i need advice please help--

[strandedwithoutfault]

i am a US citizen who followed my canadian husband here in 2000. we got married, i immigrated here, he sponsored me. after obtaining a house, him running up credit card bills, working for only 18 months and then going on welfare, he walked out on me in 2007, 6 months after dragging me through bankruptcy. i footed all the bills as i worked, paid for his loans on the credit cards payoff and lost my car to a bank. i have since april 2007 got no support from him other then $185.00 over 3 1/2 years and i had to beg for that. now i lost my full-time job because the company i worked for for 4 1/2 years sold out to another company. my EI is running out. i am 57 years old with health problems now and my EI runs out in january 2011. also my permanency is up for renewal in 2011 (october). i have no more savings left (all was spend on immigration and paying his bills he accumulated, and i am facing to lose my house where his name is still on the title, by mid- to end 2011.

i have looked into getting some kind of help, but cannot find anything. i cannot sell my house until 2013, but there is no way, without me finding full-time work that i can pay for that house that long. i have been sending out resumes for 3 months now, lots of them, and only got 1 interview out of it. my emotional stress is over the roof, i am suffering anxiety and panic attacks. i need help for someone to direct me where i can get some help and advice. i would relocated back home, but i don't have the means money wise to do so.

is there anything i can do to get help of any kind. at this point i take any options offered to me, i am at the end of my rope.

thanks

 

[steaky]

Seems to me that you may already eligible for Canadian citizenship (instead of renewing your PR card every 5 years). Check this link for more info:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/citizenship/become-eligibility.asp

 

[strandedwithoutfault]

thank you i will check it out, however immigration told me a while back after husband walking out, that if i am not working full-time i might face deportation in certain situation if i am not self-sufficient.

i will research further on the link you provided.

thanks again

 

[Leon]

Immigration lied to you. A PR will only be deported for committing a serious crime, not for not having a job or taking social assistance and you do qualify for citizenship but that is not really going to help your situation at the moment.

It doesn't look good for you if your EI is running out. After EI, you can only get welfare and that is so little money that you can basically choose if you want to eat or pay your rent/mortgage but not both. You need to find a job.

One question, why are you paying any bills after going through bankruptcy? Isn't the point of that being that you leave your bills behind because you can't pay them off?

I do not know why you can't sell your house until 2013. If you stand to lose it anyway, you must be better off selling it, even if you get a penalty for paying off the mortgage early. Another option would be to rent the house out while you get yourself a room.

There is not a lot of social assistance around in Canada but there should be a food bank where you live and maybe some place you can go once or twice a week and eat.

You should think about it carefully before going back to the US. I know a woman in a very similar situation, complicated by the fact that she has a child as well. She tried to run a daycare centre in her house but it failed. She eventually lost the house and moved to stay with relatives in the US but she has not faired any better there. Hasn't found a job and now wishes that she'd stayed in Canada.

 

[strandedwithoutfault]

Hi Leon!

I am not paying the bills anymore, still stuck without his support with the mortgage. Paying his bills before I had to bankrupt left me w/o a credit rating and cost me all my savings, because I tried to avoid going to that extend (bankrupt). When I immigrated here with my daughter, she was 9 year old. Just recently found out through co-incident that my ex had child molestation charges against him since age 14 for doing "sexual acts" on a 10-year old. I am wondering now if immigration does even do a "criminal back ground check" on sponsors, or that because he was "only 14" at the time it was deemed unnecessary.

Anyhow, I will deal with my situation somehow. I had no intentions going back to the US for now. I was just hoping that somehow, since I am still "under his sponsorship" for another 15 months, he can make be accountable for the situation he created for me.

Thank you

 

[Leon]

You are not under his sponsorship anymore. For spouses it's only 3 years after you got your PR and even if you were still within that time limit, it would only apply if you went on welfare or disability. If you did that, he would get the bill for the assistance you are receiving but it doesn't sound like he has the money to pay it anyway. It would just be one more bill for him that he can't pay.

If you divorced, why did you not sell the house, pay off the mortgage and split whatever was left? Can you file bankruptcy if you still have a house? I do not know if you could sue him for alimony since you don't have kids with him. You would need a lawyer for that anway. Legal aid perhaps? You could also try a newcomers centre for advice. Not that you are a newcomer but I am sure they deal with similar situations and they might be able to tell you where to go for help.

As a young offender, his record was probably sealed and didn't even show up on a criminal background check and if he hasn't re-offended, then I don't see what that has to do with anything.

You also have to admit that the situation he created for you was also partly of your own doing. If he was so bad, not working, running up credit card bills etc. you could have divorced him a long time ago.

 

[strandedwithoutfault]

Leon!

I can't sell the house til 2013 (mortgage agreement) and shame on me i guess for putting my trust in him. There is a lot more to my story with him, then I am able to publicly admit. There is so much more, involving my daughter and him and I were separated in 2004. I just tried to save my credit rating and wasn't able to.

Thanks for all your input

 

[YorkFactory]

You are not under his sponsorship anymore. For spouses it's only 3 years after you got your PR

It was ten years for spouses prior to 2003, wasn't it?

 

[Leon]

Even if it was, it still doesn't mean she can get any money out of him. It only means he will be back charged if she goes on welfare/disability and from the sound of it, this will mean nothing to him as it seems that he already has a lot of other bills he doesn't pay.

 

[Pippin]

I am sorry for the situation you find yourself in at the moment and for what has come before. I don't know where you presently live, but there are a number of community services you might ask for advice. Women's Centre Legal Aid Programme, Salvation Army Pro Bono Programme, Law Student's Legal Advice Programme (connected with local university), Law Line providing free legal advice over the phone, Women's Centres, NurseLine, Seniors Peer Support. Perhaps you can do a search and put in any of these suggestions and your city and see what resources you come up with. The NurseLine or ON CALL NURSE at your local PUBLIC HEALTH may have a directory of these COMMUNITY RESOURCES. I wish you all the best.