RE: I don’t know. I suspect it would have to do with proving you shared the same household and were responsible for that person’s support.
The only way we can prove this today is by a marriage license from the previous country of domicile.
Otherwise, anyone can just state that he or she shares the same household and have a recognized authority from that country draw it up and notarized.
But then I don’t see how that differs much from a marriage license. You still need some PROOF.
Whether you want to call it marriage or not, you still need to use a similar procedure.
Since removing the government from something that ends up in endless discrimination suits, I’m sure the lawyers will be needing another source of income-let them sort out the minutae of the religious marriage contracts in relation to custody, immigration, etc...