My partner has been accepted on a graduate course at a Canadian university and has been granted a study permit. His course starts in September and he's already gone over to Canada. As there are a few things I need to sort out here, I'm planning on joining him in October.
I've been looking hard at the CIC website, but can't find the answer to these questions:
1) It's too late for me to apply for a work holiday visa, so I am hoping that I will be able to get an open work permit as his common law partner. However, I don't know whether I should apply for that now or when I arrive in Canada?
2) My other issue is that I'm not sure if I will fit the criteria to be a common law partner. We have been together for 14 months and have been living together in the UK. But we were living at my parents' house, so we don't have any lease agreements together or own property together. We have been receiving correspondence at the same address, we bought a car together and he is named as my partner on the car insurance certificate, but we don't have a joint bank account. Will this be enough?
Thanks in advance to everyone! My departure date is getting closer and I'm starting to panic!

Mary-Jo