Common-law address: Residential vs Mailing address?

[JasonGraham]

Hi there!

I have been granted a Young Professionals visa and I am looking at how to transition from the YP to PR through common law. Our plan is the following:

12 months living with my partner under the YP visa > Visitor record for X additional months to ensure we meet the 12-month requirement > Submit Common law application > AOR > Open permit > PR

Now, this is the question. My partner is registered at her mother's in Vancouver, although we are going to be living and working on one of the Gulf Islands. However, we haven't managed to secure a stable lease (the housing situation is terrible) so we were wondering whether we could use her mom's address -the most stable one we have at hand- as the residential address to register all our stuff that eventually will become our proofs for common law (joint bank account, car insurance, driving licenses, phone bills, etc). Then, as we move from temporary lease to temporary lease on the Gulf Island, the only thing we would need to update is the mailing address - much simpler to do and unrelated to the common law process as far as I understand.

Would this work? Or would it be a problem as our registered address will literally be hours away by ferry ride from the place where we actually live and work (particularly, given that my YP is employer-dependant)!?

Thanks for your help
Fern

[Kalisspera]

If you're staying somewhere temporarily but need a fixed address for official documents, something like a Scotland Registered Address can be useful. I had a similar situation with my common-law application, and using a consistent residential address helped avoid confusion. Just make sure all documents match the same address, as IRCC tends to look closely at any inconsistencies.