How I organized our applcation and a summary of all helpful tips I have learned

[patopato]

Salamat kabayan

Awsome!

 

[petruzz]

Hi Pelipeli,

Congrats on getting approved!! My fiance and I are extremely thankful for your post. We've been using it to organize our application.

I have 2 questions:

1. We've seen different versions and suggestions regarding the "Development of your relationship" answer. How did you write yours? Was it more of a point form answer or an essay answer? I've been making it more of an essay, but I feel like it'll only be duplicated when my fiance has to write his personal essay.

2. How did you supply your photos? Did you print them all as loose 4x6s? Or did you lay 3 on a page on a standard letter side page? Or did you do something else entirely? We're thinking it's easier to lay them all out on a standard sheet of paper, so that we can type/write in the captions, and list the date and people in the photo. We're really curious to know how you did it since your app was so well organized and you got approved quite quickly

Thanks for your help!

 

[eca]

very helpful post i'l keep this in mind...

 

[juliajulyf]

hi did you hire an immigration lawyer,? i dont know what to do first,,to hire or not. as for now im still gathering documents

 

[Deedeedar]

Hello there.

This is a very useful website, thank you for all who make our lives easier. I'm going to apply PR the end of this month as a common-law with my Canadian boyfriend and I have questions below:

1) As I've been living in Canada more than a year now, do I have to do the police clearance in Canada too? I got 1 from my home country already.

2) I want to apply an open work permit at the same time but I can't find it on the CIC web page, please help.

Thank you very much!!!

Dee

 

[canadiangirl78]

I don't think you can get the work permit until the sponsor is approved. Inland step 1 used to take a year or something crazy. Not sure about now but you can check the website.

 

[pelipeli]

Hi Pelipeli,

Congrats on getting approved!! My fiance and I are extremely thankful for your post. We've been using it to organize our application.

I have 2 questions:

1. We've seen different versions and suggestions regarding the "Development of your relationship" answer. How did you write yours? Was it more of a point form answer or an essay answer? I've been making it more of an essay, but I feel like it'll only be duplicated when my fiance has to write his personal essay.

2. How did you supply your photos? Did you print them all as loose 4x6s? Or did you lay 3 on a page on a standard letter side page? Or did you do something else entirely? We're thinking it's easier to lay them all out on a standard sheet of paper, so that we can type/write in the captions, and list the date and people in the photo. We're really curious to know how you did it since your app was so well organized and you got approved quite quickly

Thanks for your help!

Sorry for the very late reply, I am not sure why I have not received email notifications for the recent replies in this thread...
Anyways, here's my answer: =)

1. The "rel'p development" was more of a fact-based answer, what did we do as a couple, what activities we enjoyed, how we eventually got deeper in the rel'p, how one was introduced to family members, etc.
For the essay though, we talked about emotions, how we felt about each other, what made us feel like we are the ones meant to be, what qualities we found in each other that made us fall in love, etc... =)

2.For the photos, we used Microsoft Publisher, all the photos are in soft copy so it was like making a digital "scrapbook",I laid out 3-6 photos on a page, depending on the size, and captions were typed right below the photos. Then we printed all those pages in a letter size bond paper.. all neat and flat =)

Hope this answers your questions =) good luck!

 

[pelipeli]

very helpful post i'l keep this in mind...

Thank you! ;D

hi did you hire an immigration lawyer,? i dont know what to do first,,to hire or not. as for now im still gathering documents

Hi, we didn't hire a lawyer.. I have always read in this forum that If you feel your case is straightforward enough (no red flags) or if you have red flags but you feel you can give enough evidence to address it, an immigration lawyer may not be necessary. =) The forms are quite easy to do (but takes a lot of caution and detail), and the proof of relationship you have to prepare it anyway whether or not you get a lawyer. It's just overwhelming at first, but once you dive into it, it's manageable =)

Good luck in your application and hope you make the right decision =)

 

[petruzz]

Sorry for the very late reply, I am not sure why I have not received email notifications for the recent replies in this thread...
Anyways, here's my answer: =)

1. The "rel'p development" was more of a fact-based answer, what did we do as a couple, what activities we enjoyed, how we eventually got deeper in the rel'p, how one was introduced to family members, etc.
For the essay though, we talked about emotions, how we felt about each other, what made us feel like we are the ones meant to be, what qualities we found in each other that made us fall in love, etc... =)

2.For the photos, we used Microsoft Publisher, all the photos are in soft copy so it was like making a digital "scrapbook",I laid out 3-6 photos on a page, depending on the size, and captions were typed right below the photos. Then we printed all those pages in a letter size bond paper.. all neat and flat =)

Hope this answers your questions =) good luck!

Hi! Thank you so much for getting back about this - I really appreciate it. We're going crazy trying to get everything together.

