Evidence and Organizing (US Citizen married to a Canadian Citizen)

[ovasquez1]

My husband and I gathering all the evidence now for the spousal sponsorship application. We met online in 2010 on youtube. In early 2011 he started calling me and we started texting and added each other to Facebook. Then we met in person in Nov 2011. I visited him 3 times and stayed for a couple of months with him each time. Then on we got in engaged. And on the 4th visit we got married in 2013.

When I first met him and he met me, we didn't know where this was going you know? We didn't think to save things...so evidence was a little hard to find, so this is what I have. Lucky I like taking pictures and scrap booking so I have alot of photos and some things.

I have most of my airplane tickets and itineraries for all 5 visits. (each at least 2 months long, one of 4 months)

I have some screen shots, not the first or all of our you tube messages from 2010. (8 pages)

I have screen shots of some of our Facebook chats from 2011 til now. (9 pages)

I have screen shots of Videos of us on you-tube 2011 til now. (3 pages)

I have screen shots of our Facebook post from 2011 til now. We send each alot of romantic music videos when we are apart. (11 pages)

I have screen shots of my google voice records from 2012 til now showing lots of txts (190-500txts a day) and phone calls between us (1min to 90mins or more or multiple calls a day). At first I was using sms like an email to txt him cuz both of us didn't have long distance and didn't want to pay. lol Then I got google voice and he got mobilicity.

I have texts messages from different days and random months. Form 2012 (15 pages) (around 300 txts each day)

I have cards from me to him, from him to me, and from my parents to him. (6 cards) from 2013

I have over 70 pictures in a word document with a description box on the side with date, description of outings (ex: honeymoon, wedding, at the movies, restaurants, parks, beaches, the last 3 valentine's day, 1 xmas, 1 new years, gifts), location, ect. (20pages)

I have movie stubs, tickets stubs, receipt for marriage license and honeymoon.

*A lot of these aren't from the beginning and I have gaps in some times cuz i was cleaning inboxes sometimes and I wasn't thinking.

* My husband cleared all his inboxes he only has from this year. My husband didn't have long distance so he would call me on phone cards but he doesn't have any from way back. Now he has mobilicity but they don't have phone records. We did chat on gmail but both of us didn't save those. We also vid chatted on gmail but we don't have records of that.

* I organized everything by date. All of the pages have titles, page numbers on the top and our initials at the bottom. We plan to use paper clips.

PLEASE give me advice or your option...is it enough? you think the gaps in time will hurt us? is it too organized? is it too much?

 

[Mrs_Canuck]

In our case, my husband and I were together nearly every day before we moved together and eventually married. We did not have evidence for everything we did as some of them were not events where there would have been "evidence" - let's say we went for a walk/hike, what were we supposed to do, take a picture of a stick or glue a leaf to a page and send it to CIC?

One of us also threw out things that we weren't aware we'd need down to road for immigration - receipts etc. So what I did was I created a "relationship timeline" in excel spreadsheets. I listed all the events and dates we were together and doing things and if there was evidence for the event I had listed, I would cross-reference it in the timeline. So it would look something like this: April 22nd, 2012 "Went to see a movie with hubby and his roommates. Refer to Receipts and Tickets document, page 2."

If there is gaps in time evidence wise, explain them all carefully. Organizing all of this is going to be one of the hardest things before sending out the application. I think you have more than enough evidence, consider having some family members from both your side and your hubby's side write "letters" to CIC with their thoughts on the relationship and include them. In our case, we included 3 letters, one from my parents and two from mutual friends.

 

[Rob_TO]

Do the wedding pictures show a ceremony, reception, and friends/family attending the wedding? CIC puts lots of emphasis on people having "normal" weddings. Not that you can't have a small courtroom wedding, but if so you need to explain a bit more.

Also you need tangible proof of joint finances. Has he changed his status with CRA to married? You can also get joint bank account, supplementary credit cards in spouses name, life insurance on each other, change beneficiary info with employer benefits, etc etc.

