yankeegurl60 Wrote:Here's a bit of a reveiw of my situation... I am a US citizen and I have lived here in Canada with my boyfriend for over a year and a half which I was informed qualifies me as a common law partner even tho I am not here on any type of visa so am considered illegal. (although I do travel back to the states every few months or so) I was told I should apply with an outland app. First, if I use the outland app do I have to be in the states? Second, do I/can I use my Canadian address as my address? I'm assuming yes because I don't want to lie on an app but I just want to make sure. It just seems that an outland app should have an address in the states but my address is here in canada... it's confusing me.
You can stay in Canada even while filing an outland application - and you
should filed outland. If you file an inland application without having valid, documented temporary status in Canada your application will get transferred to one of CIC's local offices for processing, and many of those offices are backlogged in excess of two years. That will put you at a huge disadvantage - you'll be unable to leave Canada because if you're not allowed re-entry, your inland ap is forfeited . . . and chances you'd be refused re-entry would be greater because they'll know you've been in Canada illegally - plus they'll know where to find you. You'll also be transferred before they grant you Approval in Principle so, not only will you be stuck in Canada, you'll be stuck without a way to get valid temporary status - you'll have no option for getting a work or study permit, or healthcare or anything else. So outland is your safest option. It allows you to go back to the States if you have to without jeapordizing the application.
That said - addresses: use your Canadian address as your
mailing address only; but not your residential address. You have to have been admitted to Canada initially with documented temporary status that was valid for at least one year to be eligible to use your Canadian address as your residential address. Just use the address of a family member in the States for the residential address - the only thing they use the residential address for is to determine which overseas visa office will handle the application, they won't try to contact you there. And US citizen applicants always process through Buffalo anyway. However,
do use the "Interview Preference Location" form that's in Appendix A of the
Region Specific forms to designate an interview location (Detroit, Seattle, NYC) that's close to your Province. Buffalo doesn't do interviews for Family Class applicants (other than ones with legal temporary status in Canada) so if an interview
is required, it will happen at the outlying visa office that's closest to the
residential address you include on the ap. You could end up having to go to Los Angeles or somewhere for an interview if you don't designate an office with that form.
Be aware that you might have some difficulty "proving" your common-law qualification when your cohabitation has been in Canada without documentation. But unless you get married, you've got no other choice. You should read through the
OP2 Processing Manual, section 5.34-5.36 for info on common-law qualification so you can include as much info as possible - and be prepared to be asked to attend an interview. And as I mentioned, any interview would be held in the States - so that means there's a risk that you might not be allowed to return to Canada after leaving. Your partner should accompany you, with proof of his sponsorship approval, and be prepared to ask on your behalf to allow you to come into Canada for the remainder of processing if you get into trouble on re-entry. Try to avoid getting into a discussion about how you've been in Canada together all this time . . . which could easily come up if they start asking questions about how you qualify as common-law partners when neither of you is allowed to stay in each other's countries for more than 6 months.