I have another question if that's okay. Did you submit EVERYTHING? For example, we've been together for almost 5 years, so we have A LOT of chat logs(nearly 700 pages), and phone records(over 300) and things. Should we really submit it all? I know they won't go through it all, but I'd rather them have everything so that they could decide what they want to go through - ya know? I don't want to pick and choose what to submit because we might miss something important.

We're also creating a publisher file with all of our tidbits - pictures, ticket stubs, flights, itineraries and things, and that's already nearly 200 pages and we still have another 2 years worth to go.

What am I missing here? How could we possibly submit this much information?

I know you mentioned that your package was roughly 400 pages - how did you limit the information you provided?


Thanks again! You're so helpful!

 

[pelipeli]

Hi! Thank you so much for getting back about this - I really appreciate it. We're going crazy trying to get everything together.

I have another question if that's okay. Did you submit EVERYTHING? For example, we've been together for almost 5 years, so we have A LOT of chat logs(nearly 700 pages), and phone records(over 300) and things. Should we really submit it all? I know they won't go through it all, but I'd rather them have everything so that they could decide what they want to go through - ya know? I don't want to pick and choose what to submit because we might miss something important.

We're also creating a publisher file with all of our tidbits - pictures, ticket stubs, flights, itineraries and things, and that's already nearly 200 pages and we still have another 2 years worth to go.

What am I missing here? How could we possibly submit this much information?

I know you mentioned that your package was roughly 400 pages - how did you limit the information you provided?


Thanks again! You're so helpful!

For us, we did not have much of chat logs and phone records as we have been always living in the same city 95% of our relationship and saw each other pretty much everyday.
In your case, I would suggest select samples, like 3-4 pages of chat log for each month or each week, depending on how long you have been together, you can choose a mixture of pages talking abt important stuff and the normal everyday conversations... Then make a note explaining that you just selected samples and hope they would suffice, but if they think they need more, you can always send them more upon request at a later date =)

Your evidence sounds great, just make sure find the right balance between quantity and quality ;D

 

[pelipeli]

oh, we also included facebook printouts of family and friends' greetings on our wedding day. and showed a printout of our "mutual friends" where one can see that we are friends with each others' families and relatives. then there's this "show relationship" button in FB where it will show all your posts on each other's walls, posts you've been both tagged in by others, or status updates where u tagged each other, etc etc..

 

[sammystorm19]

I have printed this off and will keep it once I start filling out my information

Thank you for this

 

[myke]

Ms. PELIPELI, i have a question. me and my wife were already started compiling documents, filling up forms, etc. Were hoping to pass it by December.

Anyways about my question, development of relationship, when do i need to stop answering it? After our marriage or should i continue up to date to our current relationship? Since our relationship started onboard a ship, then we got separated after our contract and then she spent 2 months vacation here in the Philippines and at the same time we got married. Now she's back in Canada...

Hoping for your kind reply to my concern, also if other forumers want to help, Ill be so grateful. Thanks.

 

[Victorswife]

Ms. PELIPELI, i have a question. me and my wife were already started compiling documents, filling up forms, etc. Were hoping to pass it by December.

Anyways about my question, development of relationship, when do i need to stop answering it? After our marriage or should i continue up to date to our current relationship? Since our relationship started onboard a ship, then we got separated after our contract and then she spent 2 months vacation here in the Philippines and at the same time we got married. Now she's back in Canada...

Hoping for your kind reply to my concern, also if other forumers want to help, Ill be so grateful. Thanks.

aww fellow cruise ship lovers! My Husband and I met working on Princess. We both showed our contracts and Seamans discharge to show we had legal documents to show we were in the same place at the same time in 2009. If you call or email fleet personel of your cruise line, they should be able to give you a signed printout of your work history.

Show fight tickets and stubs for when she was here and you were there.. .. and pictures of your times together in canada. We also submitted honeymoon and I think assembling our kitchen table. We just submitted our application Nov 5. If you worked for Princess, I may have LA contact for you to get your info!

 

[myke]

aww fellow cruise ship lovers! My Husband and I met working on Princess. We both showed our contracts and Seamans discharge to show we had legal documents to show we were in the same place at the same time in 2009. If you call or email fleet personel of your cruise line, they should be able to give you a signed printout of your work history.

Show fight tickets and stubs for when she was here and you were there.. .. and pictures of your times together in canada. We also submitted honeymoon and I think assembling our kitchen table. We just submitted our application Nov 5. If you worked for Princess, I may have LA contact for you to get your info!

hi, well were not from Princess but P&O UK, i have the seamans discharge on my seamans book and also my employment certification. Where should I include that in my application?? Im a little worried about our proof of relationship since, I havent visited her in Canada. But she did visit me and during her stay here in the Philippines we get married. So weve been separated twice... first was after our contract and second when she visit me... Im happy to hear from someone who also worked and develop relationship onboard. Thanks for your reply