Proving relationship is genuine - sponsor side?

[Korma]

I have a little question regarding the forms my wife's filling in to sponsor me.

With regards to proving that our relationship is genuine, I've put most of the evidence in with other questions on my forms (I'm the principal applicant in case I didn't make that clear). For example, one of the questions asks how our relationship developed, so a lot of the evidence is attached to that question, and another question that asks about how we stay in touch contains our Skype history.

When I got to the point on my forms that says On a separate sheet of paper, provide any additional details of your current relationship that you believe would help to prove that your relationship is genuine and continuing, I simply intended to attach a separate piece of paper explaining that all proof is answered within the other questions already answered and give a brief outline of what's attached and where, as well as any other evidence that didn't fall under any prior questions.

However, I've now noticed that on one of my wife's forms (Sponsor Questionnaire - IMM5540) they've requested the proof that our relationship is genuine too, so I don't know what to do.

Do we have to send in two lots of proof? Is it sufficient for her to say that the proof is answered in my questions? Is how I'm providing most of the proof as parts of other questions the right thing to do?

I hope I'm not asking stupid questions, I just don't want to cause any preventable delays in my application!

 

[Isometry]

You don't have to send the proof twice, even though they ask for it in several places. The whole application will be submitted together, so they'll get any proof you send with her paperwork.

Personally, what I did is to give a written explanation for those types of questions, along with "See attached for more details". I then included all the proof for all the questions in one place, organized as well as I could, with explanations of those documents where I felt it was necessary.

Providing the proofs piecemeal as answers to questions should also work. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any set way that the CIC tells us they want it. Just keep it organized so that a stranger could find everything and know what it all is without any help from you.

Also, don't worry about asking stupid questions, it's better to ask and get an answer than to guess and worry!

 

[mameelynn]

We both wrote a letter about how we met and how our relationship developed. We did send double copies of all of our photos (one actual photo's and one photocopies) we had three photo's per page with explanations of who was in them and how they were related to us individually depending on who's form it was for (like a photo of my and my family at our wedding was titled myself, my dad, mom..ect... and for my husband it said my father-in-law, mother-in-law ect.) We had our whole package returned to us to fix a form and it was interesting to see that they did look over both mine as the sponsor and my husbands as the applicant in stage one of approval.

 

[Korma]

Thanks for your replies

That makes sense. I didn't know whether or not they would assess any of the proof before they forward our application on to the visa office, and if so whether they'd even look at my documents.

I guess there isn't a right or wrong way of doing this really as long the information's there, but it feels like there's so little guidance... This is all so daunting for us!

 

[Isometry]

Just make sure it's organized. If you're not sure, then when you're done, hand it to a friend to flip through and comment. Don't put different sets of documents in separate folders, people have had trouble with that.

 

[mameelynn]

When we sent ours in the first time I had used paperclips to hold the separate forms for sponsor and for my husband's applicant forms and when we got it all back all the clips were taken out and it was all mixed together. When I sent it back 3 days later I used post it tabs to label it all and used separate colors for sponsor, applicant and a 3rd color for the old copies of the forms that needed to be re-filled out because they had a date stamp on them.

 

[MissDominica]

You do not have to send double proofs. We did our sponsor forms, our applicant forms (each had a letter detailing how we met and about our relationship), then we did a 3rd envelope entitled "Proof of Relationship" which included all of our stuff (phone logs, photos, letters, cards, tickets, etc etc etc). In the sponsor or applicatant forms, if it asked for "attach proof..." I wrote "See Proof of Relationship envelope for all Relationship Proof"

I've heard of it being done and it prevents extra stuff (double copies) for them to look through and potentially slow down your application. It's all in one convenient spot.

HOpe that helps!

 

[lunas]

You do not have to send double proofs. We did our sponsor forms, our applicant forms (each had a letter detailing how we met and about our relationship), then we did a 3rd envelope entitled "Proof of Relationship" which included all of our stuff (phone logs, photos, letters, cards, tickets, etc etc etc). In the sponsor or applicatant forms, if it asked for "attach proof..." I wrote "See Proof of Relationship envelope for all Relationship Proof"

I've heard of it being done and it prevents extra stuff (double copies) for them to look through and potentially slow down your application. It's all in one convenient spot.

HOpe that helps!

We posted tons of skype, phone and google talk logs with our app. I was thinking "they can't miss all this!" and I just tried to keep everything organized in the order of the checklist. We can just hope they are in a good mood that day if we have done our best already. ;D