K-1 visa and I-134

[kirby808 0]

I'm Kelsey a U.S citizen trying to get my girlfriend here using the K-1 visa. I will be going to visit here in September so I wanted to get some info on this subject before I go. She is in the Philippines and I have been looking over all the guides and other posts on what others have done. It is really helpful since I am really new to this. I have questions on the proof of ongoing relationship. I have read that people use chat logs and phone bills as proof. My question on that is, well that I have used yahoo messenger on my phone mostly when I have talked with her. So on my phone bill it shows up like a text message like a yahoo IM. Would I have to explain that it was a type of text message sent to my girlfriend?

Also, I have had chat logs saved, but my computer crashed and everything was erased. So I now only have chat logs from the start of this year. I don't know if that is enough evidence, but would it be ok to use? She also has a letter from me in 2008 and we have some letters in 2009. Should it be sent in as the original copy or as a photo copy?

Thanks for everyone who has posted before. I found it really helpful reading what others have done before. I hope everything goes smoothly.

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

First, get out of the habit of calling her your "girlfriend". There are no "girlfriend" visas. She's your fiancee, and you are her fiance, and you've both made an absolute commitment to marry each other. This is one of the bare minimum requirements to get a K1 visa.

Any evidence becomes less credible if it requires the CO to infer something or for you to explain something. The more concrete evidence they have that the relationship is legitimate, the more likely they are to accept that the non-concrete evidence is genuine, as well. If all you've got is "soft evidence" then they can choose to disregard all of it, no matter how much of it you've got.

A phone bill with a list of what appears to be text messages would be considered soft evidence if you can't clearly show a connection between each message and your fiancee. Do you get an itemized list of messages, or just a total number? Is her phone number listed with each message, or is a total number of messages listed for her phone number? Can you prove the phone number is hers? If you just get a tally of the number of text messages sent/received (that's what I get on my cell phone bill) then it's soft evidence.

It sounds like you'll have chat logs for a year or so by the time she goes to the interview. That should be enough. Are you saving only the logs, or are you savings complete transcripts of each chat session? If you haven't enabled it, turn on "Message Archives" in Yahoo Messenger. If you use a webcam then save some snapshots from the webcam window. Print out some of the chat sessions and include the webcam snapshots. These are a lot more credible than simply of list of dates and times that you chatted.

Face-to-face time is important, and often provides the most compelling evidence. More trips is always better. Take lots of photos, especially with friends and family and not just posing in tourist type locations.

Good luck!

[kirby808 0]

Ok I see. Well, for the text messages, her number appears on incoming messages. Just my replies to her is shown as not going to her, but on yahoo chat.

Yes, I have saved the chat logs on yahoo. I was just concerned because I had more in 2009 but my old comp crashed and all the data was wiped out. Thanks for the reply. I will start taking snapshots of the web chats as well. Would those snapshots have the date and time linked with the chat log or is that something that I would have to write on later when I print them out?

[payxibka 10,047]

Moving thread to:

US Embassy and Consulate Discussion

This is the place to post your experiences or questions related to this last step before moving to the US. Topics relating to I-134's, packets sent from consulate and medical & police certificates should be posted here.