Need advice - debt/bankruptcy question

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

Ok…here’s my situation…I hope I can get some helpful advice.

I’m a US citizen and married my Taiwanese wife just two months ago in January…I just found out that she has about NT$600,000 in debt because she borrowed the money from the bank to lend to her sister (this was back before I even met her)…As you probably have guessed…her sister cannot pay back the money owed to my wife…
and she doesn’t have enough money to pay back the entire loan(she only has NT$300,000 in her bank account)…which means I would have to pay for the rest…

My question is…can my wife just not pay the bank anymore since she will be moving to the US to live with me?..I know it will ruin her credit in Taiwan…but I dont think it matters because we won’t be living in Taiwan and I really don’t want to pay for a loan that wasn’t even mine…

I’m in the process of getting the immigration paperwork done. I don’t believe having debt would affect the paperwork…but…if my wife just stops paying altogether…would there be anything I would have to worry about?

Thanks for any help or advice anyone can give!!

2

Ouch! I suppose the honeymoon’s over.

Quite a few important details lacking, such as assets, etc, but wouldn’t it be wiser to keep meeting the repayments and get out of Taiwan first and then claim bankruptcy? Seems obvioous to me.

HG

3

she doesn’t have any assets…no car…or house…she only makes $NT30,000 a month…I was thinking…she keeps paying the monthly bills until she gets her visa to come to the US to live…then…stop paying the bank…
Would she even have to declare bankruptcy?..

4

Your wife/sister-in law still have some way to go to pay off this debt.
Family means a lot to your Taiwanese wife.
If you want to keep good relations with your family-in-law,
have your wife keep on paying off the loan.

Your family-in-law will be able to return your kindness
in various other ways. There is no need for your wife to claim bankruptcy, is she is still working at this moment.

5

surely skipping the country would be marked on her travel record making re-entry into taiwan very difficult in the future

6

Your wife’s sister should take over the repayments, but then that would be in a better world.

Good luck. I really don’t think you want to burn the return-to-Taiwan bridge if at all possible though.

7

So the loan is in your wife’s name but somehow the bank is going to ask your sister for the money? So is it the case in Taiwan that if you borrow money the bank can ask any member of your family it feels like to pay it back?

So what if your wife’s credit history is screwed? How does this affect your sister-in-law or have negative repurcussions on any of the rest of the family?

Don’t think there’s any such thing as bankruptcy in Taiwan.

8

Sounds like a pretty touchy situation because of the whole Taiwanese family thing. I think if it were me, I would sit down with not only the sister, but the rest of the family, and see about getting the loan transferred since you and your wife will be leaving the country anyway. Also, isn’t it common practice for the children here to give their parents about half of their monthly income. I know of many Taiwanese that are pretty much forced or guilted into doing this. So how about asking the parents to help out. My parents, although they probably wouldn’t be too happy about it, wouldn’t hesitate to help out me or my brother out if a situation like this arose.