Me (US) and my fiancée (CAD) Plan on getting married this year and filing for Spousal Sponsorship so I can move to canada and we can finally start our lives together. We started dating online 6 years ago and the first time we officially met in person was Feb 2019 cause her parents invited me to hawaii with them. We have a lot of photos from a lot different trips we’ve went on together both in US and CAD but I’m worried cause most of them are taken ourselves in a selfie way? They are far and clear enough to see us from the chest up and the background clear enough to tell where we are and I was wondering if this would count as proof? We also have a photo taken by a photographer of the first time we met in hawaii with her family all in it so there’s that as well as showing proof of her family knowing about our relationship. We also have a picture of us sitting with my cousins on my moms side of the family during christmas so there’s that as well. But a majority of our photos are as i explained and a few full body ones like when we went to disneyland. We also plan on having a small courthouse wedding with just her parents there and plan on having a big ceremony (or vow renewal I’m still confused on a lot of the wedding stuff) down the line when we can afford to fly both sides of each family to one location, We felt as if it wasn’t fair for one side to miss out on something big. Would this raise any suspicion? I heard courthouse weddings are very common between CAD and US citizens
Question about Spousal Sponsor photos?
- Thread starter Gauging
- Start date
Sounds basically okay. You might ask friends and family if they've grabbed any photos of you, that would show different perspective. More photos with other people and variety of settings good. Add the best of what you have to wedding and ceremony and shouldn't be too bad.
N ote, it can be very helpful to have even small family dinner or event after with some more people. Even say a barbecue at parent's house with some other guests, just shows it's a public relationship. Small is fine, bit it adds to the courthouse wedding
Telling them about your plans for a bigger event in future - consider they'll basically ignore that. Just tell them small event for now due to COVID and fltravel restrictions.
N ote, it can be very helpful to have even small family dinner or event after with some more people. Even say a barbecue at parent's house with some other guests, just shows it's a public relationship. Small is fine, bit it adds to the courthouse wedding
Telling them about your plans for a bigger event in future - consider they'll basically ignore that. Just tell them small event for now due to COVID and fltravel restrictions.
Court house wedding is fine, but they are going to want relatives from both sides in the pictures, otherwise you will probably look at a spousal interview, which isn't that hard these days I believe.
I disagree that you "need" family from both sides to be at a small wedding. During COVID, it's acceptable that travel is not easy/safe for a lot of people.
Just include what you have and explain it in a letter. I think what you have sounds good. Since it's not an arranged marriage, court house wedding is fine.
As long as your pictures show that both sides of the family/friends know the couple, it's OK. It doesn't need to be "posted" full body picture, pictures that include you both plus friends/families is good too. (e.g. BBQ as mentioned)
With this arrangement you should be pretty good overall. Photos with friends and the like are helpful too.
Just one more question, Due to covid we have a few photos together where 1 or both of us was wearing a face mask. I’m assuming these wouldn’t be usable? You can tell it’s us especially in the ones where only one of us had one on but wondering if i should bother using them
Should be fine. Probably helps in sense that establishes time pretty well. I mean, if you only had photos in masks and neither was recognisable, that wouldn't be good. But as you describe above, why not?
Just pick the best ones.
Should be fine. If you can still tell it is the both of you and the pictures represent another visit together that is not already represented in the 20 pictures I would include it. In general pictures should show that you have spent time together as a couple over time.
You don't need the photos of the family at the wedding, but once you are married, you need to show that you didn't just secretly run off and marry, as that sets off red flags. More than likely the minimum result will be an interview if you don't have a picture of a husband and wife with relatives somewhere at some time.