Relationships and residency

Loblox

Hi all,

After getting approved for another two years, I've been talking to my girl about maybe looking into applying for residency through a relationship. I know you don't have to get married, that you can just apply as boyfriend/girlfriend as long as you've been living together for minimum twelve months. We haven't moved in together yet because she's got a roommate for another few months, but it'll happen between September-January. Current visa expires May 2016.

We're just wondering what we actually need to go through this method. Are there interviews, what proof do we need, what possible fallout could we face if it doesn't go through or they think we're putting it on (we're not)? Has anyone done it?

Thanks.

Long Gone

Loblox wrote: »

Hi all,

After getting approved for another two years, I've been talking to my girl about maybe looking into applying for residency through a relationship. I know you don't have to get married, that you can just apply as boyfriend/girlfriend as long as you've been living together for minimum twelve months. We haven't moved in together yet because she's got a roommate for another few months, but it'll happen between September-January. Current visa expires May 2016.

We're just wondering what we actually need to go through this method. Are there interviews, what proof do we need, what possible fallout could we face if it doesn't go through or they think we're putting it on (we're not)? Has anyone done it?

Thanks.

Coals to Newcastle springs to mind - I couldn't be bothered with all the immigration hassle. I just went down "The Tilted Kilt" for a few nights shortly after arriving and picked up an absolutely stunning new girlfriend who was working behind the bar !

Loblox

Long Gone wrote: »

Coals to Newcastle springs to mind - I couldn't be bothered with all the immigration hassle. I just went down "The Tilted Kilt" for a few nights shortly after arriving and picked up an absolutely stunning new girlfriend who was working behind the bar !

My girl's Canadian, so I'm wondering about to go about getting myself in through her.

Long Gone

Loblox wrote: »

My girl's Canadian, so I'm wondering about to go about getting myself in through her.

OK understood. Sorry - I misunderstood. I though you were trying to bring a girlfriend out from Ireland.
I’m not an expert but I’m led to believe that the reality is that it’s very difficult to use any other relationship than marriage to a Canadian citizen as a basis for extending your work permit. I’ve never had any problem extending my work permit by three years every time it expires. Perhaps I’m lucky in that I work in a specialist technical role that is essential in Canada, and I get total support from my company which is a MN with a major presence in Canada. Boom times in Alberta at the moment and loads of money around. Not at all sure I want to stay here forever though – The -30 C winters are extremely depressing.... Too cold to go outside – I just stay inside, drink gallons of ice cold Molsens Canadian and play with the girlfriend.....

james182

I heard they have tightened the rules on the immigration through sponsorship... I don't know about your situation though but I'm sure you have to prove your relationship is not a fake one- including correspondence or even like, do your parents know her or something like this.

Long Gone

james182 wrote: »

I heard they have tightened the rules on the immigration through sponsorship... I don't know about your situation though but I'm sure you have to prove your relationship is not a fake one- including correspondence or even like, do your parents know her or something like this.

They have certainly made it much more difficult to get a short term work permit. Even those who just need to visit Canada for work a few times per year are being forced to go down the same route as those looking to reside here full time for work. I got my last (three year) work permit last month purely on the basis of my work - I keep work / work permits / relationships completely seperate. There are Immigration information lines you can ring (you don't need to give them your name) where you could make enquiries about your particular situation.

ician

I went through this, my girlfriend is Canadian and I got the PR as a common-law partner. It's not an easy process and is massively time consuming. It took us about 4 months to prepare our application which then has to go through 2 stages of approval (3 if you are in Quebec). It took about 6-7 months after sending the application to receive an answer.

Our application was 400 pages long, the burden of proof is on you, you have to provide everything. We provided MSN conversations, Facebook messages, text messages. flight confirmations, letters from family showing support, pictures of everything we did, pictures with family, train tickets, hotel tickets, shared bank account, bank statements showing shared expenses + gifts, shared lease, 2 statutory declarations confirming it is a genuine relationship and a lot more!

The majority of genuine cases do not get called for an interview.

One big difference you may have from my situation is it sounds like you might be applying inland, whereas I applied outland. Outland means you are not a resident of Canada at the time. Inland being you are there already on a visa. Outland applications are way faster than inland, inland can take years I believe. Although I applied outland I was actually in Canada from when we sent the application to when we received the PR on a tourist visa (and subsquent tourist visa extension), as my girlfriends Irish working holiday visa had ended and we had no choice but to come here.

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/family-class-sponsorship-b5.0/ - We basically found everything on here, any questions you will have during the process will already have been asked and answered.

Good luck! As long as your relationship is genuine you will be grand!

Loblox

Exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!

One last question, in the absolute worst case scenario, what kind of legal repercussions could we face if we get rejected? Or is it just "plenty more fish in the sea, move on?"

ician

Loblox wrote: »

Exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!

One last question, in the absolute worst case scenario, what kind of legal repercussions could we face if we get rejected? Or is it just "plenty more fish in the sea, move on?"

Well, if you get called for an interview they have major doubts about your relationship, from people on the forums who were called when I was applying, they were mostly in unusual situations - large age difference, the one applying for residency was from undeveloped countries, or those where families didn't know about the partners and didn't provide supporting letters etc.

If you do get rejected, you can appeal. You are in a good position now though as you can save everything now, we too knew we would be applying in the future so we started to save everything. Nothing is too small, day trip receipts etc. Photos with friends and families when the situation arises.

Honestly though, it's a stressful, expensive and long process and would be very difficult if not impossible to get through in a non-genuine relationship.

Loblox

ician wrote: »

Honestly though, it's a stressful, expensive and long process and would be very difficult if not impossible to get through in a non-genuine relationship.

This is for real, I spent Christmas with her family, we're hoping to get to Ireland this year, she sent my niece and nephew Christmas, birthday and confirmation presents, I just need to know that if we get rejected, for whatever reason, she's not looking at any kind of record.

james182

What the hell is a statutory declarations confirming it is a genuine relationship? Where do you get those?

ician

james182 wrote: »

What the hell is a statutory declarations confirming it is a genuine relationship? Where do you get those?

Its a document done by a commissioner for oaths. We got two done, one from someone we lived with and one from a family member basically swearing our relationship was genuine and we lived together for the required period. Lawyers usually provide this service. They are suggested but not mandatory but we were advised to definitely get them done as they are not expensive and easily done. They are usually advised if you haven't gone through a common-law ceremony making your relationship legal or whatever the purpose of those are.

Lobox - there are no repercussions to your girlfriend if rejected if that is what you are worried about, only thing I could think of is if she was to go through the process again in the future it would obviously have a higher burden of proof. In the first section of the application form - the Sponsor's section (your gf) is pretty straight forward, they just have to prove they don't have a criminal record or owe the government money and answer the few questions with documentary evidence that are in that section.

One more thing, when you do apply pay for everything upfront, you have the option of paying for the different stages as your application processes, but this will delay your application massively, your aim when making your application should be to give them no reason to have to contact you at all ever as they are HIGHLYYYY inefficient with communication and your application goes back in the filing cabinet until they receive what they requested. [FONT=verdana, sans-serif]

We had to pay about $1050CAD upfront, medicals cost 160 euro, Quebec section was about $200CAD plus sending the application with tracking and sending my passport to London with tracking cost over a $100CAD altogether.[/FONT]