Family sponsorship. How many photos is too many ?

[phamhainguyen68]

For our application, we sent around 250-ish photos through out our 9 year in relationship. More than half of them are from our Engagement Ceremony, Wedding Ceremony and our (first) Honey Moon . Hope that would not overload the VO.

 

[silky28]

Yikes...well I plan to keep it simple!

I have been in a relationship with my wife for 6 years and have been married for one. For the section on the development of the relationship I plan on briefly noting a few select events over the years like...when met in 2009, her trips here 2010 and 2011,my graduation in Canada 2013, her graduation in U.S in 2013, birth of child 2013, marriage in 2015, and Christmas/new years 2015/16. For each specific even I will include 1-3 pictures to prove them. Do you think this is enoug? I figure all I have to do is show that we did have a relationship over the years and the timeline of those events makes that clear.

I've read that since she is American the burden of proof of relationship is much less. Thank god! Because we really do not have a lot of photos of us together...lots of our animals, friends, family and our son but not many of us together.

2 questions:

1) do the pictures have to show us together or would it be enough to show her standing in front of the CN tower? Most of our early pictures show one of us as the other tool the picture.

2) I have a picture of us at 2 bluejays games. I have a selfy type pic of us in the seats but there is nothing to identify the Roger Center/Sky Dome other than the blue seats. Do I have to prove the location is infact the skydome, or is the context of sittin in stadium enough?

 

[canadianwoman]

The selfie sounds fine. You don't have to prove where the picture was taken - they will generally take your word for it.
If you have two photos, one with her standing in front of a certain landmark, and one with you standing in front of the same landmark, you can submit both. The date stamp should show you were together.

 

[silky28]

Thanks...

So should is my approach fine...to give a simple run down of our relationship over the years and link that with pictures to prove it? She has quite a bit of other things...plane ticket stubs, blue jay ticklets, Royal Ontario Museum tickets, notes and cards I sent her with Birthday and Valentine gifts...should I just stick those in a separate envelope from the pictures?

My goal is to keep the application as small and concise as possible without sacrificing quality. If I were a case worker I would much prefer a short, well organized and to the point application instead of one with a ton of information. And, from what I gather, since she is American the burden of proof is less anyways

 

[canadianwoman]

Yes, that sounds fine. You could also put the tickets and other proof with the relationship essay along with the photos.
It is true that the average US applicant does not need as much proof as an applicant from, let's say, Africa or South-East Asia.