ts123

I'm currently applying for PR through EE, with myself as principal applicant and my boyfriend as common law. I'm worried they won't accept the common law status.

Our situation:
Together since June 14. Moved in together July 15, until Jan 16 (6 months). He was away for 2 months of this, but still 'living' at the address, if that makes sense.
Then we went to Canada, as tourists. Lived together (in a shared house) until May 16 (3.5 months). I was away for work for a month of this.
Then travelled in the US & Canada from May - Dec 16. Living in a van the whole time. Jointly owned, but only registered in his name.
Lived together in a shared house again Dec/Jan (2 months).
Came back to UK end of Jan, have been house sitting for various people here, so no permanent address.

It's a little weird as, although we are common law and have lived together for close to 2 years, a lot of that was spent travelling.

The proof we have:
Joint rental agreements from all three houses, totalling 11 months
Joint bank acct from July 15
One council tax bill with both names from first house
Can provide emails etc proving the house sits here, but nothing official.

Stuff counting against us:
We don't have 12 months of actual lease agreements - will travelling count?
Joint acct wasn't used much while we were in the USA/Canada, as it was easier to put everything on my credit card (no fees) and sort the money out through a bank transfer. We still split all costs.
I currently have a IEC WHV, which I applied for as 'single'. When I submitted the application we had only been living together 11 months, so I wanted to avoid any complications.
He is legally married to someone else. They separated in 2013, but never divorced.

Is there anything else they will accept as proof? Or will this lot be OK?

PB65

Others can comment but think the boyfriend might need to get legally divorced first before progressing an application given ex wife is still his spouse whether separated or not and although I have no knowledge one way or the other would have thought that might turn out to be a complication until sorted.

Hurlabrick

Checkout 5.24 on the attached link:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resourc...p/ip08-eng.pdf

It says:

5.24 Sponsor or common-lawpartners still married to someone else

Persons who are married to third parties may beconsidered common-law partners provided their marriage has broken down and theyhave cohabited in a conjugal relationship with the common-law partner for atleast one year.

Cohabitation with a common-law partner must havestarted after a physical separation from the spouse. Evidence of separationfrom the spouse may include

 a separation agreement;

 a signed formal declaration that the marriage has ended and that theperson has entered into a common-law relationship;

 a court order regarding custody of children; and

documents removing thelegally married spouse(s) from insurance policies or wills as beneficiaries.

In this situation, the legalspouse of the principal applicant cannot subsequently be sponsored as a memberof the family class.


I confess to being slightly surprised personally, but that is what it says!

christmasoompa

Sounds to me as though you might struggle to prove you are common-law spouses. There are other things you could have done to prove you had 'combined your affairs' (that's the key thing they look for), such as wills naming each other as beneficiaries (even if you don't have anything in your estate) or life insurance naming each other as beneficiaries. Unfortunately the stuff you've got just proves you were housemates and doesn't prove you were living as husband and wife really.

It's worth a try, but I don't think it's particularly good evidence of what they're after tbh. Remember too that you can't apply until you've spent a year continuously cohabiting, so you need to start from whenever you or he were last away, as any gap can be seen by CIC as breaking the cohabitation period (even just a week's business trip for example).

JMO though, you might get lucky - and if you can't apply for a while then do get some other official documentation asap, such as the wills, as that will help enormously.

Edit: just re-read your post - are you sure you're scoring enough on the CRS to get PR under EE if you've not actually been working in Canada on your IEC?

Best of luck.

SchnookoLoly

This is JMO, but I am super skeptical of you having common-law status approved, simply because it's not obvious that you are living as husband and wife. On paper, any two housemates living together would be able to produce exactly what you've stated you have... and I really don't think it's quite strong enough to prove that you are common-law partners.

You should either focus your next few months on ensuring you have iron clad solid proof of at least 12 months of living together as husband and wife, showing more evidence of combined affairs and other things that would be expected of a married couple (as Oompa said, wills, insurance policies, etc).

Even things like your major possessions, like the van, really should be jointly owned and PROVEN to be jointly owned.

