Hi Missmini, thank you so much for the encouragement!!
I've been buried in papers, haha, but getting close! I have found that most of our proof will go in the common-law pile since with that you prove a) conjugal relationship and b) cohabitation. Then there will be some additional proof for question 9 (development) like copies of receipts and tickets and our pictures (lots of them). This will all go in one folder (proof of relationship) but I might have to make a separate one for proof of communication since I couldn't find really big envelopes, one of these weird problems you don't think could hold you up...
Since the question about the development comes before the common law question, do you think I should arrange the proof in that order or it won't matter as long as everything is listed in the toc and to be found?
About the finances: we simply were a bit dumb :
and didn't put my name on the bills even though I had thought about it before. We just never did and now it is making me nervous. (And I feel stupid :-[ ) I am added to his credit card though and named as beneficiary in his insurance, and we also have a shared cell phone account (one bill and all the itemized calls to each other). I have decided to address the issue and let them know that we just didn't do the joint bills, but that we now have (we finally did! Yay us.) and that I can send a few bills if requested at a later time. What do you think of that?? One last thing about the essay and table: I will put both with my part of the application since my partner wrote a letter for his. He didn't go into many details of the development but wrote from his heart and about his feelings. It is very sweet! He won't need another recap of our history, right? A letter should be enough? I think the listing of the details and a table is more my style so I will attach it to my development essay in case the IO doesn't want to read 8 pages about our relationship. Since I included some personal stuff in the essay, not crazy mushy but personal and subjective, I think I won't write another essay. I don't want to cut down on my essay and I don't just want to cut and paste out the personal stuff either. I feel like at this point another relationship essay would just be a summary of how great he is and how great we are together. If you guys think I should do it, I will
Thanks again for all the great advice!!
PS: I just thought of something... If my partner wrote a letter for the sponsor part of the application, do they not look at that as part of my (applicant) part later on? Would they look at it in Mississauga but then only send my part to Berlin and those guys wouldn't see his letter? Which means he would have to write something for my application specifically? Help, I'm confused!