How much proof of communication should we bring to the interview?

[BethanyM]

Hi, I posted this in May - Outland yesterday but I haven't had a response.

Interested in getting feedback from anyone who feels they can add insight.

Thank you.

Hi, I'd like to get some feedback from you guys.

My husband has an immigration interview scheduled early in October.
We both feel that I did not include enough proof of communication so he
intends to bring extra proof with him to the interview.

I'd like to get people's ideas about how much extra proof we should bring.

We've been married 4 years. In 3 of those years he came to Canada for 2 months each year.
In the fourth year he was able to stay in Canada for 6 months.

So now we are asking ourselves, since we have a long history, and since I put in few actual proofs of
communication in our application -
Now we are asking ourselves how many pages of printout of phone calls should he take with him to the interview

We have histories of phone calls in Skype and other apps.
Given such a long period, 4 years, and we talk every day,
how many pages should he print and bring to the interview?

Is 50 pages enough?

Is 100 pages too much / not enough ??

Hoping to get a reply from several people and get your ideas.

Thank you.

 

[ImABule]

Hi, I posted this in May - Outland yesterday but I haven't had a response.

Interested in getting feedback from anyone who feels they can add insight.

Thank you.

Hi, I'd like to get some feedback from you guys.

My husband has an immigration interview scheduled early in October.
We both feel that I did not include enough proof of communication so he
intends to bring extra proof with him to the interview.

I'd like to get people's ideas about how much extra proof we should bring.

We've been married 4 years. In 3 of those years he came to Canada for 2 months each year.
In the fourth year he was able to stay in Canada for 6 months.

So now we are asking ourselves, since we have a long history, and since I put in few actual proofs of
communication in our application -
Now we are asking ourselves how many pages of printout of phone calls should he take with him to the interview

We have histories of phone calls in Skype and other apps.
Given such a long period, 4 years, and we talk every day,
how many pages should he print and bring to the interview?

Is 50 pages enough?

Is 100 pages too much / not enough ??

Hoping to get a reply from several people and get your ideas.

Thank you.

Hi

Did you order GCMS notes to see what the reasoning for the interview was?

Seems odd to me with such a long history and many visits to be called for an interview.

That being said, don't limit the proofs you bring to just communication.

I would show at least a couple calls a week.

 

[BethanyM]

Hi

Did you order GCMS notes to see what the reasoning for the interview was?

Seems odd to me with such a long history and many visits to be called for an interview.

That being said, don't limit the proofs you bring to just communication.

I would show at least a couple calls a week.

I ordered the notes, not received yet. Hope we get them in time.
I was thinking more in terms of how many pages he should print and bring with him.
I told him fit all the examples he wants to bring into 100 pages or less.
We talk several times a day, every day. Brief calls at two regular times and our longer longer later in the day.
He could try to get all the history printed it would be thousands of pages.
My idea is keep it to 100 max.

 

[UA2014]

Hi

Did you order GCMS notes to see what the reasoning for the interview was?

Seems odd to me with such a long history and many visits to be called for an interview.

That being said, don't limit the proofs you bring to just communication.

I would show at least a couple calls a week.

We have a similar storyline and we got called for interview as well. My wife has visited Canada twice, she just returned home after being here for the summer.

I believe we will have 150-200 pages of Skype conversations. In all we had over 16,000 messages in the 1.5 years that logs could be retrieved for. We have missed talking by Skype text only 3 days since February 2014 if we were apart.

I also ordered GCMS notes but I don't know if we will receive them in time.

 

[BethanyM]

We have a similar storyline and we got called for interview as well. My wife has visited Canada twice, she just returned home after being here for the summer.

I believe we will have 150-200 pages of Skype conversations. In all we had over 16,000 messages in the 1.5 years that logs could be retrieved for. We have missed talking by Skype text only 3 days since February 2014 if we were apart.

I also ordered GCMS notes but I don't know if we will receive them in time.

Thank you for your reply and I wish you the best of luck with your application.

 

[UA2014]

Thank you for your reply and I wish you the best of luck with your application.

I wish the same to you Bethany, Good luck and take care!

