UK TO CANADA - HOW MUCH EVIDENCE OF OUR RELATIONSHIP DO I NEED TO GIVE?

[SG81]

So... I have the headache of going through 5 years of correspondance with my husband to be!

I've printed off emails, old myspace messages, photos of us with our families, us on holiday, us with friends.. but it's the going through old emails which Im finding hard as i never copied and pasted. I downloaded my facebook archive and we have 2142 pages of correspondance to each other, so you can imagine its almost impossible to go through all of our chats and copy and paste - that took HOURS! Ink and paper has already cost me £150 and we're not even half way through everything...
Is anyone able to tell me whats a realistic amount of correspondance to send? If I send everything, courier costs will be extortionate, but I also don't want to send too little!

Help!! I feel like this is never ending! x

 

[canadianwoman]

Get a sampling of each type of correspondence evidence. One email a month throughout your relationship, plus the printout of both inboxes shoeing how many you both got from each other. One chat a month, a few examples of Myspace and Facebook should be enough. Then add a note saying that you have thousands of other messages, so if the visa officer feels he or she needs to see more, you can send them.

 

[CanadianJeepGuy]

So... I have the headache of going through 5 years of correspondance with my husband to be!

I've printed off emails, old myspace messages, photos of us with our families, us on holiday, us with friends.. but it's the going through old emails which Im finding hard as i never copied and pasted. I downloaded my facebook archive and we have 2142 pages of correspondance to each other, so you can imagine its almost impossible to go through all of our chats and copy and paste - that took HOURS! Ink and paper has already cost me £150 and we're not even half way through everything...
Is anyone able to tell me whats a realistic amount of correspondance to send? If I send everything, courier costs will be extortionate, but I also don't want to send too little!

Help!! I feel like this is never ending! x

Quality over quantity. The goal is to send supporting documentation that will satisfy CIC's need to determine whether your relationship is genuine. Legal documents that show a shared investment, pictures of the two of you on vacation or at parties with friends and family. All these types of things carry more weight than chat/text messages. If you are weak in being able to supply legal and/or visual documentation then the chat/text logs would be required to establish that your relationship is ongoing and has been ongoing for some time.
I personally sent no chat/text logs as those alone are over 11000 pages. I did state that I have them and they can be produced should CIC require them. Your relationship being over 5 years you should be able to pick the best supporting documents to reflect the info that you have stated in your application.

 

[Sweden]

I agree with the previous poster... I included 4 emails, about 20 to 30 pictures, no chat log, text message or facebook. Common bank account, proofs of trips going to see each other when we were not living together and proofs of living together for the common-law part. I wasn't asked for more, and got approved fairly quickly, so it must have been enough for CIC.
Put together a few things and try to take some distance and see if it would convince a total stranger that you are in a genuine relationship. If yes, then that's probably enough. Focus on showing how the relationship develop - important "milestones" - rather than documenting every aspect of it.

Good luck,
Sweden

 

[CanadianJeepGuy]

I agree with the previous poster... I included 4 emails, about 20 to 30 pictures, no chat log, text message or facebook. Common bank account, proofs of trips going to see each other when we were not living together and proofs of living together for the common-law part. I wasn't asked for more, and got approved fairly quickly, so it must have been enough for CIC.
Put together a few things and try to take some distance and see if it would convince a total stranger that you are in a genuine relationship. If yes, then that's probably enough. Focus on showing how the relationship develop - important "milestones" - rather than documenting every aspect of it.

Good luck,
Sweden

Exactly.

 

[canadianwoman]

How much evidence will be enough depends partly on the visa office that will be processing the file, and partly on how many 'issues' there may be with your relationship.
If the applicant and sponsor have a lot in common and know each other well, less evidence is needed. If there are huge compatibility issues, you will need a lot of evidence. I still wouldn't send every email, text, etc. A selection spanning the length of your relationship is better.

If the applicant is applying through one of the more difficult visa offices, I would also suggest more evidence. For example: anywhere in Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, Hong Kong, Singapore, the Caribbean, etc.

 

[orly]

I send previous work permits from when I lived in Canada with my girlfriend.
Proof of our joint bank account
Print outs of bank statements and paypal in the UK where I had sent her money to cover our wedding costs
flight tickets/stamps from passports
about 20 pictures mostly from our wedding
and marriage certificate

They aren't looking for a mountain of stuff - they won't read emails or that sort of thing. Realistically what information can they glean from an unverified print out of words? It could have been written the day before posting for all they know. The idea is determine if the relationship has been ongoing for the required period of time and appears to be genuine.

Financial records, bank accounts, joint rent/mortgages, insurance policies naming each of you or things that required money (eg visits to each country as that is usually expensive) are what they're after.

The motto for these sorts of applications should perhaps be "put your money where your mouth is". Talk is cheap.

 

[SG81]

Fantastic. This all makes a lot of sense. Thanks guys!

 

[frettis]

We sent in facebook mail screenshots and screenshots of text messages about 70 pages I think.

We suck at taking pictures with both of us in them, but added what we had (family gatherings etc and wedding ofc) wrote a list of the people who was at every gathering.

Its just continuity they look for I bet and if you have met both families