“Do you have, or have you had, close and/or continuing contact with a foreign national within the last seven (7) years with whom you, or your spouse, or legally recognized civil union/domestic partner, or cohabitant are bound by affection, influence, common interests, and/or obligation?”
I have some family members who are foreign nationals and I will include those. But what about classmates from my university who are foreign nationals? Who I am in contact with when studying, doing homework, helping each other with the class, etc.
Do you have a close relationship with any of these classmates? The key to the question is affection, influence. Are these classmates people that you would break a law to protect, or could you be blackmailed because of your association with your classmates? Also, do you associate with these classmates outside of class on a regular basis where you’re not involved in any kind of study? If you do not have a close personal relationship with your classmates, then I would not list them.
The question reads “close and/or continuing contact” bound by “common interests” My understanding, as a long time investigator, is that if you have current classmates with whom you are studying, meeting for group projects, etc, these folks would need to be listed, without asking them for information. So don’t go to your project mates and ask for their birthdates, citizenships, etc. List what information you know even though your contact with them is only course related. The relationship does not have to be close or feelings of affection in order to be required to be listed.