EEA EFM - Unmarried Partner - lack of mail from Canada

[CanadianCanuck]

Hi all,

You helped me so much with my last post, I was hoping you could help me again.

My partner and I have been together for 4 years. Lived together for 3. The first 2 years were in Canada, in my mothers basement apartment. The last year has been in a flat in England.

We arrived together to England in April 2015. We lived with friends for 3 months, and have 1 piece of evidence each of this address.

We have 4 pieces of evidence with joint names spanning June 2015-June 2016.

Main Problem: We didn't bring much mail/any government official stiff with us when we moved.
We are trying to see if our families can track down something in our storage, but I don't have much faith that there is anything.

I read on the EEA(EFM_ Guidance Notes that:

If you and your partner lived with relatives or friends for some or all of the 2-year period, please
provide a letter from the relative(s) and/or friend(s) confirming this.

(1)My mother is drawing up a letter stating that we lived with her and paid rent from May 2013-April 2015 (when we moved to England) Would this be enough proof of cohabitation without mail?

I also read:

Please give an explanation on a separate sheet if you cannot provide at least 6 items; if the items
are not addressed to both of you; or if they do not cover the 2-year period.

(2)Has there been much success with lack of evidence, and submitting an explanation? Would they take into consideration that we didn't bring a stack of old mail with us when we moved?

And finally I read in the list of items you can provide:

Any other relevant evidence

(3)This seems very open ended. We both have Canadian drivers licenses issued in 2014 that shows both of our addresses as being at my mothers. These are government official pieces of ID in Canada. Would sending photocopies of these, or the originals be advised?

(4)Do you think that with what I have at the moment, that we would be rejected?

(5) I have read in other posts that sending photographs of us is not advised. Why is this?


Sorry for the long post, thank you in advance

[noajthan]

1) Not enough.

HO plays hardball. Due to lack of specific requirements laid down in the purer, cleaner EU law, HO has simply imported a bunch of rules about durable relationships from the UK Immigration Regulations.

This approach is not directly compatible with EU law but, other than fight your corner in a court of law, what can you do.

2) Not much success.

See reasons in #1

3) HO specifies originals of all documents are required except in exceptional circumstances.

I do not know if papers left behind in Canada would qualify as an exceptional case; probably not.

(4) On a balance of probabilities (and based on members' reports in forum): Yes.

(5) It is advised. Tasteful photos obviously. And a limited number.

Even old married couples (FM) who only submit a marriage certificate have sometimes been rejected on grounds of relationship.

[CanadianCanuck]

Thanks for replying so quickly!

Would payslips count as official documents showing our addresses? Or worth a shot? Its not on the list, but could be considered relevant evidence. Will try and find taxes as those are more government official. I can get old bank statements from our banks, but I don't think those would show our old address as well, it would be the address that is on file currently. My partner also had car insurance sent to our old address, which maybe we can find.

We have some receipts (he bought me a diamond ring) that has his name and address on them, and photos of the ring on me. Would that be in any way, shape or form possible to use? Like I said, working with lack of paperwork.

If we do get rejected, whats the appeal process like? I read that you actually go to court? Or is it just more paper work? How long of a process is the appeal? if we submit now, and get rejected in Dec, could we fight it before April 2017?

They don't make this easy, do they...

[noajthan]

Payslips would help if they have an address.
Anything 'official' or from 'government' with the shared address on.

Yes, add in the jeweller's receipt too.

If rejected on a technicality its a paper reconsideration process.
I don't know about court proceedings on the EU route. (My gig was primarily UK route)

If rejected for some 'valid' reason you would just have to work at it to fix whatever the shortcoming was.
That may take time ofcourse.

Hope for the best but plan for the worst. So do have a Plan B in your back pocket.

No, its not easy, But one day you will be able to laugh about it.

[CanadianCanuck]

In this day and age, with online statements being what most people receive, do you think that printed statements with my old address would be allowed? or do they have to be official sent in the mail from the bank. I have a ton of online credit card statements that show my old address.

[noajthan]

In this day and age, with online statements being what most people receive, do you think that printed statements with my old address would be allowed? or do they have to be official sent in the mail from the bank. I have a ton of online credit card statements that show my old address.

Bank statements etc have to be officially stamped as per the guidance.

(Very easy to forge or manipulate online statements apparently).

[CanadianCanuck]

For living at different addresses, in different countries, do the same rules apply for proof of mail?

We have this for our British address:

For example – if you have 4 items of correspondence in joint names for the same address, you
would need to submit 2 items addressed to each partner at that address (8 items in total).

For our old another address do we need to prove that with an entirely different set of paperwork? Or can we tack some of those with the British address set (so 4 joint from Britain, 2 each from Canadian address)
We lived with family in Canada, so there are no joint bills there.

If you and your partner have no bills or correspondence in joint names, you will need to submit 12
items (6 each) of correspondence, showing that you live together at the same address.
If you and your partner lived with relatives or friends for some or all of the 2-year period, please
provide a letter from the relative(s) and/or friend(s) confirming this.

Thanks!

[Casa]

It would be correspondence etc. from a combination of joint addresses spread over the qualifying period.

[CanadianCanuck]

So to be clear, it is okay if we have:

4 pieces of mail/bills, joint names, from British apartment, June 2015-June 2016
4 pieces (2 pieces of mail/bills each) from Canadian apartment from June 2014-June 2015

We don't have anything joint for the Canadian address as we were living in a relatives basement apartment.

That would be sufficient in covering the whole two years?

[CanadianCanuck]

So to be clear, it is okay if we have:

4 pieces of mail/bills, joint names, from British apartment, June 2015-June 2016
4 pieces (2 pieces of mail/bills each) from Canadian apartment from June 2014-June 2015

We don't have anything joint for the Canadian address as we were living in a relatives basement apartment.

That would be sufficient in covering the whole two years?

Any shared knowledge of this matter would be greatly appreciated

[Casa]

As the proof of joint address in Canada is only in single names, you may be on the light side for this period.

[noajthan]

Any shared knowledge of this matter would be greatly appreciated

Seems sparse to me.

I appreciate Millennials live online in a virtual world but I have had to develop a practice over the years of:

• looking ahead to the next immigration-related application I will make (& the next);
  check out the requirements ahead of time;
  organise my (and family) life in order to generate the necessary papertrail;

(whether or not I want or need that papertrail for any other purpose).

[Wanderer]

Any shared knowledge of this matter would be greatly appreciated

Seems sparse to me.

I appreciate Millennials live online in a virtual world but I have had to develop a practice over the years of:

• looking ahead to the next immigration-related application I will make (& the next);
  check out the requirements ahead of time;
  organise my (and family) life in order to generate the necessary papertrail;

(whether or not I want or need that papertrail for any other purpose).

We did the same for her unmarried partner visa, made sure she was on every bill, lease, bank statement etc in paper format, nothing online with as many jointly as possible.

Pain in the arse but you have to plan for the HO requirements, they hold all the cards so it's no use arguing with them.

[CanadianCanuck]

Thanks for all the help/advice everyone!

Hindsight is certainly 20/20 haha

We know now for the future to have all these items on hand, but we didn't know coming over if we wanted to extend our time here or not. Or even how to do that. But we fell in love with the place, and hope to get a few more years here.

I will update on the timeline forum once we put in our application!

[noajthan]

Thanks for all the help/advice everyone!

Hindsight is certainly 20/20 haha

Hindsight or is it hard-learned experience, who can say.

Thinking outside the box for a moment - you could short-circuit all these shenanigans by just getting married.