The term "common-law marriage" does not appear in BC law. A distinction is made between being a "spouse" and being "married". Married couples include only those who have engaged in a legal marriage ceremony and have received a marriage licence. "Spouses" include married couples as well as those, of same or opposite gender, who satisfy criteria for being in a "marriage-like relationship" for a time period that depends on the law that is being considered. Hence the meaning of the term "unmarried spouse" in BC depends on the legal context. The criteria for a relationship being accepted as "marriage-like" include cohabitation for at least the specified period, unbroken by excessively long intervals that are unexplained by exigent circumstances. If dispute arises about whether the relationship was "marriage-like", a court would consider a comprehensive set of further criteria including the domestic and financial arrangements, degree and nature of intimacy, and the sense of the relationship presented to friends and families (especially by each spouse to his/her own family). "Mere roommates will never qualify as unmarried spouses. There needs to be some other dimension to the relationship indicative of a commitment between the parties and their shared belief that they are in a special relationship with each other." The criteria do not exclude the existence of a previous marriage to a third person during the period of the "marriage-like relationship" of the unmarried spouses. Hence a person may have more than one spouse at the same time.