K-1 petition - proof of ongoing relationship question

[EE&MY 12]

Hi everyone,

While I'm waiting interminably for the mail with my fiancee's original signature documents to get here from Turkey, I'm working on the proof of meeting and proof of relationship parts of our initial petition.

While trying to figure out how to capture evidence of all our chats in WhatsApp, I discovered the "storage usage" section of the app. This shows a snapshot of our WhatsApp history with each other, more specifically that we've exchanged nearly 76,000 messages in the last year, as well as over 1,300 images. Do you think it's sufficient to print a screenshot of this history, or do I need to comb through and actually provide snippets of a year's worth of conversations?

I do also have Skype call logs to include, as well as photos from multiple visits.

Thanks,

Erin

[heo luoi 206]

Id suggest you use your judgment regarding how comfortable you are in your risk and see from their perspective.

If you didnt know two people. If your job was protect a Nation from fraudsters and illegal immigrants...and you had to vet two people legitimately had an ongoing relationship...what would you want to see?

Admittedly I'm not hip and dont use whatsapp nor no much of anything about it.

Personally I think a sterile storage screen that ambiguously showed a message/image/file count isnt truly meaningful in removing any doubt. Could be 10,000 messages, 10000 'haha's, 7000 lols and 8000 :Ds.

Theres really no 'context' for anyone to draw much from or sense of time since theres no granularity in what you described from the storage audit screen.

Thats my $0.02USD, probably not worth much in Turkey either.

Edited November 6, 2015 by heo luoi

[odarosland 0]

Hi everyone,

While I'm waiting interminably for the mail with my fiancee's original signature documents to get here from Turkey, I'm working on the proof of meeting and proof of relationship parts of our initial petition.

While trying to figure out how to capture evidence of all our chats in WhatsApp, I discovered the "storage usage" section of the app. This shows a snapshot of our WhatsApp history with each other, more specifically that we've exchanged nearly 76,000 messages in the last year, as well as over 1,300 images. Do you think it's sufficient to print a screenshot of this history, or do I need to comb through and actually provide snippets of a year's worth of conversations?

I do also have Skype call logs to include, as well as photos from multiple visits.

Thanks,

Erin

Hi!

I would use the screenshot of your total amount of messages, but I would also include some random snippets of conversation. It might be a little time consuming to get it together but definitely worth it -- it's better to have too much evidence than too little. Definitely also include your Skype logs and pictures together. Do you have plane tickets, hotel booking receipts, stamps in passports too that you can use to show that you have met up? Good luck!

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Hi!

I would use the screenshot of your total amount of messages, but I would also include some random snippets of conversation. It might be a little time consuming to get it together but definitely worth it -- it's better to have too much evidence than too little. Definitely also include your Skype logs and pictures together. Do you have plane tickets, hotel booking receipts, stamps in passports too that you can use to show that you have met up? Good luck!

^^^ THIS ^^^

Provide the summary, plus a sampling of actual conversations that span your entire relationship.

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Go to your chat list. Put ur thumb on the chat listed with ur fiancée and slide to left. You will see a gray "more" option choose that and you can email the chat to yourself. Print as much or as little as you want.

[Mamed 18]

Email your chat history to yourself. Its going to be file in .txt format. Save that file, open, CTRL+A to select everything, copy. Now open Word document and paste everything there. (your chat will be very messy in txt document that's why you do what I said above).

I have more than 1200 pages of that. Its difficult to select some chunks of it because you don't know what exactly they want from you. I just printed 11 pages, where we talked about documents (i-129, g325a, letter of intent signatures, pictures etc.) for K1 and some other stuff

I would suggest you email consulate in Turkey and ask them if they want you translate your chat (if not in English). I did that and was told I dont have to (our embassy is in Kazakhstan, and we communicate in Russian most of the time).

And the Skype, try to make about a dozen pictures (screenshot), it's very cheap to print them in Walgreens

[Mick & Janni 11]

I took screen shots of our Skype conversations, from the very beginning when we first added each other and throughout the whole time. I think I took between two and three screen shots per month (sometimes more), so there were quite a few to send after chatting/talking for almost a year.

