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Tim Coco (left) with Genesio Oliveira and their dog, Q-tip, at home in Haverhill yesterday. Oliveira can now try again for legal residency. (David Kamerman for The Boston Globe)

By Maria Sacchetti Globe Staff / June 4, 2010

Tim Coco and Genesio Oliveira married in 2005, among the throngs who wed after same-sex marriage became legal in Massachusetts. But for nearly three years, they lived apart — Coco in Haverhill and Oliveira in his native Brazil — because federal law does not recognize their union.

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