cmcdonal

Hi,

Three Questions:

1) I am a Canadian citizen, and I will be sponsoring my soon-to-be common-law spouse early next year.
I am an elementary school teacher but haven't really had steady work in the last couple of years. Currently I am a supply teacher in the UK and work is really slow right now so my annual income for the last couple of years is quite low. Has anyone had, or heard of anyone having, problems for that reason? We are applying to move to Ontario, so immigration Canada doesn't have a listing of minimum income, that I could see. Maybe I missed it...
I have a good amount of savings however, so I have sufficient $$ to support us, and I hope to include a statement indicating that to immigration. But the Option C printout will likely look pretty grim.

2) Our year of living together, thus making us common law, will elapse on Jan 8, 2011. We plan to apply as soon as possible after that. But: I returned to Canada for the month of October to work and my partner stayed here. Both our names are on the lease here, and if it weren't to secure my employment for when we return to Canada, I would not have left here. Because I was away for 31 days, will that throw our common-law status in jeopardy? Should we wait to declare until February? Will immigration even look into that as long as they have our common-law declaration form, authorized by a notary (or whatever we'll have to do)?

3) We are planning to put together the application package ourselves, so we have the list of suggested documents. Has anyone added extra info to further help "prove" their relationship is genuine? If so, what kinds of things?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you!!!

Cdnshaz

I might be able to answer a couple ?s.
You do not need to prove income on the application as it is common law.
You do not need option C if you have lived exclusively outside of Canada
The one month you were here, it was a vacation, lots of people travel alone.

alexisatk

Common-law declaration form is not needed for Common-law sponsorship. The checklist says specifically, to only include it if you need a co-sponsor and your co-sponsor is your common-law spouse. You do not need a co-sponsor to sponsor a spouse/common-law partner therefore don't need the form.

I did not include it in my application (which i just sent off, so no response from CIC yet).

cmcdonal

Wow! There are so many little parts - so easy to miss - I didn't realize we didn't have to declare! But then how did you prove your common-law status? Just through your photos/rental statements etc. showing you co-habitated? I believe spouses have to send in wedding certificates (though could be wrong again) so figured we'd have to prove common-law status.

alexisatk

My application hasn't even been looked at by CIC yet, but I sent the following for Common-law Sponsorship:

- 2 lease agreements (one for 8 months in Scotland, 1 for a year in canada and only 5 months into canadian lease).
- Joint Bank Account
- Joint Tenants Insurance
- Joint Car Insurance
- Tons of Pictures
- Plane Tickets
- Trip Iteneraries and activity stubs
- 3 Letters from My parents, his parents and our flatmate in Scotland.
- Tons of greeting cards to each other and addressed to both of us from family

*crosses fingers that this will be enough!!*