I took screen shots of conversations we had on these topics:

-our families

-jobs

-random lovey dovey stuff

-getting engaged

-who was going to move to who
-marriage/wedding talk

-plans on having a family

..and other things I figured could be nice for them to read. I'm thinking they won't read 2000 pages of Skype conversation anyway so I want to make it easier for them by showing specific parts they might prefer.

//Janni

Edited November 7, 2015 by Mick & Janni

[Advanced Aardvark 82]

I do also have Skype call logs to include, as well as photos from multiple visits.

Thanks,

Erin

We sent in 18 months of Skype monthly logs that showed about an hour of phone call time per day. Olga did not have Skype capability on her computer, so I was using Skype to call her cell phone. At 7 cents per minute, we burned through $100 - $150 per month of phone calls. Also, hotel bills, copies of a lot of receipts for international packages sent and many photos documenting our time together doing tourist stuff on multiple visits. You really want to paint a picture of a growing and substantial relationship.

Good luck.

Edited November 7, 2015 by Tim & Olga

[EE&MY 12]

Thanks for your input everyone. I wasn't sure whether they would want to actually read our conversations or not, but since you all encourage it, I will include some along with the summary. I do have the Skype call logs, boarding passes and passport stamps from all three of my trips there, but no hotel receipts (I stayed with him), and a ridiculous number of photos together since I stayed for three months on my last visit.

We are also meeting in another country in January...would it be helpful to show both of our flight reservations for that upcoming trip even though it hasn't happened yet? And maybe my mother's flight reservation as well, since the trip is for my mom and fiancee to finally meet?

[LionessDeon 2,060]

Front loading is a good idea!

[Lucia1983 5]

I didnt sent any proof of ongoing relationship and was approved.Save your proof of ongoing relationship for the interview. Good luck

[EE&MY 12]

So I'm a little confused now...

I thought we had to send proof of ongoing relationship now (at the beginning), but after some searching through many posts, it seems like now I'm reading that this proof is not technically required until my fiancee's interview....but it seems like everyone's recommendation is to frontload now because you can't add more proof later.

Am I reading this correctly? Can you really not add more proof closer to the interview? It seems like we (and many others) would have even more proof to provide 6+ months later...

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

So I'm a little confused now...

I thought we had to send proof of ongoing relationship now (at the beginning), but after some searching through many posts, it seems like now I'm reading that this proof is not technically required until my fiancee's interview....but it seems like everyone's recommendation is to frontload now because you can't add more proof later.

Am I reading this correctly? Can you really not add more proof closer to the interview? It seems like we (and many others) would have even more proof to provide 6+ months later...

Just because the person above in this thread had no issues with not including relationship evidence with their I-129F petition does not mean that another person will have the same experience. Not all consulates are the same.

You are supposed to be able to provide the proof at your K-1 interview. However, the CO could possibly refuse to look at anything you bring to the interview. If it is already in your file, then they cannot just brush it off and pretend it doesn't exist. Also, some consulates need more proof than others, and it is important for plenty of relationship proof to already be included for the consulate to see before the interview takes place. Check out the reviews for your consulate to see how much 'front-loading' you should do.

[baron555 934]

So I'm a little confused now...

I thought we had to send proof of ongoing relationship now (at the beginning), but after some searching through many posts, it seems like now I'm reading that this proof is not technically required until my fiancee's interview....but it seems like everyone's recommendation is to frontload now because you can't add more proof later.

Am I reading this correctly? Can you really not add more proof closer to the interview?

No, there is no way to "add" information to your case later on. The only way to do this is if you get an RFE, then you could include additional infomation along with the documents to satisfy the RFE.

It seems like we (and many others) would have even more proof to provide 6+ months later...

Correct, so that would be brought to the interview. My evidence of our meeting in person also satisfied some of the front-end loading. My wife brought more information to the interview and the CO required even more to be sent.

Content is key. They want to know what you talk about, to prove you are serious about your relationship and life together in the US. Summaries are great but also include snippets of the actual conversations.

[EE&MY 12]

Thanks so much. I'll include as much as I possibly can now.

Thanks again for everyone's help.