Facebook Status?

[Manda_Uk 2]

Actually I had the same worry. When we got engaged we didn't publicize it to the world right away. We had only two weeks to get all the paperwork ready until he flew back to the US. We were so concerned with completing all the paperwork and getting all the evidence together we didn't even think about the fact our pages said 'In a Relationship' and not 'Engaged' until after we had sent in the documents! If you haven't already submitted I would leave out the page that defines your relationship and just submit wall posts etc. I think on VJ from what I have read people tend to worry quite a lot about the smaller details - I would tend to agree with the people above who say USCIS wouldn't deny a petition based on your relationship status.I'm hoping in our case since the relationship is genuine they won't question it too much and if they do we have a good reason! As with regards to the monitoring by the looks of it only those in a fraudulent relationship need to worry Good luck!

[VanessaTony 3,567]

Hey All, final touches to the petition. And one thing is popping out .. Our Facebook status is currently in a relationship not engaged- why? Because not everyone needs to know our business, especially the duress of putting forth immigration papers. I am submitting pictures with stamp dates from my album and wall posts that are very clear to show we are involved.

However, we both made the conscious decision to keep our relationship status as is until my fiancée arrived to the states, I've seen too many people want to ruin a good thing, ask too many questions, or just wish you ill, the last thing we want right now is bad vibes.

Do you think it's bad I will submit my profile as evidence of an on-going relationship - shows my fiancée and I share daily quotes, daily i love you's to each other but doesn't say engaged??

This is how I see it... You claim that no-one needs to know your business and yet you listed yourself as in a relationship. There is absolutely zero need to list your relationship at all yet you chose to so you obviously do care that people know you're in a relationship so in my opinion it does look odd that you chose to list being in a relationship yet don't chose to list as engaged. I don't know if that's making any sense but as it's possible to hide relationship status I would. It makes better sense to THEN say "we're not telling anyone to avoid the questions about immigration" etc.

USCIS have been known to check FB's but I doubt lack of "engaged" status is really a huge indicator. They're probably checking to see if you're engaged to or dating someone else. Loving posts from other people. Suspicious photos of you and other people.. things like that. They can't deny on those grounds alone but they can make you relationship look a little more suss.

Tony and I also submitted FB wall-to-wall posts and also our main profile pages listing us as engaged and also the "congrats" on engagement posts..

I do understand what you mean about people asking too many questions though. Long-distance relationships are often mocked. People would sometimes say how can we say we're "going out" (when we were just exclusive to each other as bf/gf) when we're not going anywhere together and stuff like that. Some people suck though I'd remove those people from my FB if they were being poo-heads honestly... who needs people like that as friends.

[Tyeger87 10]

i guess the conclusion here is two-fold : 1) it is quite possible that USCIS could check your profile but 2) a relationship status is not an indicator of a relationship (as in it's not a deciding factor with USCIS). anyone can be in a "relationship" with anyone on facebook you can be married, complicated, in a relationsip, in a partnership, in a civil union with any person or inanimate object with a facebook page. When sending in facebook info, focus on the posts and messages exchaged between you two - not a copy of your relationship status

[Psalm139 5]

I dont think USCIS mind whatever status we put in our facebook, what important is that our documents are authentic and not fake, and all the informations that we give to them are true and correct.

God bless on your journey...

[souleymon 27]

Your facebook status doesnt Matter.Mine and my womans shows we are engaged.I have thousands of friends that are nosey and they cant see my relationship status but can see my womans.There are many security measures i have placed on my page that restrict viewers to accessing my info

[EAbbas 213]

We had a lot of posts from facebook and emails/messages back and forth to show how we communicate...we also had emails from email accounts and our log ins for the instant messaging services as well as phone calls etc.

for us personally....I think the most important part of our info from facebook came after we were married because we announced it then and realized later that we could use the congrats and well wishes from allll the family and friends that attended our wedding and those who couldnt come but knew about it to show and back up the photo documentation as well.

