Common law sponsership

[Kiwiz]

Hello, I'm new to the forum!
I am a Kiwi and my partner is Canadian. We are applying for my PR under Common law sponsorship, as have been living together for a bit over a year.
I am just familiarizing myself with all the forms and am wondering how important is the question that it asks about either you or your sponsor having been in a common law relationship before? My partner and I are 30, and we were both in common law/de facto relationships (with ex partners) from ages 23-27. But do we really need to state this and put down our previous partners names? Why are they asking this?

 

[canadianwoman]

They ask about previous marriages too, and since the government is allowing people to sponsor common-law partners, they consider the two types of relationship to be equally important.
I would not lie on the forms. There is nothing wrong with having had a previous spouse or partner anyway. Sometimes it creates problems if the romantic histories of the current couple don't match - for example, if the Canadian has had three previous marriages, and the foreigner has never been in a relationship before - but the visa officers are much less suspicious of people from 'richer' countries (such as New Zealand) anyway, and in any case both of you have similar histories.

 

[Kiwiz]

Ok thank you for that. Just wanted to know the relevance of the question, and you're right, they treat common law the same as marriage. Cheers for clearing that up.