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Scammer marriage

Phalos

Champion Member
Jun 19, 2020
2,566
1,293
Hi yall some of you might remember me.
SO basically I was scammed into marriage. We only lived together 3 months in Ukraine and I withdrew her sponsorship application because the Interview Officer never believed a word she said...which ended up true (Kudos to Interview agent)

Now to my problem. The "fraud wife" now acquired a CUAET visa and is planning to come to Canada.
Can she force me to sell my house and have a claim ?

We never lived together in Canada.
thx
 

Flyingfast

Hero Member
Feb 9, 2022
410
181
Hi yall some of you might remember me.
SO basically I was scammed into marriage. We only lived together 3 months in Ukraine and I withdrew her sponsorship application because the Interview Officer never believed a word she said...which ended up true (Kudos to Interview agent)

Now to my problem. The "fraud wife" now acquired a CUAET visa and is planning to come to Canada.
Can she force me to sell my house and have a claim ?

We never lived together in Canada.
thx
Talk to a lawyer. But I would say yes if she files for divorce in Canada. She might even claim alimony.
 

Phalos

Champion Member
Jun 19, 2020
2,566
1,293
Talk to a lawyer. But I would say yes if she files for divorce in Canada. She might even claim alimony.
She flew back home. I emailed LVO about her marriage fraud. Can they revoke a Cuaet visa for that?
Marriage fraud is a crime last I heard...
 

armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
15,226
7,752
Hi yall some of you might remember me.
SO basically I was scammed into marriage. We only lived together 3 months in Ukraine and I withdrew her sponsorship application because the Interview Officer never believed a word she said...which ended up true (Kudos to Interview agent)

Now to my problem. The "fraud wife" now acquired a CUAET visa and is planning to come to Canada.
Can she force me to sell my house and have a claim ?

We never lived together in Canada.
Sorry to hear that. (Kudos to officer noted)

Talk to a lawyer. I'd suggest any reliance or hope that IRCC will pursue - based only on limited evidence - the fake marriage and try to revoke CUAET is misplaced. They might, but they might not - don't rely upon it to protect yourself.
 

armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
15,226
7,752
SO basically I was scammed into marriage. We only lived together 3 months in Ukraine and I withdrew her sponsorship application because the Interview Officer never believed a word she said...which ended up true (Kudos to Interview agent)
A question/speculation to which I doubt you'd have the answer, but just in case - any idea/I wonder if the IRCC officer had any information about the scammer eg from visa refusals to other countries, other marriages, etc.
 

scylla

VIP Member
Jun 8, 2010
92,538
20,358
Toronto
Category........
Visa Office......
Buffalo
Job Offer........
Pre-Assessed..
App. Filed.......
28-05-2010
AOR Received.
19-08-2010
File Transfer...
28-06-2010
Passport Req..
01-10-2010
VISA ISSUED...
05-10-2010
LANDED..........
05-10-2010
She flew back home. I emailed LVO about her marriage fraud. Can they revoke a Cuaet visa for that?
Marriage fraud is a crime last I heard...
If the CUAET visa was already approved then I think that ship has sailed. If there was enough on file to refuse this visa based on misrepresentation, then IRCC would have done that. I would recommend you focus on protecting your assets. You'll want to hire a family lawyer for this - not an immigration lawyer. This isn't an immigration issue. Good luck.
 

Xilikon

Hero Member
Apr 26, 2018
354
160
Quebec City, Canada
Category........
FAM
Yes exactly, I had the same issue with a former wife and I can tell IRCC can't do anything about it. Better to hire a family lawyer as scylla mentioned and protect your assets.
 

Buletruck

VIP Member
May 18, 2015
6,666
2,521
Having been divorced, worst case scenario, she would only be entitled to half of what was acquired during the marriage. If you owned the home prior to marriage, that doesn't entitle her to half. A good family lawyer should be able to identify where your risks lie. Being proactive is a good choice at this point in time to protect yourself.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
52,959
12,758
Hi yall some of you might remember me.
SO basically I was scammed into marriage. We only lived together 3 months in Ukraine and I withdrew her sponsorship application because the Interview Officer never believed a word she said...which ended up true (Kudos to Interview agent)

Now to my problem. The "fraud wife" now acquired a CUAET visa and is planning to come to Canada.
Can she force me to sell my house and have a claim ?