LEt's just say my poor husband has been working so very hard over the last two weeks to be sure he has a folder for each of the chats, emails, facebook info, pictures, all the forms and documents already submitted... we didnt print each and every single email string we chose a few from each month and showed how often we emailed ...likewise didnt print each and every thing from facebook but to show snippits from each month is sufficient. BUT OMG he still has over 400 pages even condensing and consolidating

Edited May 30, 2011 by EAbbas

[Steph1988 11]

Sorry to say but when your in an immigration process, your relationship is THEIR busniess. All i know is my husband would be mad if i didnt list our relationship status as married or whatever. I dont get why you dont want people to know your engaged. If i was an immigration officer i myself would find it a bit odd that a social network you use to communicate daily with your "fiance" you refuse to list your actual relationship status. You have to consider these things and how it looks to others. I dont think its right that they would go as far as to look at peoples social networks, but it todays world its a big deal and used daily by tons of people. As i said you basically have no privacy when your going through this type of process. So you should expect them to dig in any aspect of your life.

[Daniel&Theary 30]

I have a question if you do not post your relationship status cause you are worried some of your friends are to nosey and would cause problems are they really your friends? I had one person post something negative on my page (she does not like foreigners) with a simple deletion of that friend problem solved. If some one can not accept who I choice to marry weather it is race religion or politics then to damn bad for them. Just me 2 cents worth.

[Tyeger87 10]

Sorry to say but when your in an immigration process, your relationship is THEIR busniess. All i know is my husband would be mad if i didnt list our relationship status as married or whatever. I dont get why you dont want people to know your engaged. If i was an immigration officer i myself would find it a bit odd that a social network you use to communicate daily with your "fiance" you refuse to list your actual relationship status. You have to consider these things and how it looks to others. I dont think its right that they would go as far as to look at peoples social networks, but it todays world its a big deal and used daily by tons of people. As i said you basically have no privacy when your going through this type of process. So you should expect them to dig in any aspect of your life.

i have to say i disagree here. it is not everyone's business - sure there are a select few that may know but you are not obligated to announce your engagement and/or marriage to the entire world. I would argue that people are not obligated to list everything in their lives on the internet. Think about it, do you list everything that happens in your life every single day on facebook? you don't...you choose what you allow people you know very well and some people you dont know well or at all to see about you. You may or may not allow them to send you messages, view your pictures etc. Relationship status is no different, no one is required by law to list their relationship or immigration status on the internet. Im sure people may wonder why you choose not to list it but it is your choice and with the level of evidentiary support required to prove your relationship, a facebook relationship status is really minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Yes, social networks are huge but social networks are also unverifiable anyone and anything can have a facebook page, twitter or myspace regardless of whether it is a person or an inanimate object. I know people personally value social networks and we rely on them to communicate but we should also realize that these do not constitute proof as anyone can put anything on the internet.

I do agree that we can expect them to dig but facebook relationship statuses are really minuscule. Especially when it comes to K1 visas may plan a civil ceremony and then later plan a big wedding - their announcement to the world may be after they have the wedding they want and not when they sign the piece of paper.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

i have to say i disagree here. it is not everyone's business - sure there are a select few that may know but you are not obligated to announce your engagement and/or marriage to the entire world. I would argue that people are not obligated to list everything in their lives on the internet. Think about it, do you list everything that happens in your life every single day on facebook? you don't...you choose what you allow people you know very well and some people you dont know well or at all to see about you. You may or may not allow them to send you messages, view your pictures etc. Relationship status is no different, no one is required by law to list their relationship or immigration status on the internet. Im sure people may wonder why you choose not to list it but it is your choice and with the level of evidentiary support required to prove your relationship, a facebook relationship status is really minuscule in the grand scheme of things. Yes, social networks are huge but social networks are also unverifiable anyone and anything can have a facebook page, twitter or myspace regardless of whether it is a person or an inanimate object. I know people personally value social networks and we rely on them to communicate but we should also realize that these do not constitute proof as anyone can put anything on the internet.

And I'm disagreeing here. I don't think FB WOULD matter if the OP didn't already have her relationship status listed. She has already shown that she lists her relationship status and chooses not to update it... that's what looks odd. Had she not listed her relationship status at all there wouldn't be the confusion and it would be easy to say "none of their business". I also don't think it would be used by itself, but it COULD be listed as a negative thing.

