How do people include visas and entry and exit stamps in the application?

[canadianwoman]

The sponsor and applicant can use evidence that they travelled together, or that one has travelled to visit the other, as proof that the relationship is genuine. One part of this proof is the visas and entry and exit stamps in our passports.

I have gone to visit my husband 6 times, so I have 3 Nigerian visas, 6 Nigerian entry and exit stamps, and 5 Malaysian entry and exit stamps just from that. My husband has several pages of Malaysian visas and entry and exit stamps as well.
Then, when I visited him in Nigeria, we travelled together in West Africa. So there are 24 entry and exit stamps in his passport and my passport that match (city of entry or exit and date).

How, though, do you present this evidence in the application? My passports are completely full of stamps - it is a huge, almost unreadable mess. I had a hard time figuring out the dates and countries of each stamp, and I was the one who did the travelling - I think anyone else looking at it would just throw up their hands in defeat.

Should I just photocopy each passport, and then give an itinerary for each trip, referencing the pages the relevant stamps are on? For example:
On July 4, 2009, we went to Benin. (The exit stamp from Nigeria is on page 6 of his passport and page 17 of my passport. The entry stamp from Benin is on Page 22 of his passport and page 10 of my passport.)
On July 10, 2009, we went to Togo. (The exit stamp from Benin is on page 14 of his passport and page 5 of my passport. The entry stamp from Togo is on page 22 of his passport and page 8 of my passport.)
And on and on and on?

I did not do this in my original application, figuring 1. it was obvious we were both travelling in West Africa from the passport stamps, and 2. we had other proof, such as hotel receipts. But both the visa officer and the appeal judge seemed to think I was just travelling around on my own.

What do you think? Is spelling out where exactly each stamp is in our passports actually necessary? Or do you have any other ideas of how I could present this evidence?

 

[Boracay]

I'll be doing something very similar. Photocopying all the entry/exit stamps of mine and my partners passport.
I think the easier you make it, the better. What might be obvious to you and I may not be so obvious to another.
So I'd say do the work for them....haha just in case you're the last case of the day and they want to rush home to the family and they see this photocopied mess and think ugh!!! DENIED!!! ok ok I'm sure that's pretty extreme and wouldn't happen but you know what I'm getting at!

I will be photocopying each page of our passports and maybe colour coding them with a legend.
Highlighted in blue on page 5 in her passport and page 17 in mine are our Vietnam stamps
Highlighted in red.....

Also as a back up, our photos will be included. For example my partner and I in front of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. I'm using the print screen function on my computer to capture the pictures from facebook because they are date-stamped usually just a week or so after the actual photo was taken.

 

[TracyS]

I'm inclined to agree with Boracay, I would put it as clearly as you've given the example. With both passport page numbers linked to the dates on which you and your husband travelled and how this is proven by the visa dates. It would be easy to follow this away even though it will be time consuming to put together. If they didn't believe that you weren't travelling on your own last time then surely this would prove it. My husband and I only went on one holiday together overseas but I still photocopied the passport pages with the visas in both our passports and linked it to a date in the history of our relationship.

 

[missmini]

i would not highlight in the photocopied page itsself, since the stamp itsself should look as genuine as possible (especially because in some countries they could b easily faked)...i had a lot of headache to work preparing my document with stamps and and re-did it several times...also i was shocked to see that Canadian passports don't have the passport number on each page (so they could claim i put these stamps for someone else's passport )

this is what i did so far:

1. i made a chronological outline where it explains clearly in a table the date of exit, date of entry, place of entry/exit, event (need of new tourist visa, etc), and which scanned image they should look at
2. the scanning i made it high resolution, colored (for this country, green stamp means entrance, red stamp means exit); i tried in general to scan the whole passport page (so they can see the page number) but in some cases i needed just a stamp from that page, so i scanned only that stamp...
3. if ur entry visa is on page 6 and ur corresponding exit is at page 17, i show them together (page 6 next to page 17) and i explain clearly what they need to follow on each page (entry stamp for this date with exit stamp for that date; if the passport page is not shown, I would write to which passport page they should refer); u don't want them to jump pages, go back, they will b lost
4. i also scanned all my passport, put 4 pages per document and i'll give it as an annexe (attach it at the end of everything, in case they need more and it was not clear)
5. i also found some ticket reservations and boarding passes which could also enforce some of the stamps
6. i'll reference these stamps in my letter (sponsor), explain how i stayed here and the periods; i'll reference them also in the relationship timeline
7. i also gave this document to people to read it and see if they understand something (the 2nd one was clearer than the 1st)

some countries could give u immigration record (all the entry/exit dates based on ur passport) but many don't; it's worth to ask

what i told u before it's just visas/stamps which emphasize my stay or residency in his country; for the trips together i made it separate and i show his passport stamp next to my passport stamp, his boarding pass next to mine, and common ticket reservation (why need of all, when one is enough u would ask: well, because in case they r not certain of one, they could reference to the second one, and be convinced that we did have trips together);

if u have a lot of trips, i would also do a chronological outline at the beginning as before and on each page explain what those images are (entry/exit stamps to Burkina Faso, 2007; left image: sponsor passport, right image: applicant)

good luck!

 

[canadianwoman]

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. Missmini - it really sounds like you did a lot of work!

 

[missmini]

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions. Missmini - it really sounds like you did a lot of work!

well lots of my work comes from your suggestions too :-* but reading this forum and knowing that our embassy could be very slow, i'm thinking that if i work hard to help them as much as possible make everything for them as clear as i can, maybe, hopefully we'll get a positive outcome faster

plus i believe that in general in life u need to work hard to get what u want; nothing will come for granted

good luck preparing yours!!

 

[canadianwoman]

Thanks!