Choosing a lawyer for applying for PR

[canadianwoman]

When a couple divorces, the matrimonial home is half hers, half his - doesn't matter who paid for it. Other things that one spouse owned coming in to the marriage still belong to that spouse - only the increase in value is considered half one spouse and half the other.

 

[journeyman]

Hi Jeff,

I am Canadian, sponsoring my American husband. We were married in the U.S. since he is not able to come to Canada until his PR is approved. Our marriage is considered legal. I have been approved as sponsor and the file is currently in Buffalo, awaiting approval of the next stage.

I agree with the previous posters. Marriage is the best option to apply under. I also don't think that a lawyer is necessary. While the forms may seem daunting, once you start completing them and collecting all the backup documentation to prove the relationship, it will not seem so bad. If a lawyer completes them, you will still have to provide all the information required anyways.

Some pointers, document the development of the relationship in great detail, including any emails/IMs/phone records/SKYPE that you have. Cards exchanged and photos, especially of the wedding are needed. Supporting financial records (you can read details in the guide) are important.

FBI fingerprints records are good for 90 days but can take up to 13 weeks to get back from VA so timing is important.

The medical is good for a year so again timing is important.

Any questions you have, members here are to help, we've all been through it.

Welcome and good luck.



EDIT: I MEANT 'NOT' NECESSARY. must have still been half asleep. Sorry

 

[FHRocker]

Some pointers, document the development of the relationship in great detail, including any emails/IMs/phone records/SKYPE that you have. Cards exchanged and photos, especially of the wedding are needed. Supporting financial records (you can read details in the guide) are important.

This part has me a bit worried. Most of our communication has been done via MSN or Skype chat. For MSN, neither of us have typically stored history on our computers and for Skype, well it's all voice. I have all our emails still from the beginning but we don't have an abundance of them due to chatting online.

We have some Expedia itinerary's for our trips, and a decent amount of pictures as well.

For now, we're awaiting the fingerprints and then were going to submit it all.

 

[canadianwoman]

You can usually get a printout of Skype calls - a call log, like a phone bill.

 

[Jeff]

As FHRocker (my spouse) states, we're in the middle of collecting our information right now while we await the fingerprints. We only recently submitted them so now we wait.

*edit* I just looked at my Skype log and sure enough there is a log of them. However, what if there are some pretty private parts of a conversation? :-X

 

[sbwv09]

You can just show the time stamps or whatever from your chat and delete the personal parts.

 

[toby]

When a couple divorces, the matrimonial home is half hers, half his - doesn't matter who paid for it. Other things that one spouse owned coming in to the marriage still belong to that spouse - only the increase in value is considered half one spouse and half the other.

Canadianwoman: Are you agreeing with Opinion #2, then? Do you have a specific legal authority on which to base your viewpoint?

The reason I am pressing this matter is that a divorce lawyer told me opinion #1 was correct, but when I asked other lawyers for confirmation (since the popular consensus favours opinion #2, as do you), they wanted me to pay them thousands of dollars for what should be a 30-second answer.

So, since you seem knowledgeable, please send me to your source. And thanks.

 

[JimM]

I know having your fiance come to America under a visa other than a fiance visa with the intent to marry is a violation of US law, maybe the poster had that in mind. Canadians are visa exempt so it should be no problem to drive down and get married.

As to whether or not to hire a lawyer, that comes down to how comfortable you feel with the forms and the process. There's plenty of people on here who've done it themselves and had no problem. There's also plenty who are confused, have run into difficulties and ended up delaying approval of their PR. My fiance and I are leaning towards retaining a lawyer, (most likely the one who sponsors this site), simply because having an expert to make sure everything is in order and catch any mistakes we might make. neither of us want to deal with several months worth of delay because we misunderstood something we were answering after a long week at work.

 

[canadianwoman]

I have hired a lawyer for my husband's appeal, and I am beginning to regret it. Why? It's because while the lawyer seems knowledgeable and would surely catch any mistakes we are making, it is not the lawyer who is doing the work on the case - it is her secretary, who seems clueless. Just yesterday I was talking to her on the phone, and she had no idea what CAIPS notes or FOSS notes were. Since every single immigration case going to an appeal is going to have CAIPS notes, this makes me fear the secretary has never worked on an immigration file before. So far, all work on my case has been done by someone who knows less about the process than I do.
Has it been worth the money? Not yet.

 

[JimM]

Did you hire an immigration specialist or a lawyer who handles immigration among other things? If they specialize in immigration and the secretary didn't know about those things I'd be very worried too

 

[canadianwoman]

She advertises as an immigration specialist. It is a one-lawyer firm, so I suspect the secretary is a new one.

 

[BostonGirl]

Fiancee Visa? This is the first i'm hearing about this!
My fiancee is Canadian, does he need this to come to the States to marry me?
Or can he just come visit me for 6 months and marry me.

Thank you.

 

[JimM]

Fiancee Visa? This is the first i'm hearing about this!
My fiancee is Canadian, does he need this to come to the States to marry me?
Or can he just come visit me for 6 months and marry me.

Thank you.

I don't believe he would, the fiance visa seems to be a first step towards American residency and a Green Card. And since Canadians are visa exempt you should be fine.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.eb1d4c2a3e5b9ac89243c6a7543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=640a3e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD&vgnextchannel=640a3e4d77d73210VgnVCM100000082ca60aRCRD

 

[canadianwoman]

Canadianwoman: Are you agreeing with Opinion #2, then? Do you have a specific legal authority on which to base your viewpoint?

The reason I am pressing this matter is that a divorce lawyer told me opinion #1 was correct, but when I asked other lawyers for confirmation (since the popular consensus favours opinion #2, as do you), they wanted me to pay them thousands of dollars for what should be a 30-second answer.

My source is my sister, a legal secretary, who asked her boss. She said each province has different rules. In Saskatchewan, the house the couple lived in while married is the matrimonial home, which is half his, half hers on divorce - doesn't matter who bought it.
Any other investments are a different issue. Particularily because investments go up and down in value. Just because the husband's stocks have taken a dive and at the time of divorce are worth less than he paid, doesn't mean they couldn't increase in value the day after the divorce.
In any case, the split of assets after the divorce - except for the matrimonial home - is negotiable. The judge will take into account what is fair (one hopes).
I saw one case on Canlii where the couple were actually married only 45 days, but the wife still wanted half the house (completely paid for by the man before marriage). The judge didn't even give half of the increased value of the home, because they hadn't been married long enough.

 

[rjessome]

toby, I would suggest researching the Divorce Act and Canlii decisions and/or other sites with Provincial Supreme Court Decisions. Division of the matrimonial property is often very contentious and has a lot to do with how long a couple was married, were they living common law before the marriage, children, reasons for the divorce (emotional, physical abuse) and what couples actually may agree to without having to go to trial which is costsly and lengthy. Often time, couples will opt for arbitration and try to come up with a separation agreement before the divorce is final to settle the issue of asset division. There are just too many things to consider to get a black and white answer. Did one person give up a lucrative career to stay at home and have babies? It's a very subjective, he said/she said area of law.

I disagree to an extent that it depends on the province because the Divorce Act is federal, unlike the US where divorce is governed by state law. However, canadianwoman may be right too because divorces are filed in the provincial supreme courts and the first precedents that will be considered for each matter (if it goes to trial) are in the provincial supreme court jurisidiction. However, this does not preclude the use of federal cases. But who wants to wait for up to 10 years to appeal all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada (if they would even consider it)? The legal costs would probably outweigh the assets!