CharlesT

I have numerous questions I will post after the explanation of our situation.

My name is Charles, I'm 21 years old, I'm currently living in Canada as a permanent resident and have been for 2 years, come December.
My family began our application 5 years ago and now are here, I met my girlfriend 1 year after we began our application, and are still together now, at least together as a couple.
Shortly after my family moved my girlfriend came to Canada on a year long work Bunac where we shared the basement apartment of my parents house.
During this time we shared a bank account and have 7/8 months of mailed bank statements addressed to us both at our address.
We used this year as time to evaluate where we wanted to settle down, she went back to the UK in July, the end of her Bunac year. We have since decided we want to settle in Canada.
We've been looking at what we can do for her to immigrate here and it seems that sponsoring is our only option.
Sorry for the long story, I'm sure some of it was not needed, however, I wanted to make sure not to forget any details.

My first question is, based on the information given, do we qualify as common-law/conjugal partners?
Secondly what evidence would we need to provide to prove our relationship?
Also, the sponsorship/applicant forms contain a lot of specific questions regarding dates, for instance, the exact date of meeting friends/close family, documentation of meeting them. And is like this for much of the applications. Can anyone give me any examples of documentation so I can further understand what is acceptable? For instance we have hundreds of digital pictures of us together at various events as well as day to day life, acceptable if printed? Or not?
Also regarding this, we don't have many exact dates, ie. meeting family, we would never have had any reason for taking note of such dates, is this going to be a problem for us?
My final question is simply, does anyone who wants to offer any advice want me to post any more relevant information if I have missed anything? And does it even look like we have much of a chance of achieving permanent residence for my girlfriend?
Also, we're not engaged yet, though from what I understand this is most likely a good thing? As I've read that when engaged you're likely to be denied until married then applying as a spouse? Is this true?

Again, sorry about the wall of text, I'm sure it could've been much shorter/just summarized.
And thank you to anyone providing advice, it's greatly appreciated!

ESarge

You need to show that you've been living together in a marriage-type relationship for 12 months.

It's hard to tell but it sounds like you haven't quite met that standard.

There's no specific way to prove it: you use what documentation you can to put together a case. Bills together, letters to the same address, photos together at different times, shared bank accounts, etc. Can you prove to a bureaucrat that you were living as a husband and wife?

Which BUNAC did your gf use? There are two kinds I believe and she may be able to use the second to get another year of BUNAC.

Alternatively, you could both go and live in some other country for a while in order to show that you have 12 months together.

I'd note that your relative youth might make convincing CIC difficult. I'd prepare a good case to allay any fears they may have.

CharlesT

Thank you for the response, she came on the non-student work programme so unfortunately cannot be issued another.
Another quick question if I may, if my girlfriend were to spend time here without a work visa, just as temporary residence, (which is allowed with just a UK passport alone, correct?)
Could that be used to further strengthen our case, with her being seen in a 'house-wife' kind of role? Or would it be seen as technically time apart and just serve to weaken our case?
Probably an odd question, I'm just concerned our case is not going to be strong enough and living in England for a year isn't really an option for us right now.
Thanks again for any advice!

EDIT: I'm fairly sure we have enough evidence to convince CIC we're in a husband/wife relationship, we have a joint bank account with letters to the same address and photos, lots of photos! My concern is that won't be enough as we were living in the same home as my parents? (I have a feeling this would also affect our being viewed as being in a husband/wife relationship) Even though we rent the space.

devilzsoup

I'm not sure if this will help but one of my best friends is in a similar situation. Her boyfriend is canadian and she moved over here almost a year ago, got a job in tim hortons then applied for sponsorship as soon as they've been living together for a year.

Maybe if your girlfriend got a TWP somewhere (tim hortons or anywhere like that are a good bet - it might not be exciting work but you'll get a permit relatively quickly) then you both spent a few months gathering your info, work out dates, print off pictures, etc then when you've been living together for a year you can send off the forms? If you've been living together in the Uk too you can use that as the starting time for your year I think? You might want to check that with CIC though.

Hope that helps a little! And I'm sure in this day and age digital photos are fine - maybe you can get them printed on proper photo paper somewhere or even put them on a data cd?

