Photographs

[superkev]

Hi guys, i'm just picking out photographs of the 100s myself and my GF have together. I'm wondering what sort of pictures they are looking for really? i have so many of us on nights out and meals and us on holidays. I also have a few cute ones of us on moving day, and also when we are in bed together (shes a sleep and im taking her photo) do i include them all??

 

[Ravcat]

So I am assuming you are doing common law marriage app?

If so, I would include pics with family and friends as well.

Do the pictures show about 1 year of living together? I think common law you have to prove you live together 1 year? If so that will help validate that.

 

[Ponga]

Don't send all of your photos; concentrate on sending `several' over the span of your entire relationship.

No need to send 12 pictures from the same day/event, when sending a handful that cover the span of several months (x the length of your relationship) would suffice.
If CIC needs to see more during the process, they will ask for more `proof'.

Most people scan several photos onto a single sheet and write a short caption under the image(s).

And Common-Law is after one year, not two (for immigration purposes anyway) and pictures won't really prove that you're actually living together...unfortunately.
They can, however, help to validate the rest of your relationship.



Good luck!

 

[Ravcat]

Yep Ponga, Fixed my post.

We did marriage app and I wrote on ever back about the picture/who was in it/what we were doing. I also send in a stack of scanned receipts of all airplane tickets/major purchases and had 4 letters from family and friends validating our relationship...and that was a marriage app.

Rather over do than under do!

 

[VGR1990]

Ravcat, do you mind telling me what your friends wrote for your proof letters? I am asking my friends up here for similar letters, but I am not really sure what they should write on them.

 

[fruitball4u]

Not Ravcat, but I created a template for my friends and family. Basically, I asked for them to talk about how they know me, how they learned of my relationship with my SO, if they've met them (and approximate dates if they have), any unique stories about us or spending time with us, and to verify whether to their knowledge we're in in a legitimate relationship (have they seen us being affectionate, talking about long term plans, getting married, etc).

I'm not sure if there's a way to include documents here, but if you want to steal my template, I can email it to you!

 

[Lauralbank]

Not Ravcat, but I created a template for my friends and family. Basically, I asked for them to talk about how they know me, how they learned of my relationship with my SO, if they've met them (and approximate dates if they have), any unique stories about us or spending time with us, and to verify whether to their knowledge we're in in a legitimate relationship (have they seen us being affectionate, talking about long term plans, getting married, etc).

I'm not sure if there's a way to include documents here, but if you want to steal my template, I can email it to you!

 

[fruitball4u]

Hi Lauralbank,

You quoted me but didn't say anything! Didn't know if you knew that or not!

 

[BeShoo]

Hi guys, i'm just picking out photographs of the 100s myself and my GF have together. I'm wondering what sort of pictures they are looking for really? i have so many of us on nights out and meals and us on holidays. I also have a few cute ones of us on moving day, and also when we are in bed together (shes a sleep and im taking her photo) do i include them all??

You certainly don't want to send them hundreds of pictures. They don't have time to look at so many. Try to send only one picture of each place you went and friends and family of each other that you met. I'm not sure about the pictures in bed together. It's on the line of being a bit too desperate to prove that you sleep together. Officers don't really want to be looking at semi-porn (I know that's not really what you were talking about, but you don't want to get too far into the embarrassing category).

We actually did send a picture of any empty bed to show what our sleeping arrangements were. Even that I was wondering a little if it was going too far. It was part of our story that we had very little money though our common-law relationship. We had to improvise in various ways with air mattresses and such to be able to sleep together, but I was not willing to be sleeping in separate beds. To me, it's very comforting to have my partner sleeping at my side.

 

[Ravcat]

Ravcat, do you mind telling me what your friends wrote for your proof letters? I am asking my friends up here for similar letters, but I am not really sure what they should write on them.

Each was unique and from their point of view of us. My Mom reminiscence about the first time I told her about him, nervous for me, all the flowers he sent her for Mother's day, her birthday...My Dad and him cooking out on the bbq...Our trips we took, getting married, everything she could think of that was significant to her about us. It was 2.5 pages hand written.

Friends from work had different view, more of me telling them about trips, our plans to get married, sharing pictures and stuff with them. Describing me as a good friend/good worth ethic...etc (worked at a police department so...yea..LOL we had a lot of responsibilities and such...)

His mother writing showed our long distance issues really...Because all her view point is from distance. My husband lives super far from his Mom, so her learning about me was kinda through the grapevine...and the first time we met, my husband had proposed on the trip ....so he blerted out "Hi Mom, meet Meredith, btw I asked her to marry me, she said yes!" Yea...her face reaction was a mix of wtf omg what? happy! wait Sad? Confused...happy...wtf who IS this girl...omg.

 

[BeShoo]

Each was unique and from their point of view of us.

That's definitely the best way to do it. The CIC people certainly don't want to just see a form letter with someone's signature. The letters we got were all unique and showed the viewpoints of the writers. In most cases, they even showed things about us we never knew or would have thought of.