Relationship 'start date'

[honbako 1]

Hi everyone,

I've gotten to the 'proof of relationship' part of putting together the I-129F package and I have to now go through the somewhat daunting task of going through the e-mails between my fiancee and I.

My fiancee and I initially met while I was living in Japan, and we didn't actually start a relationship (i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend) with each other until roughly about 1 year and 9 months after we had initially met. Four months into our friendship, I had to move back to the States, but we kept in touch via. e-mail and snail mail (no phone calls or online chatting). During that period of not being in a relationship, there are quite a number of e-mails between each other ... which eventually lead to the realization that there was mutual interest and attraction to each other. We've already seen each other in person in a few months ago and will be seeing each other again in the near future.

Given our situation, I'm not sure when to document the 'official' beginning of the relationship in regards to the K-1 process. I feel that the e-mails prior to us starting a relationship show evidence of something legitimate forming between us ... but there wasn't too many affectionate type words or dialogue in them, but we were fairly open with each other about our lives. Of course now that we agreed to be in a relationship eventually got engaged, things are different.

Should I include the e-mails prior to us dating and becoming engaged? Or should I leave those out?

Thanks as always for the generous advice and wisdom.

[SunDrop 59]

Should I include the e-mails prior to us dating and becoming engaged? Or should I leave those out?

Thanks as always for the generous advice and wisdom.

Unless your Consulate is notoriously difficult, you do not need a lot of 'proof of ongoing relationship'. For the sake of the I-129F, you only need to demonstrate that you have met in person in the past 2 years. Most people include some additional documentation, since the entire package will be forwarded to the consulate, but the USCIS part mostly ignores the extra bumpf, looking only for evidence that you have met and within the required timeframe.

Include your passport entry stamps, boarding passes, a handful for photos of you together and maybe a screen shot of your emails (inbox and sent, filtered to show only your fiancee's).

What we included was stamps and passes for every trip (7 since Sept 2007), 6 photos over several different trips, a print out of our 2009 yahoo message archive and 2 shortish chatlogs from 2007 and 2008, that I happened to have saved.

[Bernie C 24]

Hi everyone,

I've gotten to the 'proof of relationship' part of putting together the I-129F package and I have to now go through the somewhat daunting task of going through the e-mails between my fiancee and I.

My fiancee and I initially met while I was living in Japan, and we didn't actually start a relationship (i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend) with each other until roughly about 1 year and 9 months after we had initially met. Four months into our friendship, I had to move back to the States, but we kept in touch via. e-mail and snail mail (no phone calls or online chatting). During that period of not being in a relationship, there are quite a number of e-mails between each other ... which eventually lead to the realization that there was mutual interest and attraction to each other. We've already seen each other in person in a few months ago and will be seeing each other again in the near future.

Given our situation, I'm not sure when to document the 'official' beginning of the relationship in regards to the K-1 process. I feel that the e-mails prior to us starting a relationship show evidence of something legitimate forming between us ... but there wasn't too many affectionate type words or dialogue in them, but we were fairly open with each other about our lives. Of course now that we agreed to be in a relationship eventually got engaged, things are different.

Should I include the e-mails prior to us dating and becoming engaged? Or should I leave those out?

Thanks as always for the generous advice and wisdom.

For the I129F petition you only need to prove that you have met once within the past two years. However if you are filing a for a finacee visa it is the assumption that you have a "relationship" but it will not be scrutinized until the interview stage.

So for the I129F you only need to provide proof that you have met and meet the petition requirements (this is the easy part of the process). Remember that the I129F is proof of meeting - not proof of relationship.

For the long haul - preparing for the interview - the two of you should decide on a date when you "officially" started your relationship. That will be the start date for your "Timeline of Relationship". From that point forward you will want to gather bonifide relationship proof for the interview stage.

Thats a very basic "nutshell" of information.

Hope I'm making sense!

[payxibka 10,045]

Hi everyone,

I've gotten to the 'proof of relationship' part of putting together the I-129F package and I have to now go through the somewhat daunting task of going through the e-mails between my fiancee and I.

My fiancee and I initially met while I was living in Japan, and we didn't actually start a relationship (i.e. boyfriend/girlfriend) with each other until roughly about 1 year and 9 months after we had initially met. Four months into our friendship, I had to move back to the States, but we kept in touch via. e-mail and snail mail (no phone calls or online chatting). During that period of not being in a relationship, there are quite a number of e-mails between each other ... which eventually lead to the realization that there was mutual interest and attraction to each other. We've already seen each other in person in a few months ago and will be seeing each other again in the near future.

Given our situation, I'm not sure when to document the 'official' beginning of the relationship in regards to the K-1 process. I feel that the e-mails prior to us starting a relationship show evidence of something legitimate forming between us ... but there wasn't too many affectionate type words or dialogue in them, but we were fairly open with each other about our lives. Of course now that we agreed to be in a relationship eventually got engaged, things are different.

Should I include the e-mails prior to us dating and becoming engaged? Or should I leave those out?

Thanks as always for the generous advice and wisdom.

The USCIS is not concerned about your "love" story... All they require is proof that you and your fiance(e) have met the requirements for the alien fiance(e) to apply for the visa...

[honbako 1]

Thank you for the kind responses. I was going through the Assembling the I-129F Package: Checklist and the part which says:

Use as many of these items are possible. There is no minimum, but the more you can provide the less likely you are that you will receive an RFE. Additionally, please note that providing proof of your ongoing and genuine relationship in this package may benefit you by allowing the consulate to have access to this information prior to them formally contacting the non US Citizen fiance. Many high risk consulates approach cases with a skeptical eye and providing this information early on in the original I-129F package will help them in their preliminary review of your case.

left me with the impression that I should make sure that I have the proper information since the I-129F package will be eventually sent over to the consulate.

I'm still relatively new to all this, but it's all slowly beginning to make sense. Some of the confusion arose because some of these 'extra' things (that are required for the interview at the consulate) aren't mentioned in the (initial) I-129F instructions, but from the experience of others have been suggested to be included anyway.

Thank you kindly again!

[pushbrk 12,881]

Thank you for the kind responses. I was going through the Assembling the I-129F Package: Checklist and the part which says:

left me with the impression that I should make sure that I have the proper information since the I-129F package will be eventually sent over to the consulate.

I'm still relatively new to all this, but it's all slowly beginning to make sense. Some of the confusion arose because some of these 'extra' things (that are required for the interview at the consulate) aren't mentioned in the (initial) I-129F instructions, but from the experience of others have been suggested to be included anyway.

Thank you kindly again!

Including a few example emails scattered over the whole relationship won't hurt anything. You'll accumulate more examples over the months the process will consume. She can take a more comprehensive set of email examples and other evidence of an ongoing relationship to the interview.