 

[ovasquez1]

In our case, my husband and I were together nearly every day before we moved together and eventually married. We did not have evidence for everything we did as some of them were not events where there would have been "evidence" - let's say we went for a walk/hike, what were we supposed to do, take a picture of a stick or glue a leaf to a page and send it to CIC?

One of us also threw out things that we weren't aware we'd need down to road for immigration - receipts etc. So what I did was I created a "relationship timeline" in excel spreadsheets. I listed all the events and dates we were together and doing things and if there was evidence for the event I had listed, I would cross-reference it in the timeline. So it would look something like this: April 22nd, 2012 "Went to see a movie with hubby and his roommates. Refer to Receipts and Tickets document, page 2."

If there is gaps in time evidence wise, explain them all carefully. Organizing all of this is going to be one of the hardest things before sending out the application. I think you have more than enough evidence, consider having some family members from both your side and your hubby's side write "letters" to CIC with their thoughts on the relationship and include them. In our case, we included 3 letters, one from my parents and two from mutual friends.

Thanks for the tip. His sisters are writing letters for us and my parents and one of my sisters as well. A relationship timeline is a great idea. Thank you soo much.

 

[ovasquez1]

Do the wedding pictures show a ceremony, reception, and friends/family attending the wedding? CIC puts lots of emphasis on people having "normal" weddings. Not that you can't have a small courtroom wedding, but if so you need to explain a bit more.

Also you need tangible proof of joint finances. Has he changed his status with CRA to married? You can also get joint bank account, supplementary credit cards in spouses name, life insurance on each other, change beneficiary info with employer benefits, etc etc.

We had a small private ceremony at his sister's home. I have pictures with his whole family there. About 13 people ( his sisters and there kids, his dad, and his kid, ect.) My family lives too far to attend. I have pictures of the food, cutting the cake, us with the judge, a huge family photo, ect.

I don't have proof of joint finances though. Thanks for the tip. We were waiting til after the process to do that. CRA to Married? That's a good question. Thank you soo much. That was alot of help.

 

[CutiePie92]

Also you need tangible proof of joint finances. Has he changed his status with CRA to married? You can also get joint bank account, supplementary credit cards in spouses name, life insurance on each other, change beneficiary info with employer benefits, etc etc.

Rob_TO are those stuff really necessary? we don't have any of that either .. i thought that what we have is enough .. both our families attended the wedding + many photos , skype & facebook conversations, many photos in general, some boarding passes + email confirmations for hotels, planes etc.. and cute faces aswell ;D we'll melt their hearts.

or do those stuff apply only to US-Canada couples? (i'm from Europe)

 

[Zarilenth]

Rob_TO are those stuff really necessary? we don't have any of that either .. i thought that what we have is enough .. both our families attended the wedding + many photos , skype & facebook conversations, many photos in general, some boarding passes + email confirmations for hotels, planes etc.. and cute faces aswell ;D we'll melt their hearts.

or do those stuff apply only to US-Canada couples? (i'm from Europe)

I don't know - I'm a US-Canada couple and I just included pictures, a couple pages of email transcrips/texts from 2009 - present, 4 pages of FB messages, our FB profile, wedding cert, pictures from our wedding, itineraries from trips we both took plus boarding passes, pictures from our trips, some receipts from Amazon of gifts we sent, letters I wrote him, a birthday card, pictures of our cat we got together, our passports with travel stamps, itinerary and pictures from a trip to the dominican we took together, and a lease we signed for together for 9 months. But I didn't include mail showing we both lived there I didn't think of it at the time. Will send to CPC-Ottawa when I get a file number. Also no noterized letters or anything from family/friends.

