I'm still waiting on my responses from CIC. It's been 8 business days so they should be responding soon.
I had a thought that made me a little nervous. When I wrote the emails to CIC to withdraw my sponsorship and file the change of relationship status, I was feeling rather rushed, flustered and emotional and I mentioned that my husband had been verbally abusive throughout our marriage and that it had only recently gotten worse. I said it was due to mentally instability, which is true. In our application, he did talk about his potential bipolar disorder but said he was self-managing his moods and didn't foresee any problems. We also both wrote really heartfelt letters explaining how we felt about each other and how fulfilling our relationship was (in many ways, it was! or I wouldn't have sponsored him).
I am hoping CIC doesn't misconstrue what I have said about his verbal abuse throughout our relationship as an indication that we lied in our application and were attempting marriage fraud. They wouldn't think that, would they? I mean really, if I was attempting to commit marriage fraud, why would I be attempting to withdraw my application at this point? But I was concerned that in our application, everything seemed hunky dory, whereas now, I am saying (exact words):
"The reason for the withdrawal is that our marriage has been breaking down for some time and we have now separated. We have been living at separate addresses and in separate cities since February 6, 2016 (one month ago). I thought we might still work things out at a later date (which is why I didn't inform CIC earlier) but he has been verbally abusive and threatening me from a distance; he was similarly abusive throughout our marriage due to emotional instability, and it has only gotten worse."
Honestly, at the time we applied I was still in denial about how abusive he was as he was very emotionally manipulative and I believed very strongly that he loved me and that we would work things out. Since filing the application it became clear that there was no chance of this happening.
What do you guys think? Do you think there's a chance one or both of us would be suspected of marriage fraud because of what I said? It certainly was not a fraudulent marriage, although I did mention to them also that he may attempt to get his papers signed and commit misrepresentation, because I was unable to predict his behaviour and he has been selfish. However, this is mostly due to his instability, and I don't think he fully understood the situation; now that I have reiterated to him the illegality and ramifications of signing the COPR under our current circumstances, he says he is going back to the States and will not attempt to sign.
I wish I could clarify this to CIC but considering how long they take to read emails and respond they'll probably already make up their mind on my first query before they even read anything else I send. I really hope this doesn't cause me trouble or hinder my chances of sponsoring in the future.