 

[canadianwoman]

Most likely the interview was called because the visa officer does not believe the relationship is genuine. If you get your GCMS notes in time, you will be able to see the reason. If they don't come in time, I would just assume that is the reason and prepare accordingly.

Therefore the applicant should bring a lot of evidence of your communication and contact. The visa officer will want to see proof from between the time you sent in the application until the present, so concentrate on evidence from this period. I would also gather evidence from before the application that you did not already submit, but maybe keep the two separate so it is easier for the visa officer.

Try to have the evidence well-organized and clear. Can you show the dates of the Skype calls without actually printing out the calls? Like showing your inbox with emails, which will show the date but not the actual email. This way you could get a record of all calls made without taking up too much paper. Also include a sampling of the content.

He should also have proof of any visits since the date of the application.

At the same time, having a huge number of pages will not necessarily help, since the interview typically does not last long enough for the visa officer to look at everything. 100 pages would be fine. 1,000 pages is too much.

More importantly, practice potential interview questions. Your husband should know everything that is in the application. He should know all about your daily life, your friends and family, your job and job history, etc. He should know about your past romantic relationships and why they ended. If you have any children, he should know all about them and demonstrate a clear interest in them.

 

[flx2015]

Seems odd to me with such a long history and many visits to be called for an interview.

visa officers sometimes view numerous lengthy visits to canada as a negative, even if the PA claims they were only going to visit their spouse. if this is the case here, perhaps pictures from the husband's visits to canada showing him together with OP might help to counter that. maybe 2 or 3 pictures from each visit?

 

[BethanyM]

Most likely the interview was called because the visa officer does not believe the relationship is genuine. If you get your GCMS notes in time, you will be able to see the reason. If they don't come in time, I would just assume that is the reason and prepare accordingly.

Therefore the applicant should bring a lot of evidence of your communication and contact. The visa officer will want to see proof from between the time you sent in the application until the present, so concentrate on evidence from this period. I would also gather evidence from before the application that you did not already submit, but maybe keep the two separate so it is easier for the visa officer.

Try to have the evidence well-organized and clear. Can you show the dates of the Skype calls without actually printing out the calls? Like showing your inbox with emails, which will show the date but not the actual email. This way you could get a record of all calls made without taking up too much paper. Also include a sampling of the content.

He should also have proof of any visits since the date of the application.

At the same time, having a huge number of pages will not necessarily help, since the interview typically does not last long enough for the visa officer to look at everything. 100 pages would be fine. 1,000 pages is too much.

More importantly, practice potential interview questions. Your husband should know everything that is in the application. He should know all about your daily life, your friends and family, your job and job history, etc. He should know about your past romantic relationships and why they ended. If you have any children, he should know all about them and demonstrate a clear interest in them.

Thank you for you helpful reply.

 

[BethanyM]

visa officers sometimes view numerous lengthy visits to canada as a negative, even if the PA claims they were only going to visit their spouse. if this is the case here, perhaps pictures from the husband's visits to canada showing him together with OP might help to counter that. maybe 2 or 3 pictures from each visit?

Thank you for your suggestion.

 

[UA2014]

visa officers sometimes view numerous lengthy visits to canada as a negative, even if the PA claims they were only going to visit their spouse. if this is the case here, perhaps pictures from the husband's visits to canada showing him together with OP might help to counter that. maybe 2 or 3 pictures from each visit?

I read somewhere on here that pictures from certain locations are discounted by Visa Officers, like from Niagara Falls or CN Tower, the obvious Canadian landmarks. My wife and daughter and I have some pictures like this, we went to both of these locations, but we have others too. I wanted my wife to have a taste of the Canadian experience, and see things that were truly Canadian. We went to see the Snowbirds and some other local iconic Canadian landmarks. Which do you think would have the most value, or does it matter?

