Proof of Relationship, where do you draw the line?

[Gwen&Dante 0]

Hey all,

So, I'm working on assembling our proof of relationship and I'm wondering how much I really need. I don't want to skimp, but my husband and I, while only very recently married, have been together for over 3 years and have been living together for all but about the first few weeks of our relationship. We have evidence of cohabitation from three years ago and through to now, so I think we're covered as far as that goes. And we also have 3 years worth of pictures together and 3 years worth of e-mails etc.

We have over 1000 emails and online chat records from that period of time (few compared to some, I know, but we've been living together so we don't e-mail all that often). But how many of those do I really need to print out? It seems like a waste of time, money and paper to print out so many. Would a few choice ones selected over time be sufficient? Would a snapshot of my inbox showing all 1000 some odd emails do the trick? I'd like to save paper, time and cash if I can. Also, we have a handful of snail mail letters addressed to both of us over the years. Will this be sufficient?

And for pictures, what do people usually do for facebook type photos? Can I print out multiple pictures in low quality on a single page? How big do they have to be? As long as people can tell that it's us is that sufficient?

Thanks so much for your help. Sorry to rehash something that's been asked before, but when I looked through all the previous threads I mostly saw people worrying about having too little. I want to avoid having too much. Thanks for taking the time to read this and thanks in advance for your help,

~Gwen

[JoannaV 174]

Having concrete evidence that you have been living together for several years and therefore also (I assume) sharing some financials is huge. If you have that, you certainly don't need to go overboard with the secondary evidence. I think the snapshot of your email inbox is a good idea. Showing that you have emailed each other over a long time-frame is almost primary quantitative evidence. If you want to include the pictures then I would do what you said: a page or two containing a few pictures (not too many, 3 or 4 to a page) from key moments in your relationship. I'm pretty sure they won't even look at them, but personally I would find it compelling evidence if one could see clearly that they were from different periods of time - different hairstyles

[Stephen&Kim 1]

I don't recall having to show anything like that at all. We showed mortgage statements, utility bills and our marriage certificate. We also have a daughter so a copy of her birth certificate. But we didn't provide any photos or emails. You are married correct?

[la2011 5]

Could not agree more. What really means something, is comingling of lives and finances. Show a lease with both of your names, joint bank accounts, joint memberships, joint cell phonebills, life insurance that show the other spouse as the beneficiary in case of death, health insurance you are both signed up for, mail received in both of your names at the same address, cards addressed to you both etc. Pictures are useful and I would follow the advice of JoannaV. Aim for 10 meaningful pictures ( put 3 per page), 5-10 different piece of financial/comingling of lives evidence, and a snap shot of email/chats and maybe a snap shots of your facebook pages, if you use that or lack in primary evidence because you are newly weds (shows your status is married to each other and comments of friends etc). And your marriage license, of course.

My personal stance on bona fide evidence for people from low fraud countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, Western Europe etc. is that 10 pages of varied, solid evidence is enough. No need to frontload.

After all, what are consular or USCIS field office interviews for?!

Edited July 20, 2011 by la2011

[canuckbos 10]

You should have no problem, we sent in a few items, we opened a joint USA bank account, added an additional credit card to each of our individual account accounts with the other's name in it and that was about it. We sent no pictures, emails etc.

You cannot put a USC on a canadian bank account unless they have a SIN but you can add him as another credit card holder on your current credti card account.

You can put a CDN on an American Bank Account however.....

Good luck!