I and my husband have been married for over nine years. I am an American citizen he is Canadian. I have gotten visitors

Hello – My name is ***** ***** I’m happy to assist you today. I am a Canadian lawyer who is able to answer immigration and family law questions.

To clarify - do you have permanent resident status in Canada or are you here as a visitor ?

I see - It seems that your husband has control issues with money and you are correct in that this may leave you vulnerable before you get permanent resident status in Canada and can work to support yourself. However, I am not sure why he is this way when you have been married for 9 years and he should be able to trust you.

As his spouse, you do and should have a right to know about his finances as they are your joint finances. If he is telling you the house is now a business asset, he may have done this so that you cannot 50% of this house if you were to divorce as the matrimonial home is usually split 50/50 upon divorce.

Your husband does not have to transfer the house in this manner for your PR application.

I would suggest that you speak to your husband honestly about these control issues and ask him if wants to do a agreement about his finances if he has issues about your getting his money and assets if you divorce.

Can you tell me when you submitted your spousal sponsorship form to Canada Immigration because once the sponsorship gets first stage approval, you can get an open work permit ?

Just because your husband has possibly transferred the matrimonial home to become a business asset, this does not mean that it will be treated as one and so you may still be entitled to half of it's value. As well, even though your husband may not let you know what money he has, if you divorce, he will have to disclose this information if you ask for spousal support and for equalization of net family property.

Also, if he is sponsoring you and you get your permanent resident status and later divorce, he will have signed a three year undertaking to financially support and this undertaking survives a divorce .

Hope this helps

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