How do you include your relationship letters in your package?

[nedvert]

Hi there.

Would you include it as simple printed screenshots, or I suppose I should have it done up as a professional letter. Just wondering as I do believe we have limited space. What did you guys do for the support letters for the relationship as proof ?

Also won't be able to get a lot of them to sign it or whatever, is that a big deal ?

Thanks!

 

[AutumnSkies]

I believe my husband and I had six letters (so six pages) we added. They were either handwritten or typed and all of them were signed by hand.

Not sure how others did it, but that’s how we did it. They were added into the application in order of where they’re asked for in the forms.

 

[armoured]

Hi there.

Would you include it as simple printed screenshots, or I suppose I should have it done up as a professional letter. Just wondering as I do believe we have limited space. What did you guys do for the support letters for the relationship as proof ?

Also won't be able to get a lot of them to sign it or whatever, is that a big deal ?

Thanks!

Why do you think you have limited space?

I included ours as simple printed (typed) letters, in English, signed, with contact info.

But: since these are not formal requirements or documents, there is no obvious reason why they would not accept, for example, a printed email. Particularly if you included, for example, a short letter of explanation explaining that getting signed versions was not practical or whatever other explanation.

However, would recommend you be extra careful to include contact information (email, address, telephone number). The letters only help your case if they are credible and verifiable if need be. I'd also suggest that for those you include, it may help if the senders have online profiles that can also be checked - for example, facebook or linkedin or whatever. And e.g. email addresses that are linked to e.g. professional accounts, and not just [seriesofnumbers] @ yakhoo.

I'm sure you see what I mean - if an officer looks at an email letter and can sort-of verify who the person is online in a few minutes, that's one thing, if it's from some dodgy email account and a person who is not on any social media, it may not add much. They still seem to prefer signed docs and if you're going to depart from that, make sure it adds to your case. Quality over quantity.

(I say this as someone who rarely uses most social media and neither does my spouse - but I have used social media/internet to confirm who people are for work purposes from time to time)

 

[nedvert]

Thanks yes your post makes sense and is helpful. I already have a template created which will include that sort of stuff.

Appreciate it

I haven't gone through it all but I thought that there is like 20 pages or something that you have to support your relationship so I figured we had to consolidate and not include too much.

 

[armoured]

I haven't gone through it all but I thought that there is like 20 pages or something that you have to support your relationship so I figured we had to consolidate and not include too much.

Read the instructions carefully in preference over any comments from a board. I don't recall exactly, there is a limitation of 20 photographs and some kind of limit on e.g. what's app conversations.

But at any rate those limits are pretty common sense if you keep in mind quality over quantity: a hundred almost-identical photos of two people staring lovingly into each other's eyes in front of a sunset won't help; 20 photos at multiple events over a period of time with other participants can establish there is a real relationship.

Same with letters: I can't think of any situation where having more than a dozen letters to establish a relationship would be more convincing than a handful of good and varied ones. If a relationship is straightforward and well-established and well-documented in other sections, it may be that no letters are needed at all.

I think we included a half-dozen short letters but perhaps four of them were to address specific issues, like we didn't have joint leases/shared bank accounts for example, as well as the 'intent to return to Canada' issue. And it's possible was more than needed in our own case anyway.

If your own app is more complicated or lots of red flags, possible more needed than standard case, but they don't want the Encyclopedia Britannica of your relationship.

 

[AutumnSkies]

Why do you think you have limited space?

I included ours as simple printed (typed) letters, in English, signed, with contact info.

But: since these are not formal requirements or documents, there is no obvious reason why they would not accept, for example, a printed email. Particularly if you included, for example, a short letter of explanation explaining that getting signed versions was not practical or whatever other explanation.

However, would recommend you be extra careful to include contact information (email, address, telephone number). The letters only help your case if they are credible and verifiable if need be. I'd also suggest that for those you include, it may help if the senders have online profiles that can also be checked - for example, facebook or linkedin or whatever. And e.g. email addresses that are linked to e.g. professional accounts, and not just [seriesofnumbers] @ yakhoo.

I'm sure you see what I mean - if an officer looks at an email letter and can sort-of verify who the person is online in a few minutes, that's one thing, if it's from some dodgy email account and a person who is not on any social media, it may not add much. They still seem to prefer signed docs and if you're going to depart from that, make sure it adds to your case. Quality over quantity.

(I say this as someone who rarely uses most social media and neither does my spouse - but I have used social media/internet to confirm who people are for work purposes from time to time)

Yes, I should have mentioned this as well. All my letters had all of their contact information. Addresses, emails, home phones, mobile phone numbers, etc.

 

[StellaArtois]

Here is the experience my husband and I had (including the advice from the immigration lawyer) with regards to letters...

The letters are better written in professional language. There's no set format from the government, but the lawyer recommended that each letter should be unique/personally written (i.e., do not just copy-paste letters and have each friend/family member sign off on a copy). Our lawyer recommended to include all of the following:
-date of writing/signing
-be addressed to IRCC (note that while some of our letters had a letter head including the IRCC address, others simply wrote "Dear IRCC Officer:"
-a brief introduction of the writer (name, professional background)
-how the letter writer knows you and your spouse, including specific details of how you met, when you met, how long you've known each other, how often you see each other/keep in touch
-times the letter writer has seen you and your spouse together, and times the writer spent with you and your spouse together
-affirmation of your genuine love for each other and the specific aspects of how they see that each of you are upstanding members of society and how you make a good couple
-if you are expecting the IRCC officer to consider your relationship to have "red flags" (e.g., cultural background difference, significant age gap, education level difference, short period of courtship, etc.), and your letter writers are comfortable addressing these things, have them write about how those "red flags" don't hinder you as a couple
-the contact information of the letter writer (phone number at a bare minimum, preferably also e-mail) so that the officer may (if they so choose) contact them to verify the person who wrote this letter is genuine
-the letter may be typed or hand-written (as long as the writing is easy to read), but ideally the letter should be signed by hand. Our lawyer stated that in the event that someone is unable to hand-sign the letter for any reason (one of our letter-writers could not provide a hand-written signature), they must provide their contact information in the letter so that the IRCC officer reviewing the case can contact them to verify the authenticity of the letter if needed

Our immigration lawyer also consulted with a senior criminal lawyer (since my husband has 4 criminal charges on his record), and with regards to the letters, the criminal lawyer recommended including a photocopy of the letter writer's photo ID so that the IRCC officer could have a face to the writer and feel more personal. Our immigration lawyer said that it is not necessary to do this, though you can. (We did not end up including photocopies of the writers' photo IDs.)

In terms of the quantity of letters, our immigration lawyer wouldn't give us a straight up answer about how many is recommended... when I said I could easily get 50 letters from my co-workers and friends and family however, the lawyer immediately said that 50 was far too many letters, and to restrict it to close friends and family so as to avoid overwhelming the IRCC officer.
In the end we only included 3 letters (one from my brother, my dad, and my husband's mom), all from close family members who attended our very small wedding and were shown in our photos. However, I'm sure that you could acceptably include more than that, especially if you do not have much in other types of proof (e.g., pictures, call/chat logs, shared bills/accounts, etc.).

The letters we submitted ended up being 1-2 pages long. There isn't a specified length maximum or minimum, but as long as your writers are clear, concise, and professional, it should be fine.

All of our letters were written in English and did not require translation or notarization. I am uncertain about the requirements for foreign language letters.

Hope that helps!

 

[Chrisanya2321]

This is super helpful. Thank you.