Cohabitation agreement on I-130 petition?

[Maypenny 1]

Does anyone have experience with this and how to categorize it on the I-130 documents? 

 

After high school my husband went to South Africa to get his degree and after university was over and he graduated he stayed in South Africa with his then girlfriend who he  met in SA. In order to stay in SA, they had to submit a cohabitation agreement to affect the student visa he was there on. The attorney who created the document filed it for him and they were together for years but have long since separated when she left SA to move to another country since 2014. Before we got married I told my husband that he would need to get this agreement dissolved and he went back to the original attorney and had something drawn up dissolving the original cohabitation agreement stating he and her were no longer together and he has left South Africa permanently and gone back to his home country, Nigeria. 

 

So he contacted her mom, who contacted her and they both submitted current passport data pages and signed and returned the document dissolving the cohabitation agreement. This took some weeks to do and I was involved the whole way even talking to the SA attorney myself but it is now done and filed.

 

I have copes of everything but have no idea how to answer the question on the I-130 petition of whether he's been married before? Do I say yes or no? And should I include the copies of these agreements under "Additional Information" or Evidence" or not at all???

[Ryan H 3,797]

The answer to the prior marriage question is no, the cohabitation agreement your husband previously entered into was nothing more than that (common law marriage is not a thing in South Africa).  There's no need to include any copies of that agreement with your petition as it is not germane to your case.

[pushbrk 12,276]

1 hour ago, Ryan H said:

The answer to the prior marriage question is no, the cohabitation agreement your husband previously entered into was nothing more than that (common law marriage is not a thing in South Africa).  There's no need to include any copies of that agreement with your petition as it is not germane to your case.

Correct, and if the dissolution of the cohabitation agreement came AFTER your marriage, it would just confuse things.  If the cohabitation agreement meant marriage, then it had to be dissolved BEFORE your married your husband.  Fortunately, this is all irrelevant.  He was never married before.

[Maypenny 1]

22 hours ago, pushbrk said:

 

 

On 4/3/2021 at 5:54 PM, Ryan H said:

The answer to the prior marriage question is no, the cohabitation agreement your husband previously entered into was nothing more than that (common law marriage is not a thing in South Africa).  There's no need to include any copies of that agreement with your petition as it is not germane to your case.

Awesome, thanks 

 

22 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Correct, and if the dissolution of the cohabitation agreement came AFTER your marriage, it would just confuse things.  If the cohabitation agreement meant marriage, then it had to be dissolved BEFORE your married your husband.  Fortunately, this is all irrelevant.  He was never married before.

The cohabitation agreement was dissolved BEFORE our marriage. I made sure it was done and filed after we got engaged but before our official registry court wedding and the following traditional wedding ceremony. 

 

So we won't mention it in our petition, thank you! 😃blockquote widget

Edited April 4, 2021 by Maypenny
Double quote