I have a cousin who immigrated to Canada as a student in 2019. She and her husband are now having difficulties. She then

Hello, thank you for the question.

A divorce can be processed if either party has been in the province for a year or more, that being the province where the divorce action was commenced.

Even a simple divorce where there's minor children is unlikely to be granted where there are minor children and there are no provisions for parenting/support in writing, like a separation agreement / domestic contract or a court order. The divorce can still be issued, however.

Does that answer you? I'm here if there's more to discuss on this topic.

Not being a permanent resident isn't a bar to seeking a divorce. However, if that process to become a permanent resident has started and then the person is divorced then that can affect the application for PR. I know it's complicated, have your cousin ask whoever is helping her with her PR application.

She can apply for the divorce, it sounds like she already has. But a judge won't have looked at it yet. When she asks for the order, that's when a judge will look at it. If there is nothing in writing about parenting and support for the minor children then the judge is unlikely to grant the divorce.

Correct. The Application is simply issued by the court. No order will have been made yet, and the husband can oppose the divorce request too.

The husband fills out an Answer saying that he opposes the granting of a divorce. There needs to be a reason. He can say that the wife has no roots in Canada and shouldn't be seeking a divorce from a Canadian court. He can say that there is no agreement about the children and he opposes her having them full time.

He should have been served with a blank Answer with the Application, if not find one online at Ontario Court Forms website. He fills it out, sends a copy to her by mail, files the original in the court file by email with an Affidavit of Service. It needs to be done right the first time, so perhaps contact the Canadian embassy or consulate to see if there is anyone there to assist.

You could try calling immigration to alert them that she's looking for a divorce and to your knowledge she has no support in Canada without her family and husband.

I don't know, I'm afraid. You asked about whether her divorce application is legal, and it is.

If you have more questions about immigration issues then please start another question thread.

No, you don't need a lawyer. The document doesn't have to be commissioned or anything.

The respondent simply fills it out carefully, putting the proper names and addresses in the boxes on the first page. The Applicant remains the Applicant, and the Respondent remains the Respondent. Make sure that the proper court file number is ***** into the top right corner.

Check the boxes indicating what the Respondent agrees with and disagrees with. If her facts are correct, then agree with them. The Respondent can disagree with the divorce for a number of reasons: perhaps it hasn't been a year since it was clear that the Applicant wanted a separation, or perhaps (as in this case) there is no agreement or order about the issues of the minor children.

The the Answer gets copied and served on the Applicant. That can be by regular mail, but some kind of confirmed delivery courier is better. FedEx and UPS are fine, no need to pay for a rush (unless the sixty days to reply are running out) and no need for a signature from the Applicant upon delivery. If the Applicant served the Respondent by email then service back the same way is fine.

After that, an Affidavit of Service has to be done, in which the respondent swears an oath in front of a commissioner that he served the Applicant with his Answer. Then the original answer (serve her with a copy) and the original Affidavit of Service have to get into the court file. That's less easy. Call the court house where this Divorce was issued to ask about filing documents by email. They should take it that way due to covid. Make sure send them two separate attachments, clean and in order, the Answer and the Affidavit of Service.

There isn't a lot of time to do this over if there are mistakes, so if there's a lawyer who can help or staff at the Canadian consulate or embassy, I recommend getting that help.

If necessary, the respondent can hire a lawyer in Canada, obviously it should be in the city of the court where the Divorce is being applied for, to do the paperwork for him.

Legal Aid doesn't provide a lawyer for a simple divorce, even if the respondent did live in Canada.

Work on the answer, sign it, copy it, get a copy to the applicant, do an Affidavit of Service which must be sworn before a commissioner (local is fine) and the file both documents by email to the court where the file is. That's the process. If you can't do it yourself there then hire a lawyer there to do it, or a lawyer in Canada in the city with the court where the divorce is issued.

Good luck, I'll be here if there's more to discuss.

Ulysses

You're welcome. Thank you for the question.