 

[Rob_TO]

Rob_TO are those stuff really necessary? we don't have any of that either .. i thought that what we have is enough .. both our families attended the wedding + many photos , skype & facebook conversations, many photos in general, some boarding passes + email confirmations for hotels, planes etc.. and cute faces aswell ;D we'll melt their hearts.

or do those stuff apply only to US-Canada couples? (i'm from Europe)

There is no 1 proof that is mandatory in any application. It's all about including as many proofs that you think you need, for your specific case. In the manuals CIC specifically states that joint finances are important, so if possible it's good to include if you happen to have them. Obviously this is harder to do if the couple lives in different countries. And with lots of other proofs of a long relationship, and good sized wedding, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

It's actually the law that a Canadian must change their marital status with CRA to married or common-law right after it happens, so might as well include this as proof anyways.

 

[Zarilenth]

There is no 1 proof that is mandatory in any application. It's all about including as many proofs that you think you need, for your specific case. In the manuals CIC specifically states that joint finances are important, so if possible it's good to include if you happen to have them. Obviously this is harder to do if the couple lives in different countries. And with lots of other proofs of a long relationship, and good sized wedding, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

It's actually the law that a Canadian must change their marital status with CRA to married or common-law right after it happens, so might as well include this as proof anyways.

Rob_TO - I got married in October 2013 and I just realized now that I had to change my status to married on CRA. I did it today. Is that a problem?

 

[Rob_TO]

Rob_TO - I got married in October 2013 and I just realized now that I had to change my status to married on CRA. I did it today. Is that a problem?

No it's not a problem, you can back-date the effective date as far as you want. For many people that don't do things online, the first time they mention a marriage to the CRA is actually when they file their taxes in Feb or March of the following year.

Just be sure to do your 2013 taxes as married.

Also if you were previously getting any tax benefits as single person (like GST rebates), and would not qualify for them based on married/family income, then any payments made to you after the effective date of marriage may need to be paid back to government.

 

[Zarilenth]

No it's not a problem, you can back-date the effective date as far as you want. For many people that don't do things online, the first time they mention a marriage to the CRA is actually when they file their taxes in Feb or March of the following year.

Just be sure to do your 2013 taxes as married.

Also if you were previously getting any tax benefits as single person (like GST rebates), and would not qualify for them based on married/family income, then any payments made to you after the effective date of marriage may need to be paid back to government.

Thanks! I just read on the CRA website that you should do it before the end of the month you got married in, so I was a bit worried. Also, my Option-C printout from 2012 listed me as single.. because I was only engaged, but that shouldn't affect my application right? I wonder if I had changed my marital status before requesting Option-C, if it would have changed it.

 

[CutiePie92]

There is no 1 proof that is mandatory in any application. It's all about including as many proofs that you think you need, for your specific case. In the manuals CIC specifically states that joint finances are important, so if possible it's good to include if you happen to have them. Obviously this is harder to do if the couple lives in different countries. And with lots of other proofs of a long relationship, and good sized wedding, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

It's actually the law that a Canadian must change their marital status with CRA to married or common-law right after it happens, so might as well include this as proof anyways.

good to know. we'll change the status with CRA then. thanks for the info!

 

[keesio]

I have most of my airplane tickets and itineraries for all 5 visits. (each at least 2 months long, one of 4 months)

I have screen shots of my google voice records from 2012 til now showing lots of txts (190-500txts a day) and phone calls between us (1min to 90mins or more or multiple calls a day). At first I was using sms like an email to txt him cuz both of us didn't have long distance and didn't want to pay. lol Then I got google voice and he got mobilicity.

I have over 70 pictures in a word document with a description box on the side with date, description of outings (ex: honeymoon, wedding, at the movies, restaurants, parks, beaches, the last 3 valentine's day, 1 xmas, 1 new years, gifts), location, ect. (20pages)

receipt for marriage license and honeymoon.

PLEASE give me advice or your option...is it enough? you think the gaps in time will hurt us? is it too organized? is it too much?

These are roughly what my wife and I included in our application. I don't think you need all the other stuff. The boarding passes and pictures are probably most important.