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| Subject: PR with common-law, but splitting up... |
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I found your details and i wondered if you may be able to help me. I have tried searching for advice on the internet but so far have not found anything that helps with my query. Basically i am a UK resident and i have just received Canadian PR with my common-law partner of 13 years (also a UK resident). We are currently in Canada having landed just over a month ago. Over the past few months we have had some tough times for a variety of reasons, but we both wanted to come here for a fresh start together as it is something we have dreamed of for the past 4 years when we first put in our residency applications. The question that i really wanted to find out (but don´t really know how or who to ask without sounding terrible) is that if we were to split up in the future, how would this affect our PR (if at all), and any future relationships - i notice that the paperwork in our passports details our common-law relationship together and we have to keep this paperwork forever from what i gather. I wonder that if we are not together in the future, but are with different partners, if this would become an issue with immigration as I will probably have to go back and forth to the UK sometimes and i am not sure what questions to expect from them. If i were to marry a non-Canadian resident (from the UK) in the future who is not my current common-law partner, would it be at all possible for me to sponsor him so that we could live here in Canada together, or would there always be a problem due to obtaining my original PR status with my current common-law partner? I assume that couples do split up and we wouldn´t be the only people potentially in this situation, but, i do not want to risk either of us losing our PR as we care deeply for each other and love living in Canada and both would wish remain here even if we were separate.
I would just like to understand how our PR status affects both of us and what obligations it places on us for the rest of our lives, if that makes sense. I was the primary applicant, if that makes any difference to anything.
Thank you so much, and i am sorry for the questions, it is just hard to know what to do.
[28-05-2010,17:57]
[**.64.94.203]
NeedAdvice |
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(in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
Terminating your relationship will not affect in any way shape or form your PR status.
You are already a PR, what you do with your life is up to you.
[28-05-2010,18:32]
[***.115.153.178]
DocD |
PR with common-law, but splitting up... (in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
Thank you so much for your reply. just to check, is that true of both of us - that from now on if we split up our PR would be considered as individuals, despite being obtained together originally?
Also, if i marry a uk man in the future, how will that affect me? Do you know if i would be able to sponsor him to come and live with me in canada? Would immigration question why my original PR was with a different man? If i understand correctly we would have to be together and live together for at least a year, which would probably have to be in the uk if he is not a canadian resident. It sounds on paper as if it could be very complicated and i worry that it would not be possible, but maybe i am just over complicating things!
[29-05-2010,00:39]
[**.64.94.203]
NeedAdvice |
(in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
If you split after landing you are considered individuals.
However, be very careful. If you try and validate/explain a relationship to UK man #2 and there are some date issues - CIC may give you grief.
If you marry UK man #2 the 1 year common law rule does not apply. Whatever the case, do not be tempted to use an inland sponsorship method - Outland is the best route. It is faster and there is an option to appeal - which you might need.
[29-05-2010,01:32]
[**.154.245.217]
Sharon |
(in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
I love hypathetical questions that smell of a marriage of convienance!
You got landed becuase of a MOC and now want to bring another person over to Canada.
Look to the sponsors question of the forms #17 you will have to admit you got landed as common law and list the former partners name there.
Then he/she will be kicked for an interview and refused and if you hide how you got Landed CBSA will come after you and take away your PR status.
Roy
cvimmigration.com
[29-05-2010,06:33]
[**.71.122.199]
Roy |
PR with common-law, but splitting up... (in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
Thank you so much for your replies. It is absolutely not a marriage of convienience, more a complicated emotional situation involving a long term common-law partner who i love deeply and our lives are intertwined but now sometimes have doubts as to whether we should still be together. We bought a house in canada years ago because we dreamed of living here and that dream hasn´t changed,it has now become reality. Unfortunately when several years pass a lot can happen and life is rarely black and white, and during the difficult times we had recently (that pretty much every couple goes through) before we were granted our residency, i unexpectedly met and fell in love with another man who is still in my head and my heart. My common-law partner wants us to have a long and happy life together here which we have started, and i am mostly happy. But, like i said emotions are not straighforward and i was in a heart wrenching situation a few months ago where i had to decide on a future and of course it still is in my head, wondering if i have done the right thing.
i do appreciate your advice so much, and i apologise if this situation sounds bad but as i said after 15 years nothing is straightforward and there are different levels of love.
[29-05-2010,14:28]
[**.64.94.203]
NeedAdvice |
(in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
far be it for anyone here to judge you and your heart.
Your biggest challenge is a skeptical immigration service that constantly encounters relationships that are entered in to, retained or used in some fashion for a little document called Permanent Residency. Unfortunately, they have become cynics and are not much interested in the levels of love and heart wrenching stories. I have personally had to make some significant sacrifices in the acknowledgment that CIC does not always understand real life.
Be mentally and emotionally prepared for intense scrutiny.
the best of luck to you.
[29-05-2010,14:54]
[**.154.245.217]
Sharon |
PR with common-law, but splitting up... (in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
Thank you Sharon,
That makes a lot of sense, and i suppose it is understandable in everything the immigration services see on a daily basis. I do hope things worked out for you despite the hardships...
In an ideal world it would be nice to make choices based on the place you adore living in (and happily contribute to the community and economy), as well as having the freedom to try and follow your heart knowing that if you make a mistake, that is life and you deal with it, and you haven´t also risked losing everything else you love as well.
[29-05-2010,15:11]
[**.64.94.203]
NeedAdvice |
(in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
it is easier to say that for those of us who currently live on the ´greener´ side of the fence. I view a UK-Canada move as lateral and therefore for very different reasons than many from developing countries. There are millions of people desperate to change their lot in life and when you are one lie away from a supposedly better life the temptation to push barriers out of the way ethically or otherwise is significant. I see it on this forum all the time.
I can appreciate someone´s desperation but I can also appreciate the need for CIC to park their hearts and stick to the facts.
[29-05-2010,15:26]
[**.154.245.217]
Sharon |
PR with common-law, but splitting up... (in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
Roy thank you for your reply - I am not looking to hide anything, i do not even know what will happen in the future yet, i am just asking for advice and facts so i can at least consider accurately my current situation and any choices that i do or don´t make. I suppose your cynicism is a taster of what i could expect in the future from immigration if things were not to work out with my current partner in the long term. My feeling is that it is almost impossible to explain a long and complicated situation in a way that has any validity to anyone who is not in it, and therefore the powers that be are unlikely to allow me any change of heart in the future and to remain in Canada with a non canadian partner.
I suppose this gives the options of either making my life as it is right now work out. or returning to the uk at some point if it doesn´t and probably sacrificing my canadian pr if i want to be with someone else who i may well not be able to live with in canada. or building a life in canada on my own in the future.
[30-05-2010,01:01]
[**.64.94.203]
NeedAdvice |
(in reply to: PR with common-law, but splitting up...)
I am not suggesting you don´t try... but I would encourage you to know the downsides and have a plan B. The worst CIC can say is No
[30-05-2010,01:35]
[**.154.245.217]
Sharon |
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