Question about Common-Law

[murkrow292]

I moved to Canada from the UK with my partner on open working visas in September 2018. We have since been working and living on Canada and are about to apply for CEC as we will have 1 year experience in Class A and B jobs respectively.

We had planned to fill out separate applications as we didn't think we counted as common-law in Canada but when I was filling out my application I came across this:

A common-law partner is a person of the opposite or same sex with whom you have lived in a marital-type relationship continuously for a minimum of one (1) year and with whom you are not married. Once you have lived together for the first year, temporary separations will not end the relationship.

We have been living together for over a year (and 2 years before that in the UK) and share bills, own a car together etc. Should we be filling out our applications as a common-law application? If so do we need to get this verified by someone?

Thanks in advance for the help

 

[k.h.p.]

You are common-law and should apply as such, but if you both intended to apply separately you can identify the other as a spouse.

 

[murkrow292]

Okay makes sense thanks, do you know if there's any advantage to applying as common-law vs two individual applications? I.e. will our scores be combined and there will be one overall decision for the both of us?

 

[k.h.p.]

You are each evaluated independently.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

I moved to Canada from the UK with my partner on open working visas in September 2018. We have since been working and living on Canada and are about to apply for CEC as we will have 1 year experience in Class A and B jobs respectively.

We had planned to fill out separate applications as we didn't think we counted as common-law in Canada but when I was filling out my application I came across this:

A common-law partner is a person of the opposite or same sex with whom you have lived in a marital-type relationship continuously for a minimum of one (1) year and with whom you are not married. Once you have lived together for the first year, temporary separations will not end the relationship.

We have been living together for over a year (and 2 years before that in the UK) and share bills, own a car together etc. Should we be filling out our applications as a common-law application? If so do we need to get this verified by someone?

Thanks in advance for the help

You are both required to include the other in each app. This means each filling out forms and submitting docs for both apps. If one of you has enough points with the other included as accompanying to get an ITA, you can just submit one app under that person.

 

[jes_ON]

Okay makes sense thanks, do you know if there's any advantage to applying as common-law vs two individual applications? I.e. will our scores be combined and there will be one overall decision for the both of us?

You are common-law, if you applied as a single person that would be misrepresentation.

You can apply with yourself as Principal Applicant, or your spouse as Principal Applicant. There are different points awarded for Principal applicant vs spouse, but both generate points. You can calculate your scores both ways (meaning testing which combination of principal applicant-dependent gets the most points).
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/crs-tool.asp

You both have to be on each other´s application, so there is no real advantage to submitting two applications (and it is not cheap - processing fees alone will be CAD 1100, you would pay that twice for two applications).

 

[canuck_in_uk]

You are common-law, if you applied as a single person that would be misrepresentation.

You can apply with yourself as Principal Applicant, or your spouse as Principal Applicant. There are different points awarded for Principal applicant vs spouse, but both generate points. You can calculate your scores both ways (meaning testing which combination of principal applicant-dependent gets the most points).
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/skilled/crs-tool.asp

You both have to be on each other´s application, so there is no real advantage to submitting two applications (and it is not cheap - processing fees alone will be CAD 1100, you would pay that twice for two applications).

They wouldn't have to pay fees twice if they just include each other as non-accompanying.

 

[jes_ON]

They wouldn't have to pay fees twice if they just include each other as non-accompanying.

They are both in Canada.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

They are both in Canada.

Yes but each qualifying on their own and having their own app is a valid reason for non-accompanying.

 

[murkrow292]

Thanks everyone for the responses! After doing some further research with the online calculators it looks like my partner scores around 490 CRS, whereas i'm around 360 so we're going to go ahead and fill out one application with her as principal applicant and me as accompanying common-law.

I wouldn't want to get into a situation where we had to pay twice for the application if we didn't need to as it's already quite expensive to apply.