Your other option is for your boyfriend to get his divorce finalized and then you guys get married. Then the paperwork is less important.

ts123

Thanks for the input guys. We're definitely applying, I was just getting freaked out by lack of proof!

As Hurlabrick says, him being separated doesn't actually matter for immigration purposes. We will explain the situation in an LOE & get him and, if necessary, his ex, to sign letters indicating when they separated.

Points wise, we're fine. 488 & had an ITA yonks ago. I've worked in Canada for a couple of years before, not counted under CEC but we're good for FSW.

Making wills is an excellent idea, we'll sort that before submitting.

I disagree that any two housemates could have that - joint rental agreements from three different houses in succession, and a joint bank account? Not many housemates I know would have a joint account?

If a week's business trip is counted as breaking cohabitation, then how does anyone ever get common law status?! If that is the case, then we certainly never will (I work away 2 months a year to start with, so that by itself rules out ever living together for 12 months).

Is it also worth providing evidence of the relationship itself - photos, communication etc?

christmasoompa

As above, you need formal proof of the separation, if you've got that you shouldn't need a letter from him/her.

I've always had a joint bank account with my housemates! Just for paying the bills etc. It makes things far simpler.

CIC say the following in the OP Manual about making sure you've got a full year of living together first -

According to case law, the definition of common-law partner should be read as “an individual who is (ordinarily) cohabiting”. After the one year period of cohabitation has been established, the partners may live apart for periods of time without legally breaking the cohabitation. For example, a couple may have been separated due to armed conflict, illness of a family member, or for employment or education-related reasons, and therefore do not cohabit at present (see also 5.44 for information on persecution and penal control). Despite the break in cohabitation, a common- law relationship exists if the couple has cohabited continuously in a conjugal relationship in the past for at least one year and intend to do so again as soon as possible. "

You might be fine with a break in cohabitation, but as above the law only deems you 'common-law spouses' when you've spent a full year living together as spouses, and that's what you need to prove. I seem to recall that the person that had been refused PR because of a week's business trip was from a high fraud country such as Pakistan where CIC are often extra suspicious, so hopefully being from the UK it'll be easier for you. But we're just trying to make you aware that breaks in cohabitation for any period go against CIC's own policies/law, as per the above.

Yes, absolutely. Because your proof doesn't show you've been living as husband and wife, you need as much proof to show you're in a romantic relationship as you possibly can. So definitely include stuff like that.

ts123

What would formal proof of separation be? I don't believe there is any, they separated on good terms and just chose to no longer live together. The only thing I can think of is they've been living in different countries since then.


Thanks - I'm not trying to argue with you! I just find it so hard to believe that a week or two's holiday/work trip would equal breaking cohabitation. Maybe it's just us, but we do sometimes take separate holidays, and I work away a few months each year.


OK. Will include photos, shared flight confirmations, details of money transferred between us (as well as to joint acct), shared travel insurance, proof of skype calls/emails when apart.

christmasoompa

As per the list above -

"Cohabitation with a common-law partner must have started after a physical separation from the spouse. Evidence of separation from the spouse may include

 a separation agreement;

 a signed formal declaration that the marriage has ended and that the person has entered into a common-law relationship;

 a court order regarding custody of children; and

documents removing thelegally married spouse(s) from insurance policies or wills as beneficiaries. "

If he doesn't have any of the above, then CIC will consider him still married despite living separately from his wife, so he'll need to get a signed declaration or agreement sorted before applying.

I know you're not, I just wanted to quote CIC's own policies so you can see how strict they are with it and why we're saying it might (note only might) be an issue.

Your shared travel insurance is a good one, that's the kind of thing mates or housemates wouldn't normally have, so that helps to show you've been a couple.

Best of luck.

ts123

Thanks. Would this declaration simply be a letter signed by him? Would his ex also have to do one? And would they need to be notarized? His ex would be totally willing to sign one, but she is away travelling in India at the moment, so getting it notarized would be near impossible. He could have one notarized easily.

There were no children, and neither had wills, life insurance etc, so there's no documents relating to those. Getting a divorce at this time is also near impossible as they were married in Colorado (she is American), but he is in the UK & she in India.