Concerns about pictures and question about letter from family

[Tamara and Mehdi 0]

I keep reading on here about how important it is to have a lot of pictures for your proof of relationship and how for many people they only looked at their pictures and did not look at other evidence....this is starting to freak me out because we do not have a lot of pics together...we have 2 with just us and 1 with me, him, my mom and one of my moms friends....is this going to hurt us in the end but we weren't dating when I saw him so we didnt take a lot of pictures....we have a lot of emails and some instant message conversations but we mostly talk on the phone (usually multiple times a day)..Im just beginning to freak out that because we dont have a lot of pics and a lot of instant messages this is going to hurt us later down the road

my other question is about family members writing a letter on our behalf. My mother has met my fiance in person and they get along very well and speak periodically, my father has not met him in person but they talk often and are very close...Many of my friends are suggesting that my father should write a letter on our behalf....Why my father and not my mother who has met him some have asked..My father works for the US Dept of State and Homeland Security and they feel that it will be benificial to our evidence if he approves of the marriage...My question is...are letters even necessary or do they see them as something not needed and if my father writes a letter will they feel as if we are trying to use him to push our application along or maybe they will treat us more harshly just to prove a point that it doesnt matter who you are we can deny you too type thing....am i just over analyzing this and should I just make sure he does not include his job position...or does it even matter with backround checks and what not is that something they will find out anyway....Although I want my fiance here more than anything I want this to be something we accomplished on our own and I dont want to feel like "daddy had to take care of things" if that makes sense.

Thanks in advance for any advice

[az110965 252]

I won't fib - photos are a REALLY important part of prooving your relationship, but others have been approved with only a few if they have other substantial evidence of an ongoing relationship.

Examples include passport pages with entry/exit stamps from your visits to him, airline tickets / boarding passes / hotel receipts / significant emails and phone records.

Hopefully you've visited more than once and you have records of multiple trips to visit - proove this with th boarding passes, hotel receipts, etc...

From what I've read - letters from family members don't carry much weight to the CO - they are loking for substantive proof of an ongoing relationship. No offense to your dad but he hasn't met your fiancee so what could he possibly say in a letter that substantiates your love and comittment to your SO?

HoepfullyYOU are planning on attending the interview. There's not much better proof of a contuining relationship that having the USC standing there alongside of the beneficiary.

Alan

[Tamara and Mehdi 0]

I am hoping that I will be able to attend his interview, it all depends on my job..Im an athletic trainer so it may be difficult depending on when in the year his interview takes place...good to know that I dont really need a letter so thats one less thing I need to worry about. Yes you are right my father hasnt met him but my mother has...I am now very worried about the visitation because we have only seen each other face to face one time and that was when I met him and it was a love at first sight thing ( cheesy I know) but we have ....I was on a trip with my mother when I met him and Im sure she has all the receipts and I have the stamps in my passport...i have a ring....hes spoken with my parents about our marriage...we have emails about wedding plans...now Im very worried that even with all we know about each other and all the plans we have discussed about our future may not be enough proof...he is the love and light of my life and I will be destroyed if we are denied because of this....but thank you Alan for the reality check it will prepare us to be ready for the worst ...I realize that we may have been unrealistic in thinking that "our love would get us through" and now I guess we may pay for that unfortunately

[az110965 252]

Being that it was just the one trip and due to the lack of photographic evidence you have I would definitely do all you can to be there for the interview.

Also - It appears that you've not yet filed your I-129F, so between CSC procesing times (3-4 months), NVC procesing (1-2 weeks assuming no AP's- and you may in fact get one only because of your fiancee's nationality), and the time it will take for the petition to go from the NVC until he finally has his interview - you still have sufficient time to make another trip to see your fiancee in person. This could be a crucial step for you, being that you do not have to present any evidence of an ongoing relationship until the interview stage.

The good news is that you still have time to gather the evidence the CO will require - use this time to get back to your SO and bring your camera!!!

Make sure you provide copies of your passport pages with the entry and exit stamps prooving you met him. Front loading the petition probably would not be a bad idea because you don't have much primary or secondary evidence of the relationship at this point.

There's absolutely nothing cheesy about love at first sight - love IS what makes the world go around. Unfortunately, the CO is analytical in his thought process and it's OUR burden to proove our intent and the substance of the relationship to the CO at the interview.

We're all here to support one another through this process. So, keep asking questions and using the resources of the board...

Good luck,

Alan

[Tamara and Mehdi 0]

ok i could be stating something completely redundant lol but I just read in the RFE thread that the primary evidence is boarding passes, receipts, emails and hard copy type things....we do talk on the phone more than we email but we do have probably 100+ emails talking about everything from day to day life, to our wedding and arguing over the wedding dress color, to fights about comments other people have made on pictures, to simple but sweet emails simply saying i love and miss you....should we include many many of these right off the bat to prove an ongoing relationship? Thanks so much Alan!!!