- Jan 16, 2010
- 1
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Sydney, Australia
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 20-05-2010
- AOR Received.
- 09-07-2010
- File Transfer...
- 23-06-2010
- Med's Done....
- 02-03-2010
- Interview........
- Waived
- Passport Req..
- 22-09-2010
- VISA ISSUED...
- 27-09-2010
- LANDED..........
- 13-01-2011
Hello Toby,
I appreciate your help. Here are below answers in blue.
**************************************************************
My husband is a Canadian citizenship. We got married in Thailand for years but have been living abroad in different countries until we landed in Canada today. I understand that to marry a foreign woman and perform marriage abroad is also legally recognized as well as Canada, but in reality regarding to Canadian laws, it is not quite legally recognized when it comes to beneficiaries/rights/estates/pensions, etc. (His status is still valid as "single status", not "marital status after having been married till now".
It would help if you gave us the source for this statement, so we may examine the details. On the face of it is it doesn't make sense to me that Canada recognizes a foreign marriage but treats the deceased as a single when it come time to apportion the Estate to beneficiaries. I suspect that you are citing the Law governing dying intestate, but don't want to guess. It's more efficient if you cite your source, and we can go from there.
Most benefits we have had are mostly from his company pension. I do not know how CPP & OAS work in Canada. My husband does not know anything much and he tries to avoid any costs if possible. That is the problem. What I know is on his company pension, he did included his parents for 25% of all his company pension as well as his income sources (investments, bank accounts). The house that we are going to buy, the mortgage will be in our names as well as the estate owners but he has opened the single account (his own name) to transfer money when it comes to pay mortgage bills monthly.
To avoid any beneficiaries/rights conflicts with his parents/relatives in the future, as we are having baby here, we discussed that if anything happens with him, we agree to have all his beneficiaries (estates,funds,pensions,etc) go to our kids and me. Due to his dangerous job and being far away from home very often, he's afraid of having his parents/relatives involved in this if he deceases in the future. He doesn't want to pay the lawyer for the wills and he wants me to have complete rights to possess all his heritage for me and for kids.
I recommend that you (1) write a Will (have it witnessed by two people who would not be beneficiaries); (2) designate you as beneficiary on all insurance policies and any employment pension. This would eliminate any problems at the time of settling the Estate; (3) designate you as Trustee of his Estate (thus you make the decisions); and most importantly (4) discuss the Will with family, so there are no surprises.
Referring to the first answer above, those benefits have been mentioned and already submitted to his company for years. Only house that we are going to buy together will put our both names as joint owners in the estate. As you mentioned about trustee, is it necessary to have it? I did mentioned that if something happened in the future and with your single status would probably not allow me to own/have rights on this estate even though our marriage certificate was recognized in Canada (I have used our foreign marriage certificate to register PR benefits and CRA, and CRA has changed his status from single to martial status. However, the Statistics Office (Service Canada) did not know/recognize our foreign marriage certificate. They said if was legally registered then it would recognize in Canada. My point is I agree what Service Canada said because I have not had any registration problems (ie opening joint account, company benefits) but my concern is if there is something happened unpredictably due to any circumstances, would I be eligible to have rights on those benefits and estates? It is hard for me to convince him to believe and he does not want to pay for the lawyer to detail all benefits because of costs. He does not believe that I would get any problem if that happened because he could see I had no problem when using foreign marriage certificate for any registrations here. I think common practices are acceptable but if it comes to death, divorce,etc, would that be another story that I had to bring children back to my homecountry with nothing?
After we also contacted Ontario service/Newfoundland Government, we were refused to get help from this. They said "Even though marriage outside Canada is legally recognized but nothing to do or change his single status to marital status because he married outside Canada".
This could mean that you need not do anything to get your foreign marriage officially recognized in Canada. I can't be sure without hearing the comments first-hand. But I did call the Ontario Service Canada people, and was told (see separate post) that all you'd have to do is prove that you are a spouse (show your foreign marriage certificate) to be entitled to any CPP and OAS pensions your husband had accumulated by the time if his death. And if you are the designated beneficiary on any employer pension and insurance policies, there is no question but that you will get the payments.
To register kids and me in CPP & OAS pensions, how should my husband do? I am unsure if the deferred benefits pension provided by his company would be the same as CPP & OAS pensions? If yes, that goes to his parents for 25% of all funds (investments, bank accounts, company pensions except the house). If no, how would that work to have my husband register/put my name into this CPP&OAS pensions? (if CPP&OAS pensions are not part of his company's pension then, my understanding is he has still have his parents' name in there).
One more thing is we are moving from ON to NL, and we have things done legally in NL, Canada.We did asked the same question to Service Canada in NL, they said that foreign marriage certificate was recognized here in Canada, and there was no need to remarry for marriage registration in Canada (but some couples did as Service Canada didn't know how the marriage registration conflicts were if having deaths, divorce, etc, the first marriage registration that is taken place would count by Canadian law). Now we are in the middle of nowhere, and we still do not know if I am commonly recognized my rights/eligibility of current benefits/legal actions only or through the future.