Another example is how not all people hug, or kiss, or hold hands in public. While there is no NEED to do it, some people would find it odd if you show no physical connection to each other and could say it's a sign there's no real love there or no real "connection". Again, alone it wouldn't be an issue but as a collection of information it doesn't look very good. USCIS apparently DOES watch you while you're sitting in the waiting room if you have interviews. They ask you questions that THEY deem people in a relationship would know but in reality not everyone has the same views on relationships and how they work and what they should know (Pushbrk for instance doesn't know his wife's toothbrush colour, I know my husbands toothbrush colour and that's a question USCIS may ask for a Stokes interview). USCIS sometimes visits people's houses (if they really suspect fraud) to check out their co-habitation. If they visited my house they wouldn't see a wedding photo up because we haven't got around to it. They would see that my clothes are in the main bedroom closet, Tony's are not. They would also see that we have separate chest of drawers. Luckily we have only the one bed, and our clothes are in the dirty clothes basket together (apparently they check that!) so we wouldn't fail miserably but it doesn't look as good as it could.

When it comes to USCIS it's better to err on the side of caution. If you don't want to change your status, hide your status so it's not seen, issue resolved.

Edited May 30, 2011 by Vanessa&Tony

[Tyeger87 10]

And I'm disagreeing here. I don't think FB WOULD matter if the OP didn't already have her relationship status listed. She has already shown that she lists her relationship status and chooses not to update it... that's what looks odd. Had she not listed her relationship status at all there wouldn't be the confusion and it would be easy to say "none of their business". I also don't think it would be used by itself, but it COULD be listed as a negative thing.

Another example is how not all people hug, or kiss, or hold hands in public. While there is no NEED to do it, some people would find it odd if you show no physical connection to each other and could say it's a sign there's no real love there or no real "connection". Again, alone it wouldn't be an issue but as a collection of information it doesn't look very good. USCIS apparently DOES watch you while you're sitting in the waiting room if you have interviews. They ask you questions that THEY deem people in a relationship would know but in reality not everyone has the same views on relationships and how they work and what they should know (Pushbrk for instance doesn't know his wife's toothbrush colour, I know my husbands toothbrush colour and that's a question USCIS may ask for a Stokes interview). USCIS sometimes visits people's houses (if they really suspect fraud) to check out their co-habitation. If they visited my house they wouldn't see a wedding photo up because we haven't got around to it. They would see that my clothes are in the main bedroom closet, Tony's are not. They would also see that we have separate chest of drawers. Luckily we have only the one bed, and our clothes are in the dirty clothes basket together (apparently they check that!) so we wouldn't fail miserably but it doesn't look as good as it could.

When it comes to USCIS it's better to err on the side of caution. If you don't want to change your status, hide your status so it's not seen, issue resolved.

I understand where you are coming from BUT when we look at the OP they said that they just dont have their facebook status changed so im not arguing that USCIS won't look, im saying that a lack of an update facebook status is minuscule when compared to a plethora of other evidence that proves the relationship is genuine. Now if a couple had an already suspicious relationship you could say that yes if they saw that it may add to the suspicion but lets be realistic here. I think you are misunderstanding me as I am not arguing that people may not find it odd or even wonder about it, im just saying its really not as important as people are making it out to be. When we look at a facebook status in the grand scheme of things providing a picture and copy of your facebook relationship status would not be enough proof to show a valid relationship because facebook is not official which is why other electronic sources of communication are pretty much deemed secondary levels of proof because they can easily be faked. When you give examples of PDA, people may wonder why you dont do it but its not a deciding factor...why? because cultures are different as well as people, not all Americans believe is massive displays of affection so a lack of PDA is not a deciding factor. Knowing your spouse's toothbrush color is a weird question yes BUT lets remember that its a question in a larger plan to see if you actually live with each other, its not a deciding factor. If you answer that question incorrectly while answering every other thing correctly you won't get denied, we need to look at proof in the grand scheme of things not minor things such as a website. But also when looking at things like cohabitation etc, this are things in your private life...things you should know and if you all are cohabitating - things that would normally be combined and shared.

Im not arguing that USCIS won't look or that people wont wonder about - i am simply arguing that in the grander scheme of the visa journey this is but a very minor point that you dont need to stress about. I can say as someone who lists my relationship status and it has not been updated to engaged - we have gone smoothly through the process - if you have all the pictures etc etc boarding passes etc etc, hard proof that you have met and are in a serious relationship - dont worry about it. you are not obligated to change it if you dont want to.

IMHO