Ch. 13 Bankruptcy in the U.S.

[dawosura]

Hi all,

I'm a dual Canadian-US citizen who has moved back to Canada (Quebec) after many years in the states. I wish to sponsor my wife to become a PR, but 1 issue which stands out is our Chapter 13 bankruptcy from the U.S. This is a fairly technical issue, and I will be consulting an attorney, but I am curious as to whether anyone is already familiar with our situation. The Ch. 13 has us paying a regular (and fairly modest) fee each month to the Trustee, and at the end of the payment period the bankruptcy is discharged. Given the orderly and affordable nature of this (vs. the faster discharge of a Ch. 7), is it possible for me to be a sponsor, or do we need to wait out the full period?

Many thanks

 

[Rob_TO]

Interesting question. The official rules for sponsorship state:

6.11. Undischarged bankrupt
A person who is an undischarged bankrupt under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act
is barred from sponsorship.

Since the "Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act" is strictly a Canadian legislation that doesn't apply to US bankruptcy proceedings, I don't think a US bankruptcy would have any effect on a Canadian PR application. Don't think it even needs to be mentioned in the application.

 

[dawosura]

Hi Rob,

Very interesting point. I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has experience with this question with a bankruptcy in a different country than Canada.

Many thanks!

 

[screech339]

Good point. However I dont think bankruptcy in US has any bearing in Canada. Otherwise if this is true, then you should be able to carry credit rating into Canada from US and vise versa. But since you cannot, what happens financially in US stays in US, Canada stays in Canada. You would have to build your credit rating from scratch.

 

[mpottier]

Good point. However I dont think bankruptcy in US has any bearing in Canada. Otherwise if this is true, then you should be able to carry credit rating into Canada from US and vise versa. But since you cannot, what happens financially in US stays in US, Canada stays in Canada. You would have to build your credit rating from scratch.

Ya I would have to agree. If we can't even carry our credit score between the USA and Canada, then they can't expect us to be held to account for a bankruptcy in a foreign country. Personally I wouldn't even mention it on the application.

 

[dawosura]

The irony here turns out to be the fact that the Spousal Sponsorship prerequisites for Canada proper defer to the Québec prereqs... and for Québec there is no question about bankruptcy one way or another.