As said earlier, it seems that having trustee, we might have to pay for extra money indefinitely? I talked about trustee to him before and our foreign marriage certificate would cause problem in the future if we had no trustee under my name (his concern is cost), that is why it's the problem
Thank you
I appreciate your help. Here are below answers in blue.
**************************************************************
My husband is a Canadian citizenship. We got married in Thailand for years but have been living abroad in different countries until we landed in Canada today. I understand that to marry a foreign woman and perform marriage abroad is also legally recognized as well as Canada, but in reality regarding to Canadian laws, it is not quite legally recognized when it comes to beneficiaries/rights/estates/pensions, etc. (His status is still valid as "single status", not "marital status after having been married till now".
It would help if you gave us the source for this statement, so we may examine the details. On the face of it is it doesn't make sense to me that Canada recognizes a foreign marriage but treats the deceased as a single when it come time to apportion the Estate to beneficiaries. I suspect that you are citing the Law governing dying intestate, but don't want to guess. It's more efficient if you cite your source, and we can go from there.
Most benefits we have had are mostly from his company pension. I do not know how CPP & OAS work in Canada. My husband does not know anything much and he tries to avoid any costs if possible. That is the problem. What I know is on his company pension, he did included his parents for 25% of all his company pension as well as his income sources (investments, bank accounts). The house that we are going to buy, the mortgage will be in our names as well as the estate owners but he has opened the single account (his own name) to transfer money when it comes to pay mortgage bills monthly.
To avoid any beneficiaries/rights conflicts with his parents/relatives in the future, as we are having baby here, we discussed that if anything happens with him, we agree to have all his beneficiaries (estates,funds,pensions,etc) go to our kids and me. Due to his dangerous job and being far away from home very often, he's afraid of having his parents/relatives involved in this if he deceases in the future. He doesn't want to pay the lawyer for the wills and he wants me to have complete rights to possess all his heritage for me and for kids.
I recommend that you (1) write a Will (have it witnessed by two people who would not be beneficiaries); (2) designate you as beneficiary on all insurance policies and any employment pension. This would eliminate any problems at the time of settling the Estate; (3) designate you as Trustee of his Estate (thus you make the decisions); and most importantly (4) discuss the Will with family, so there are no surprises.
Referring to the first answer above, those benefits have been mentioned and already submitted to his company for years. Only house that we are going to buy together will put our both names as joint owners in the estate. As you mentioned about trustee, is it necessary to have it? I did mentioned that if something happened in the future and with your single status would probably not allow me to own/have rights on this estate even though our marriage certificate was recognized in Canada (I have used our foreign marriage certificate to register PR benefits and CRA, and CRA has changed his status from single to martial status. However, the Statistics Office (Service Canada) did not know/recognize our foreign marriage certificate. They said if was legally registered then it would recognize in Canada. My point is I agree what Service Canada said because I have not had any registration problems (ie opening joint account, company benefits) but my concern is if there is something happened unpredictably due to any circumstances, would I be eligible to have rights on those benefits and estates? It is hard for me to convince him to believe and he does not want to pay for the lawyer to detail all benefits because of costs. He does not believe that I would get any problem if that happened because he could see I had no problem when using foreign marriage certificate for any registrations here. I think common practices are acceptable but if it comes to death, divorce,etc, would that be another story that I had to bring children back to my homecountry with nothing?
After we also contacted Ontario service/Newfoundland Government, we were refused to get help from this. They said "Even though marriage outside Canada is legally recognized but nothing to do or change his single status to marital status because he married outside Canada".
This could mean that you need not do anything to get your foreign marriage officially recognized in Canada. I can't be sure without hearing the comments first-hand. But I did call the Ontario Service Canada people, and was told (see separate post) that all you'd have to do is prove that you are a spouse (show your foreign marriage certificate) to be entitled to any CPP and OAS pensions your husband had accumulated by the time if his death. And if you are the designated beneficiary on any employer pension and insurance policies, there is no question but that you will get the payments.
To register kids and me in CPP & OAS pensions, how should my husband do? I am unsure if the deferred benefits pension provided by his company would be the same as CPP & OAS pensions? If yes, that goes to his parents for 25% of all funds (investments, bank accounts, company pensions except the house). If no, how would that work to have my husband register/put my name into this CPP&OAS pensions? (if CPP&OAS pensions are not part of his company's pension then, my understanding is he has still have his parents' name in there).
One more thing is we are moving from ON to NL, and we have things done legally in NL, Canada.We did asked the same question to Service Canada in NL, they said that foreign marriage certificate was recognized here in Canada, and there was no need to remarry for marriage registration in Canada (but some couples did as Service Canada didn't know how the marriage registration conflicts were if having deaths, divorce, etc, the first marriage registration that is taken place would count by Canadian law). Now we are in the middle of nowhere, and we still do not know if I am commonly recognized my rights/eligibility of current benefits/legal actions only or through the future.
As said earlier, it seems that having trustee, we might have to pay for extra money indefinitely? I talked about trustee to him before and our foreign marriage certificate would cause problem in the future if we had no trustee under my name (his concern is cost), that is why it's the problem
Thank you
