snuggs

Curious of which one to apply with?

My Fiance' and I qualify for Common-law early next year...
we are getting married around 4 months later....
Should we proceed with Common-law or wait until we're married?

Thanks

ninaDGBCA

Not much difference really. Common law you have to prove that you've been living together for at least a year for spousal you don't. As you qualify for common law a good while before getting married I'd say apply for common law sponsorship.

orly

Agreed.

SchnookoLoly

My husband and I were in the same boat, ended up applying as CL 4 months before we got married, simply because we wanted to get our application moving along. THe amount of paperwork between the two applications is not much different, you still have to show the same proof of relationship etc, and for CL you also have to show proof of 12 months living together, so it's not that much extra. We also included details of our upcoming marriage in our application (copies of contracts with the hotel and the registrar, etc).

CIC treats the two classes pretty much equally - you can see from the timelines in the spreadsheet in my signature that there isn't much processing difference between the two classes. And as I said, the paperwork doesn't change much... so I'd say just to work backwards from when you want PR and go from there!

KuroKuro

I asked this exact question a few days ago! I'll link you to SchnookoLoly's awesome response over in that thread too!

snuggs

thanks for the replies

when I first got to canada, we lived with her parents before getting an apartment... can we use that time as living together or will a lease be only proof?

SchnookoLoly

It technically counts but provide as much proof as you can, do you have anything that shows you were living there? bank statements, other post, etc? Also get her mom to do a notarized statement.