 

[flx2015]

I read somewhere on here that pictures from certain locations are discounted by Visa Officers, like from Niagara Falls or CN Tower, the obvious Canadian landmarks. My wife and daughter and I have some pictures like this, we went to both of these locations, but we have others too. I wanted my wife to have a taste of the Canadian experience, and see things that were truly Canadian. We went to see the Snowbirds and some other local iconic Canadian landmarks. Which do you think would have the most value, or does it matter?

in your particular case, pictures from visits to niagara falls or CN tower would hold just as much weight as pictures from any other outing. however it's not the same for everyone.

i've read the article you're referring to. it accused the visa officers of using "racist guidelines" to determine the bona fides of a relationship, but that article was misleading as the reporter didn't really seem to understand what the officers were actually looking for. the thing is that in each region and demographic, instances of fraud follow similar trends/patterns which the officers have become good at detecting through past experiences. what you read in the article was only one of the patterns that applies specifically to international students from asia who rush into marriages with non-asian partners as soon as they start nearing the end of their student visa.

so yeah, the short answer is that unless your wife is an international student from asia who rushed to marry you just as her student visa was about to expire, there should not be any issues with including pictures of niagara falls or the CN tower. sounds racist, i know, but it actually isn't if we all take a moment to take a close look at how the visa officers work. this book is a good starting point: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Points_of_Entry.html?id=Zk1BCgAAQBAJ

good luck with your interview. i'm confident you'll be reunited with your family very soon.

 

[ImABule]

in your particular case, pictures from visits to niagara falls or CN tower would hold just as much weight as pictures from any other outing. however it's not the same for everyone.

i've read the article you're referring to. it accused the visa officers of using "racist guidelines" to determine the bona fides of a relationship, but that article was misleading as the reporter didn't really seem to understand what the officers were actually looking for. the thing is that in each region and demographic, instances of fraud follow similar trends/patterns which the officers have become good at detecting through past experiences. what you read in the article was only one of the patterns that applies specifically to international students from asia who rush into marriages with non-asian partners as soon as they start nearing the end of their student visa.

so yeah, the short answer is that unless your wife is an international student from asia who rushed to marry you just as her student visa was about to expire, there should not be any issues with including pictures of niagara falls or the CN tower. sounds racist, i know, but it actually isn't if we all take a moment to take a close look at how the visa officers work. this book is a good starting point: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Points_of_Entry.html?id=Zk1BCgAAQBAJ

good luck with your interview. i'm confident you'll be reunited with your family very soon.

It's depressing to see the charts on approval rates and see just how incompetent SVO is

 

[UA2014]

in your particular case, pictures from visits to niagara falls or CN tower would hold just as much weight as pictures from any other outing. however it's not the same for everyone.

i've read the article you're referring to. it accused the visa officers of using "racist guidelines" to determine the bona fides of a relationship, but that article was misleading as the reporter didn't really seem to understand what the officers were actually looking for. the thing is that in each region and demographic, instances of fraud follow similar trends/patterns which the officers have become good at detecting through past experiences. what you read in the article was only one of the patterns that applies specifically to international students from asia who rush into marriages with non-asian partners as soon as they start nearing the end of their student visa.

so yeah, the short answer is that unless your wife is an international student from asia who rushed to marry you just as her student visa was about to expire, there should not be any issues with including pictures of niagara falls or the CN tower. sounds racist, i know, but it actually isn't if we all take a moment to take a close look at how the visa officers work. this book is a good starting point: https://books.google.ca/books/about/Points_of_Entry.html?id=Zk1BCgAAQBAJ

good luck with your interview. i'm confident you'll be reunited with your family very soon.

Thanks again for your support flx2015. I truly do hope to be reunited with my family soon. As we all do, and I wish that for you too. As you probably guessed my wife is not on a student visa in Canada.
I couldn't remember the full contents of the post, thanks for reminding me. I don't think of visa officers being racist or stereotyping people, they have a difficult job to do trying to determine if something is in fact "real" from a bunch of papers and photographs. I suppose it was such a shock to me that we are being called to interview that I'm over thinking things to make sure everything is in perfect order.

I ordered the book you recommended. Thanks for the recommendation.

I wish everyone who has a real and genuine relationship successful completion of this process.

 

[UA2014]

It's depressing to see the charts on approval rates and see just how incompetent SVO is

It's quite sad. You'd think they have some sort of global QA program. I'm sure every visa office gets some level of fraudulent applications but I find it hard to believe 30 to 40 percent higher at a couple of offices.