Does it matter who writes Letters of Support?

[chs2yyc]

Very few on my side of the family know about my relationship with my future wife, because I am not that close with them. The ones that do know don't know about the entire relationship.

So if most of the LOS are from her side, and i just have a a few, is this okay?

 

[tink23]

I think that should be fine as letters of support are not a requirement if your applying as married. It's best if the ppl writing the letters know both of u as a couple. My husband and I had about 5 from my side and 3 from his side. Everyone had met us both and spent,time with us as a couple. Most had also attended our wedding.

 

[McDutch]

I "handpicked" a few of my friends and family that would have the most credibility.

I picked a friend who works for the RCMP, An Aunt from a different city, A government worker, stuff like that.
Just "a friend" can be anyone. I made sure CIC would be able to verify every one of the writers

 

[bscinto92]

i didn't think it was required to include letters of support but i did it anyways. i did not include many though. only one from each side, and each letter was from the parents, a short letter at that... basically just confirming that they are aware and approve of the relationship and that all info i included in the application was true. mine was from my father, as i do not speak with my mother (although she did meet my husband and my dad made sure he included that in the letter) and his was from his mother because i guess his father isn't good at writing those kinds of things lol. i wasnt about to go out of my way to get letters from every person that he met while he visited me in Connecticut or vice versa (while i was in canada), so instead I just had my dad state in the letter who he did meet from my side of the family, and we had his mother talk about my six month stay in canada. hope that was good enough! of course if they really needed the extra proof it could always be provided.

 

[canadianwoman]

Very few on my side of the family know about my relationship with my future wife, because I am not that close with them. The ones that do know don't know about the entire relationship.

So if most of the LOS are from her side, and i just have a a few, is this okay?

It is best if you have letters of support from both sides, but it is OK if there are more from one side than the other. The judge at my appeal did ask me why we didn't have any support letters from my side of the family, which shows they prefer letters from both sides. (The reason was no one from my family had met my husband, since he couldn't get a visa to visit Canada and my parents were too sick to travel to meet him; however, I could have gotten letters from my parents or siblings stating that they had spoken to my husband on the phone and believed our relationship was genuine.)

 

[Fencesitter]

I wrote all the letters and asked family and friends to sign. We had letters from both sides of the family and from some of our friends. No problem. The visa office never asked for anything further, so they must have accepted what I submitted.

FS

 

[bscinto92]

I wrote all the letters and asked family and friends to sign. We had letters from both sides of the family and from some of our friends. No problem. The visa office never asked for anything further, so they must have accepted what I submitted.

FS

That's a really good idea I even considered that but it's a bit late now my application was received in Mississauga today so excited but sooooo nervous

 

[Rusty53]

I sent letters of support from my side of the family not my wife's because none of her family can write in english and I didn't feel that sending in hand written letters in Thai would be of any use. In lieu of this I made sure that I had lots of pictures with us with her family in their homes instead. I also included letters from friends and business associates. I chose a few people in fairly prominent positions in the comuunity.

 

[dzuls]

if abroad, do the letters of support have to be notarized or can I just write the letters myself and give it to my family to sign?

 

[Sweden]

if abroad, do the letters of support have to be notarized or can I just write the letters myself and give it to my family to sign?

it mostly depends on your regional guideline as it varies from office to office. Best is to check what they say for your own VO.
Good luck,
Sweden

 

[canadianwoman]

if abroad, do the letters of support have to be notarized or can I just write the letters myself and give it to my family to sign?

If you are applying as common-law or conjugal, then two letters have to be notarized or affidavits. If you are applying as married, then these letters are just extra evidence. They could be printed-out emails, letters, notarized letters or affidavits. It is up to the visa officer how much weight he or she will put on them.
Personally, I would not write the letters myself. It is better to get people to write their own. If it looks like you wrote them all yourself, the visa officer is unlikely to pay much attention to them. If you have a lot of other evidence, it probably won't matter. If you really need them because you don't have much other evidence, I'd get authentic letters, even if that means you have to get them translated.
Fencesitter had a lot of evidence, so there was no reason for the visa officer to question the letters. But if you have a marginal case, in particular if it goes to appeal, it will look bad to have letters that appear could not have been written by the people who signed them (for example, if a person who can't understand or speak English has signed a letter written in English.) If you explained or translated the contents fof the letter, and the person then signed, it will probably be OK, but it is not ideal.