Copies of the emails and chat logs

[Wade+Kristin 0]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if it is okay to copy things into a word document/notepad and then print from that? I was just looking through the content of the mails we have been sending to each other and here and there I find some things I would like to have edited out of them, such as mentioning of going out for a few beers or mild cursing. Can I either edit it out, remove it with a marker? In a string of mails back and forth to each other, there might be a mail here and there I rather not use, which is why I am asking if it is possible to paste the parts I'd like to use over to a word processer and take it from there? Not sure if it is recommended/prefered to print directly from the mailbox or not. Any advice is appreciated!

W & K

[WhidbeyGirl 1]

Personally I wouldn't put into a word document and edit. But that's just me. What I have done is made a files in my email box one is To SO and one is From SO and put all email in such files. Then I made print outs of the lists of emails I have. Then I printed out a few emails. I also have some email that have info that I don't want available to everyone who looks at my file. So I just don't include them.

[Hell0W0rld 10]

you want to keep as much integirty as possible, so you dont' want to use notepad to edit, simpy print it out and use a black marker to blackout the parts you don't want the VO to see.

[New Beginnings 32]

I agree, I wouldn't edit anything in the e-mails. In fact, we included all emails including those where we were arguing or disagreeing about something. We wanted to show that we have fights and then also show that we can resolve them.

I would be very scared to edit anything because if you're ever asked to provide the original for some reason, you wouldn't be able to.

[Otto 83]

We didn't submit any emails, chat-logs, letters or cards. We did bring phone records but they never asked.

If you do choose to do some/all of the above - a best practice might be to select important/significant ones (birthdays, holidays, etc) and leave out the every day 'chatter' ones.

Edited June 26, 2009 by Otto und Karin

[CA dreamer 3]

better make a print screen of the emails(like 2 or 3 emails from every month) and chat logs rather than using a word editor which will ignore the logo of yahoo,msn,skype and your papers will look like u did at home:) however u may not be asked to show any of that but we say for just in case

Good luck#####

[Nik+Heather 121]

We didn't submit any emails, chat-logs, letters or cards. We did bring phone records but they never asked.

If you do choose to do some/all of the above - a best practice might be to select important/significant ones (birthdays, holidays, etc) and leave out the every day 'chatter' ones.

This is my thought for your situation as well.

Also, a lot of people just take screen shots of their inbox or the email folder where they keep correspondence from their fiance(e). They aren't necessarily interested in WHAT you are saying, just that you ARE saying something to each other with some frequency, and such an overview fits the bill. Read your embassy reviews (link at top right of the page). I doubt you'll find that many at your embassy had to provide much proof of relationship at all.

[grinchus 11]

A book I'm consulting says you can provide redacted emails in which you take out, for example, the most intimate stuff. Where I omitted, I wrote <snip> or something like that so it's clear something's missing. If they want to see originals, no they won't be exactly the same, but it will be obvious why I chose to leave out some stuff.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

Since I lived with my husband in London before bringing him to the US, I had loads of emails about every day things that I thought proved we had met and had a life together along the lines of "what do you want for dinner" and "where will I meet you after work" and printed off some of those. Since some of them had little personal things in it and endearments that I didn't want to share with the USCIS, I simply blacked those out with a marker pen.

Everything worked out fine - no questions asked.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if it is okay to copy things into a word document/notepad and then print from that? I was just looking through the content of the mails we have been sending to each other and here and there I find some things I would like to have edited out of them, such as mentioning of going out for a few beers or mild cursing. Can I either edit it out, remove it with a marker? In a string of mails back and forth to each other, there might be a mail here and there I rather not use, which is why I am asking if it is possible to paste the parts I'd like to use over to a word processer and take it from there? Not sure if it is recommended/prefered to print directly from the mailbox or not. Any advice is appreciated!

W & K

I printed an email log of all emails and four samples from each of us. I did not edit anything, but didn't choose anything for print that needed editing.

Can you edit? Of course! It is YOUR email, it is YOUR evidence. You can present as little or as much as you like. Heavily edited emails may be a liability more than an asset though, you don't get do make that judgement.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

It might be different, depending on which consulate you're going through, but I would think the most intimate parts of the conversation are exactly what you would WANT to let the consulate see. These are the things that demonstrate a genuine relationship. Given a choice between including parts of conversation where we were talking about food, or a really mushy conversation where we talk about how much we're in love, I'd include the mushy one.

[Tom and Milaren 0]

It might be different, depending on which consulate you're going through, but I would think the most intimate parts of the conversation are exactly what you would WANT to let the consulate see. These are the things that demonstrate a genuine relationship. Given a choice between including parts of conversation where we were talking about food, or a really mushy conversation where we talk about how much we're in love, I'd include the mushy one.

I agree... if they want emails they are getting some with "Rated R" content. For the initial application I printed a few emails from each week. My fiancee thinks she needs to print every email so that is what she is going to do (born in the year of the Ox).

My fiancee said "Many of your emails are nasty." "The consulate will think you are sex crazy." A few of my emails might have been Rated R. Oh well..... I did not plan it, but I think a couple would not speak about such things unless they had a "bona-fide" relationship.

I figure these are adults doing the interviewing so they have probably seen it all before.

[brlukath 1]

The only kosher was to take out info is to "redact" your document. A really easy way is to PDF it (either a screen shot or print to PDF) and then use the commenting tools in Acrobat to put black or white boxes over the information you want to delete. I would not go the "<snip>" route suggested above because it requires too much fiddling with the original and is not a standard way to redact. If your emails are not in English, the translation should also indicate where the information was redacted.

The black marker or white out pen idea works too, but I find acrobat to be neater. What ever you decide, you should stamp/write "REDACTED" in big, bold letters on the redacted document. I always do it in red. AND what ever you do, don't redact it without so stating because you are promising by providing the docs to USCIS that they are true and complete copies of the originals. A clearly identified redacted document can fit within this definition, but an edited one cannot.

I don't think that it will hurt you to put in documents that have been redacted, but choose wisely. For example, don't redact long paragraphs of information (it looks like your hiding something worth knowing). In the emails I submitted, I only redacted phone numbers, names of individuals unrealted to the application, and the like. I don't even have any PG-13 emails, but I would probably have redacted anything "sexy" that I wouldn't be comfortable with my mother reading. At the same time, I didn't redact the syrup-laden, mushy stuff (which it would mortify me to have my actual friends or family read).

[Leo&Farah 0]

Well, MSN chat logs are saved as a text file for me, so no logo etc there, just words.

Mushy stuff was left be, as for the naughty stuff well, I just cut it off and put there <censored>. A few sentences leading up to the hanky panky parts hint at it so its pretty logical what will come next. We chose to edit it out for privacy reasons. Its meant for the two of us, not some stranger.

Emails were printed directly from yahoo, hotmail etc with their logo and no editing out.

That pdf idea sounds good, might look into it later.

[M.O 6]

yeah you could edit it... i did with some of them