Title fixed!
A conjugal visa is for people who are forced to be separated due to laws or extreme circumstances beyond their control.
Your job, mortgage, children etc are not strong enough reasons to be living apart from your significant other. You would have to show you have done everything in your power to be together during your relationship to be approved for this type of visa.
An example of the type of people that would apply under this class of visa would be a same sex couple who aren't allowed to be married in the DR and tried for a visitor visa to Canada and were denied.
Laws are keeping them apart in this case.
Another example is in you needed a visitor visa to travel to your boyfriend/girlfriends country and to be back in Canada because your visa had expired thus keeping you apart...this doesn't apply to Canada/Dominican Republic as we are free to travel to/from there anytime we like.
Permanent residency for spouses is difficult, for Common Law even more difficult and I would assume Conjugal class wouldn't be any easier than Common Law.
You would have to have a lot of proof to show why you can't just move there to live with them and apply under the spousal or common law class.
We had a member recently denied under the Common Law class for not having sufficient proof of joint finances, proof of address, employment etc for the time she was living there. Passport stamps weren't enough, letters from landlords weren't enough. It is EXTREMELY difficult to get a visa through this type of application. It didn't matter that they had lived together for more than 1 year and had a genuine relationship...it was the paperwork that was important.
If you are a same sex couple then this is the route to go and you would likely not have much difficulty as long as you can prove why you haven't moved there for the 1 year minimum requirement and tried for the visitor visa and were denied.
If you aren't a same sex couple, then your best bet is the Spousal class.
Here is the info copied directly from the CIC website....
You can sponsor a person as a conjugal partner(1) if
that person is of the opposite or same sex,
that person is residing outside Canada (that is, has, for legal purposes, a fixed, permanent and principal home outside Canada),
and
you have maintained a conjugal relationship with that person for at least one year, that is you have been in a committed and mutually interdependent relationship of some permanence where you have combined your affairs to the extent possible.
**(1) This last category is intended for partners of Canadian sponsors who would ordinarily apply as
common-law partners but cannot meet the definition, that is were not able to live together continuously for one year with their sponsor, or spouses, but marriage to their sponsor is usually not an available option to them, usually because of marital status or sexual orientation, combined with an immigration barrier (for example, rules preventing partner and sponsor of long stays in one another’s countries).
If your sponsorship is successful, your conjugal partner becomes a permanent resident of Canada but cannot exercise any rights or privileges associated with common-law status until you have cohabited for at least one year.
Good Luck
Sangria
Last edited by sangria; 10-20-2009 at 04:28 PM..
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