyer not me!)

CIC wants contact info on the letters of support because otherwise the sponsor and applicant could just write them themselves and put made-up people on them as the writers. With contact info they assume you would not be daring enough to fake that too, since it is so easy to check. Still, they don't actually contact the people, usually.