US outland applicants' thread :)

[Amalthea]

Thanks for all the help and for explaining everything! People here are so awesome, I'm shocked at how easy it is to get questions answered.

Sometimes I wish we could get married to make it all easier. But since I want a really special marriage, and she's one of those "I won't marry someone until I've been dating them for 7+ years" type of people, common law might have to be the best route for us. Unless I can convince her to do it sooner

Immigrating to another country for someone is a really big deal. Like bigger than marriage, imo. It's a huge commitment, and it takes years of time, energy, money, and foresight. It's a big leap of faith Immigration makes signing that piece of paper look like a breeze! She should be super, super sure before she dumps money, time, leaves friends, family, starts over with credit, job searches, etc etc.. as well as your half, such as the Sponsor undertaking, as you're responsible for her financially in Canada for several years after PR, even if you split.

I'm sure you're aware of all this. Its just, before we started this process, when we were just dating - I sounded just like your partner I didn't want to get married "just for PR" but I saw how it would make our application infinitely easier, how much sooner we'd be able to be together and start living our lives, and realized that moving to Canada to be with my partner was a wayyyyyy bigger deal, commitment and leap of faith than getting married and signing that piece of paper! Hehe. Plus we were already at that point, really, in that we were sure we were serious about this. It sounds like you are too Hope you figure out what works best for both of you!

There is nothing wrong with going the common-law route at all. You just need to prove that you are in a marriage-like level of commitment, not just girlfriends. In my group of apps we had an American/Canadian couple who were common-law for 5 years yet towards the end of their application got a letter from an immigration officer, exclaiming that he felt they were just dating, not in a marriage like level of commitment. So they had 30 days to submit additional evidence, and they just ended up getting married and sending that in. The evidence you send in to prove your common-law status is really important. Make sure you sign a lease together, put them on your insurance etc.. And keep in mind that even a 2 week break (like one of you goes on a trip) while you're trying to establish common-law is enough to make you start back at the beginning. I don't think that's the case after you establish and can prove common-law status, but I'm not sure on that.

 

[KelseyTVS]

Yeah it's definitely a huge deal and a big commitment. The thing is that since we're long distance, we want to live together and try to have a life together before we decide to do something like get married. But annoyingly, we can't really have a life together until she has PR, so we have to do that first.

The up side of the common law is that we have one year to live together and see if it'll work and then we can decide whether or not to even try for PR. We've been together for well over a year now, and known each other for 3 years, but we want to live together and have a regular domestic lifestyle before we make the final commitment. It's just that in order to have a regular life together, she needs to immigrate so suddenly we have to be a lot more serious about it.

Anyway, there's time to figure it all out, we have a little over a year before she'll actually move here and we'll start becoming common law.

 

[Panamai]

In my group of apps we had an American/Canadian couple who were common-law for 5 years yet towards the end of their application got a letter from an immigration officer, exclaiming that he felt they were just dating, not in a marriage like level of commitment. So they had 30 days to submit additional evidence, and they just ended up getting married and sending that in. The evidence you send in to prove your common-law status is really important. Make sure you sign a lease together, put them on your insurance etc.. And keep in mind that even a 2 week break (like one of you goes on a trip) while you're trying to establish common-law is enough to make you start back at the beginning. I don't think that's the case after you establish and can prove common-law status, but I'm not sure on that.

OMG, really?! Amalthea, you are scaring me! My partner and I have been together for a little less than 2 years and living together for 1.5 of those. We don't have a joint lease because he already had a mortgage on the house when I met him. We have a joint savings and I'm on his pension and a small life insurance policy from his work. I would have gladly married him in the very beginning, but he didn't want it to feel rushed. I'm kind of glad we are waiting so we have time and money to plan out something special. I really hope that doesn't happen to us!

 

[Panamai]

By the way, I saw the blog post about you guys' wedding and it was awesome! I'd love to do something small and private like that, since I won't have any family coming anyway. My partner is really close with his family though and I think he wants them involved too.

 

[Amalthea]

OMG, really?! Amalthea, you are scaring me! My partner and I have been together for a little less than 2 years and living together for 1.5 of those. We don't have a joint lease because he already had a mortgage on the house when I met him. We have a joint savings and I'm on his pension and a small life insurance policy from his work. I would have gladly married him in the very beginning, but he didn't want it to feel rushed. I'm kind of glad we are waiting so we have time and money to plan out something special. I really hope that doesn't happen to us!

Don't be alarmed, I don't know their whole story and I'm not sure what evidence they sent in as to their common law status. I'm sure you will be just fine.

What did you send in to prove that you have been living together consecutively for at least 12 months? Mail?


PS: Thank you so much! I'm so happy we eloped ) It was ez breezy. Super stress free and intimate and romantic, we had a big reception a few months later in the summer with family. I wouldn't change a thing! I loved it being just the two of us and our witnesses ^o^ We got to focus on eachother instead of worrying about other people, hehe, and truly enjoy our big day!

 

[VAtoBC]

We landed yesterday at the Douglas PoE (Peace Arch). I was so nervous, I always am when I cross the border. But they were very friendly.