We never lived together in Canada.
thx
Think you owe IRCC quite the apology since most of your posts are quite Accusatory. It looks like your sponsorship wasn’t approved. If that is the case you got extremely lucky and just have to focus on a divorce. You need to thank the anonymous person who provided a tip that this was a marriage of convenience. You may have to provide alimony for a short period of time but that is still getting off easy. After all these posts being concerned about the Ukrainian people and cursing IRCC you want your wife to be denied CUAET?
 

armoured

VIP Member
Feb 1, 2015
15,226
7,752
You need to thank the anonymous person who provided a tip that this was a marriage of convenience.
I'm sure this is painful enough and don't wish to just add on further - but as I recall one of the issues that came up was a 'problem' ('medical/ psychological') of the scammer-spouse not being photographed and hence no photos available for the relationship support part of the application. I can't help but wonder if that's somehow related, i.e. someone with something to hide or concerned facial recognition or internet / social media sites would cause problems.
 

canuck78

VIP Member
Jun 18, 2017
52,959
12,758
Forcing you to sell your house is most unlikely.

I know BC family law quite well and I can say a few things from that perspective. My guess is that there's a fair amount of similarity with the family law of other provinces.

The BC Family Law Act recognizes "excluded property". That generally refers to what you owned before marriage. If you brought a house into the marriage, it is your excluded property. However, any increase in its value during the marriage is considered family property and there is a presumption of equal division of that increased equity. The presumption can be rebutted in various ways. Too much to elaborate on that here. Also, valuation date is important. Let's say, when you got married, you owned a house worth $100,000, clear title. You have excluded property of $100,000. Let's also say the marriage occurred in 2015. Now let's say your divorce trial is heard in 2023. The house is now worth $300,000 - an increase of $200,000. It won't be $200,000 that gets divided by 2. The important date will be date of separation in most cases, although the court can use trial date value. Generally, separation date value will determine the interest. Let's say separation occurred in 2017, when the house was worth $200,000. Then, the increase subject to division would be $100,000. For a BC judgment examining this issue, see:

Johnson v. Korol S.C., Meiklem J., 2019 BCSC 111, Kamloops 51504, January 30, 2019 , 32pp.

https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/19/01/2019BCSC0111.htm

If you never lived together in Canada (and probably not a whole lot of time anywhere else I am guessing...you mentioned 3 mo. in Ukraine), your wife's claim to even half of the $100,000 increase in the above hypothetical would be weak. Very weak.

@Flyingfast raised the spectre of "alimony", or at least in BC, called "spousal support". Were you ever supporting this person? Again, duration of marriage and any pre-marriage cohabitation will be a factor, but I am guessing here, by any standard, we are talking about what courts usually consider a short marriage. Your exposure to a spousal support order would be small, in my opinion. I know nothing of her resources. Maybe you could apply for spousal support and a division of her property.:) If you are curious as to how support orders are generally arrived at in Canada, check out the Spousal Support Advisory Guidelines:

https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/fl-df/spousal-epoux/ssag-ldfpae.html

As for the advice to now go out and hire a family law lawyer, as a lawyer myself, I'm all for seeing lawyers get work. So, by all means. Expect to pay about $400 an hour and to put up a retainer of maybe $5,000. Or, hide in the weeds and see what happens. My guess is nothing will happen. I would probably sit tight.

I would seem that, at some point, maybe sooner than later, both of you will want to divorce. You might want to cooperate on that score. Sounds like it was a Ukraine marriage, but it also sounds like a "choice of law case" where you could divorce in either jurisdiction. On that topic, she could bring legal proceedings there and seek corollary relief, such as property division and spousal support. I would expect the Ukraine court to decline to assert jurisdiction over immovable property (your house) in Canada. if it did, enforcing such an order in Canada would be a major challenge.

I'll not address other issues raised. Beyond my pay grade. Heck I don't even know what is a CUAET. I suppose I could go through that (now) useless thread that purports to be a directory of immigration initialisms, acronyms and abbreviations. Sadly, it has grown to an unwieldy number of pages thanks to well-meaning types posting "thank you" messages to the original poster. So, while others have sought to fill in some gaps, it now takes a prolonged search to scroll through many pages of crap to ferret out the occasional tidbit of useful information.
CUAET slightly complicates the scenario because the wife can now easily move to Canada due to the special Ukranian citizen work program. Where as in most situations the spouse would not be able to easily travel to Canada especially after a marriage of convenience was discovered. Given the marriage lasted a few years maximum support payments, if ordered, would likely be for a short amount of time. I do think there may have been a period of cohabitation in Ukraine but not sure how long.