Proof of common law partnership

yellow_rose

Hi, Can someone advise me please? i want to move to Canada with my child and partner, however i need to prove that i have been living with him over a year but i have no joint lease or joint bills. We can't get married as he is leagally separated but can't get a divorce for a few yrs yet. Could i get a common law marrigae cert or something? Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
YR.

watna

Have you any documentation with both your names on it? Like holiday tickets, or did you put any bills in your name?

You can't get a common law certificate and Ireland is not great at recognising it so there is nothing you can get from them as they have only starting recognising it.

My advice is to open a joint bank account and get bills in both oyur names ASAP. Anything you can think of that will show the length of your realationship do it. It might delay you going for a while but in my experience it's better to get is sorted before you go rather than get another visa to get there and then try and get the partnership visa when you get there.

I have permanent residency in NZ due to partnership so I have been through the process but I'm not sure what it is like for Canada. I was lucky in that I had a lot of documentation and we had always been aware we were going to NZ so had got everything ready as early as possible. Our supporting documentation was mainly financial (i.e. joint bank account statements, leases bills) so I got the residency quite easily.

Do you have an evidence of money being trasnferred between the two of you? In my evidence I included our own personal bank account statements and highlighted transaction where he had given me money for something and vice versa. The description would usually have "rent" or "groceries" in it so immigration could see we were sharing living costs. That can be very useful too. I also included emails from each other asking what we were having for dinner and things and discussing holiday plans so they could see how long we had been together. We had been together for two years by the time I applied so we were in a good position anyway.

Good luck anyway!

yellow_rose

Hi Watna,
Thank you for your reply, i'm doing what i can at the moment to get whatever documents i can together to prove our relationship. I have the documents for the joint bank account and i believe that having insurance on eatchother also helps so i might have to do that. I'll be getting the bills in both our names aslo. No money transfers unfortunately but i do I have some mail that indicates we live together (not much though), i just have to hope waht i put together is enough.

I read somewhere that what they investigate is people who fake relationships to get into the country but since we are both Irish and have a child then i hope that they realize we are doiing this as a family to make a better life.

Once again thank you for the advice, well done on making it to NZ, i heard it's beautiful there : )

Victor

You don't say where you live.

Having the electricity bill in your name and the gas bill in his name for the same premises might be useful.

watna

No problem, I hope you can get it sorted! If you have a child together than the birth certificate is a pretty strong piece of evidence, so I'm told. In NZ that's one of the first things they ask you, if you have any children together.

yellow_rose

Thank you again Watna, my daughter has my partner's surname so that should really help.

You have been a great help, best wishes.