Congrats, Amalthea, and thanks for all your support and advice. So happy for you two -- love the photo! Good to know about your car. We hope to export/import ours when my spouse lands, but hope we can get all the paperwork done in advance. You have to do the export part at the Pacific Highway crossing, and we have to be there before 3 p.m. Hope we can get there in time after spending the night in Yakima with my nephew and his family after 7 or 8 days driving across the continent. Welcome to Canada!

 

[Panamai]

Don't be alarmed, I don't know their whole story and I'm not sure what evidence they sent in as to their common law status. I'm sure you will be just fine.

What did you send in to prove that you have been living together consecutively for at least 12 months? Mail?


PS: Thank you so much! I'm so happy we eloped ) It was ez breezy. Super stress free and intimate and romantic, we had a big reception a few months later in the summer with family. I wouldn't change a thing! I loved it being just the two of us and our witnesses ^o^ We got to focus on eachother instead of worrying about other people, hehe, and truly enjoy our big day!

We sent mail/magazine subscriptions and I made copies of our driver's licenses with matching address, my doctor bills and prescription receipts with this address, our bank accounts (we opened our joint account and my personal checking account the same week I moved here) had the same address. We also had 3 declarations from friends/family stating that we have lived together in a marriage-like relationship. That's all I can think of right now. I hope that's enough! We also had my passport stamp from December 30th with copies of our plane tickets from US to Toronto on that day (day I moved). Oh, and a ton of pictures throughout the year of me with him and his family.

 

[Panamai]

Oh, and also chat logs and facebook posts where I talked to him and some of my friends about the move and my life here in Canada. I documented the move fairly well on fb.

 

[rugrat907]

Amalthea - just throwing in another congratulatory post! You two look so happy together...

 

[LT1013]

OMG, really?! Amalthea, you are scaring me! My partner and I have been together for a little less than 2 years and living together for 1.5 of those. We don't have a joint lease because he already had a mortgage on the house when I met him. We have a joint savings and I'm on his pension and a small life insurance policy from his work. I would have gladly married him in the very beginning, but he didn't want it to feel rushed. I'm kind of glad we are waiting so we have time and money to plan out something special. I really hope that doesn't happen to us!

I wouldn't be too worried. I've been documented in Canada since 2011 and have lived with my partner since moving here (I came under study permit, on PGWP currently).

We produced statutory declarations from our landlord since we are on a month-to-month rent basis, and my in-laws. As long as you've included something such as that in your application it should be enough to satisfy proof your relationship is genuine; but I'm sure you'll still need other supporting evidence in addition to the letters to satisfy the cohabitation requirement.

Our application is a bit weird in the sense I'm the breadwinner; but my partner is listed on my insurance policies.

The only thing I think that would cause concern in your application is the new 2 year minimum requirement for living together, otherwise being placed on conditional PR status, but I'm pretty sure this isn't viewed as a red flag by CIC.

 

[VAtoBC]

Just checked ECAS. Status of our application has been changed to DM! So they DO update on Saturdays! Probably have a team of minions who do the data entry. Fingers crossed it's good news -- now we wait for snail mail. Hoping you'll hear very soon, Maria, and those of you who have been waiting longer than us. I was a bit worried we hadn't submitted enough supporting evidence for proof of relationship (only 116 pages, 11 of which were photos, 6 per page, and 4 letters of support), but as they haven't asked for any more, I'm hoping we'll get a positive decision. Will believe it when my spouse has her COPR in hand!

 

[kkkJo]

Great news VAtoBC! Congratulations! When did you apply?

 

[saria1]

Just checked ECAS. Status of our application has been changed to DM! So they DO update on Saturdays! Probably have a team of minions who do the data entry. Fingers crossed it's good news -- now we wait for snail mail. Hoping you'll hear very soon, Maria, and those of you who have been waiting longer than us. I was a bit worried we hadn't submitted enough supporting evidence for proof of relationship (only 116 pages, 11 of which were photos, 6 per page, and 4 letters of support), but as they haven't asked for any more, I'm hoping we'll get a positive decision. Will believe it when my spouse has her COPR in hand!

OMG, that is great news!!! Congrats!!!

I'm not going to relax until their CoPR's are in hand with no errors. I called CIC yesterday and their CoPR was mailed on the 17th.

Now lets hope for some more DM's today, MariaC and Leahdoll and any other Sept applicant who's waiting.

 

[VAtoBC]

Great news VAtoBC! Congratulations! When did you apply?

We applied Oct. 29, 2014, SA granted Jan. 21, 2015.

 

[kkkJo]

We are very happy to see people receiving the DMs but we applied in August and are still at Application Received!

Is there anyone else still waiting from August for a sponsorship visa? We have not had any correspondence and when I called I wasn't given any information. I asked for my notes back in April and received an email almost 30 days later asking for a copy of my spouse's ID with his signature. Still have not received the notes.

It's so frustrating I could almost cry. Our application was very straightforward. We have a 9 month old baby and we just need to be able to get on with our lives.