CharlesT

Thanks for the reply devilz, I had no idea you could get a TWP for somewhere like Hortons! This is interesting news as I currently co-manage an independant coffee shop, where my girlfriend worked during her bunac.
The owner has already expressed his willingness to go along the work-permit route if we need it, though from what I gathered from CIC it didn't seem like it would be an option for the service industry, I thought it needed to be a qualified position, with proof you couldn't fill said position with a Canadian citizen/PR etc.
So this information is definitely helpful to us, and I will certainly be looking into it!
Thanks again, and if anyone has more advice for us it's still greatly appreciated!

ESarge

There's a recession on. Canadians and PRs are out of work. It's very, very hard to get the required LMO from HSRDC to get the work permit - especially something that isn't highly skilled.

Having her as a visitor is just fine though. She won't be able to work though.

Important note: You want the outland route not the inland one. It's very much faster.

I suggest you get your GF started on the forms right away. They take a while to get done.

(You fell in love at Timmy's? How cute!)

CharlesT

Yeah I guess that makes sense, considering the economy!
Concering in-land out-land routes, the CIC website instructs the sponsor to send both sets of forms, wouldn't that take us the in-land route regardless of the current residency of the PR applicant? Or would it go via embassies anyway because of the residency?
EDIT: Another question, on the application for PR form, we're a little confused at to what we're supposed to put as the 'start' of our common-law relationship, is this the date we hit 1 year of living together? If so, that's literally 1 year, to the day, as it was a Bunac, we never lived together before that since I had to remain a dependant for the purposes of my family's PR application.

Thanks for being so helpful!

ESarge

Go to this page. Click on the link that says, "If your spouse, partner or dependent child lives abroad, use the Application to Sponsor a Member of the Family Class."

You want the *second* link - not the first one.

Yes, both the application to sponsor and the pr application itself goes to Canada but you really want the outland route - which is the second link above. It's a lot, lot quicker. In fact, there is no quicker way to get PR.

CharlesT

These are the forms I have, but thanks since now I know we have the right ones! Haha!
Did you happen to notice my previous question about the dates? I'm still fairly stumped on that one, do you happen to know if it's referring to the date our relationship became common-law or when our relationship began?

EDIT: Is there a guide for the application for PR that is as thorough as the Application to Sponsor? We're finding that the PR application forms are a lot more vague and without good documentation to help, as opposed to the relatively well explained, then thoroughly explained in a guide sponsorship application. I feel bad having the easy part! :P

SECOND EDIT: In the Sponsor questionnaire, under highest level of education completed, there are boxes for number of years completed, is this asking me how many years of school I've completed total, or how many years I spent at that specific level of education?

Thanks Agaaaaain!

el_richo

My suggestion, rightly or wrongly, would be to follow one of these:

1, Have your parents write and sign a letter stating that you and your young lady friend lived as common law partners for 12 months in their basement during her 1 year BUNAC period.

OR

2, Get married as if you're going through all of your current hassle to be together then this is probably on the cards anyway.

Good luck

dbd33

What we did was:

- girlfriend visits, six months at a time, for a year and a half

- seeking a more secure status in Canada girlfriend enrolls in a course of study and gets a study permit. In this case it was a one year cooking course at a Community College.

- I then sponsored her using the time as a visitor and some of that from the study period.

This is an expensive proposition, neither visitors nor students can work and foreign student fees are high, but it does get the job done.

Kynn

She could visit you here, be (likely) admitted for 6 mos as a visitor. BEFORE that 6 mos expires, you can apply for an extension I believe for another 6 mos if needed. IF she is here as a visitor, you need to apply outland as her country of *residence* is not Canada (she's a visitor here). During this time as a visitor she cannot work...at all...anywhere in Canada. But, it would meet 1 yr. IF you've already got a year together as "husband and wife", you wouldn't need to wait a year to apply and then wait MORE to have it processed. What about getting your parents to write a letter saying that you were living in a common-law relationship for the year and that you were renting the basement apartment from them. If you really wanted you could take this to a lawyer and have it all made "official"-like. Don't know if that would help with the validity of it or not, but maybe it would make you feel more comfortable about it? Do you have ANY bills in both names? Insurance policies (life insurance, car insurance, health insurance etc)? Any "official" documents other than bank statements?

What about travel tickets from trips to visit each other prior to the year of common-law? Maybe that would help show that this is an on-going, long term relationship?

BristolUK

Isn't 4 years a bit young?