K1 Visa Pictures family involvement/love story letter

[verde3light 0]

How important would you guys say the picture's proof dates are important ? What if I only have pictures with a few family members? Are family members even needed in the pictures? How well would you all say the love story needs to be typed? Does it need to be college paper stuff or just something decent?

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

11 minutes ago, verde3light said:

How important would you guys say the picture's proof dates are important ? What if I only have pictures with a few family members? Are family members even needed in the pictures? How well would you all say the love story needs to be typed? Does it need to be college paper stuff or just something decent?

Pictures are a good form of secondary evidence. So I took pictures of me and my then fiance together in different locations, both of us with her family, me with just her family. I sent in about 3 8X10 pages with about 6 photos per page so 18 photos in all. 

 

Also the you can type/write a letter on how you two started talking and when,  and when you first met. 

[geowrian 22,337]

Having photos with family and the fiance/fiancee over a period of time is helpful.

 

Showing a date via photos is a challenge...if this is for the "meeting within 2 years" requirement for the I-129F, focus on verifiable evidence like passport stamps, boarding passes, receipts, etc. The photos can be added to corroborate the primary evidence, and/or for frontloading the petition with relationship evidence.

 

Having a letter describing how you met and such is fine to include, but really doesn't add a whole lot IMO...they will focus on evidence, not words.

[p-ana 933]

As said, pictures are secondary evidence. You can send them, doesn’t matter if family is in them or not, it doesn’t hurt to send what you have. Don’t need to overdue it. Quality is bette than quantity. 

The statement on how you met should fit in the i129f form itself, whatever else you want to say it’s not necessary so, again, think quality over quantity - skip mushy details, be concise and to the point.

 

good luck

[Kush_Omaded 29]

Unpopular opinion, but I actually found that including an extra little letter about how we met (in addition to other evidence of course) really helped us in the interview. Since I (the petitioner) wrote and signed the letter with a description of the circumstances under which my fiancé and I met, the consular officer actually referred to the letter to corroborate some of the details my fiancé provided. Since I couldn't be present in the interview, it was almost like the letter served as my testimony. Obviously, you'd want to ensure that the letter is totally accurate and that both of your memories match up and that dates and everything are recalled correctly, but if you're coming from a more difficult embassy, a letter may help serve as additional evidence (or if nothing else, an explanation).  My fiancé was only asked a few questions (which the officer seemed to pull directly from the letter), before being given tentative approval (pending AP of course). 

[debbiedoo 2,339]

you dont need to send them a love story. really, no one other than you and your fiance care about that.  you need a letter of intent to marry and a statement of how you met. Sometimes that is a borderline love story, but again, no one wants huge detail in it. just ... how you met. 

 

they care they you have MET within the past 2 years and can PROVE it. this is why photos are secondary to passport stamps/ boarding passes/ receipts/ etc. 

 

no, family members do not need to be in the pictures. i may have included a couple with my fiance and my son, but i dont recall, to be honest (i only have a couple of those anyways and were together every few weeks)

[verde3light 0]

thanks everyone but should the pictures dates of us be in order from beginning to the end? What if they are not in order?

[p-ana 933]

Doesn’t matter, but I think it should be in chronological order

[LeesaMarie 206]

From an administrative standpoint, you would put them in chronological order so that it's EASY for the person adjudicating your petition, this is what you want after all.

 

I annotated all of my photo's with dates, and the locations. Photo's were a mix of friends / family, and just me and my fiance. This was supported with Facebook tags showing location and dates, and ticket stubs with dates printed on. All of which were highlighted so that the person looking at my petition was able to see everything easily. e.g picture at particular theme park, date, location and names of people in the picture written underneath. Theme park ticket with date and times highlighted positioned next to it.

 

People need to remember that there's no rules about how you present your information, but there is a fair amount of common sense required. Someone has to sit there and literally go through your petition page by page and scan it into a system, and destroy what isn't relevant. Why on earth would you make this process difficult by using plastic wallets, or putting things in a binder that someone has to disassemble. Why would you then put things in a random order that makes no sense to anyone?

 

Just be smart about it and read the guidelines that the USCIS have published.

[TBoneTX 45,328]

12 hours ago, debbiedoo said:

you dont need to send them a love story. really, no one other than you and your fiance care about that.  you need a letter of intent to marry and a statement of how you met. Sometimes that is a borderline love story, but again, no one wants huge detail in it. just ... how you met. 

 

they care they you have MET within the past 2 years

This is accurate from USCIS's standpoint.

Lest any reader misunderstand, the extra material (photos, et al.) are for the eyes of the consulate after the petition is approved and forwarded there (called "front-loading").

[verde3light 0]

@LeesaMarie Who's putting things into a plastic wallet inside of a binder? Who needs this "fair amount of common sense" ?

[geowrian 22,337]

11 minutes ago, verde3light said:

@LeesaMarie Who's putting things into a plastic wallet inside of a binder? Who needs this "fair amount of common sense" ?

We've seen a bunch of peopled do it. Or people sending 500+ pages of chat messages and such.. And photo albums. Or CDs and other electronic media.

My assumption is some people just don't realized the process involved (i.e. getting scanned into the system first) and just think it's viewed by a person as-is.

[LeesaMarie 206]

35 minutes ago, geowrian said:

We've seen a bunch of peopled do it. Or people sending 500+ pages of chat messages and such.. And photo albums. Or CDs and other electronic media.

My assumption is some people just don't realized the process involved (i.e. getting scanned into the system first) and just think it's viewed by a person as-is.

Yep, the assembly part was not directed at you @verde3light, but others starting their K1 journey will for sure read this thread (and many others), and these are the kind of things that cause delays for everyone else.

 

For example, nowhere on the I-129F, or instructions does it state you need to type up a love story. They literally give you 3 small lines to describe how you met, with an additional page at the end of the document to add further detail if required. If you feel like typing up a detailed account of your relationship will support the rest of the evidence you're going to submit, by all means go for it. It's just important to understand that this is not evidence, and your main focus should not be here, it should accumulating actual evidence that proves you have met your significant other in person in the last 2 years prior to submitting the I-129F.

 

It was not my intention to offend you at all.

[geowrian 22,337]

12 minutes ago, LeesaMarie said:

Yep, the assembly part was not directed at you @verde3light, but others starting their K1 journey will for sure read this thread (and many others), and these are the kind of things that cause delays for everyone else.

 

For example, nowhere on the I-129F, or instructions does it state you need to type up a love story. They literally give you 3 small lines to describe how you met, with an additional page at the end of the document to add further detail if required. If you feel like typing up a detailed account of your relationship will support the rest of the evidence you're going to submit, by all means go for it. It's just important to understand that this is not evidence, and your main focus should not be here, it should accumulating actual evidence that proves you have met your significant other in person in the last 2 years prior to submitting the I-129F.

 

It was not my intention to offend you at all.

No offense was taken at all! haha I was just describing my observations. I agree with you.

[Daniela M_______ 410]

On 8/4/2018 at 3:15 PM, verde3light said:

How important would you guys say the picture's proof dates are important ? What if I only have pictures with a few family members? Are family members even needed in the pictures? How well would you all say the love story needs to be typed? Does it need to be college paper stuff or just something decent?

We added like 25 pictures of us in different places from his 3 past visits, I typed at the back of each one date, place and our names. I did put them in chronological order but I have to say I was a little messy and just put all the printed pictures together with a rubber band and inside the package... Those pictures are from only us and maybe 2 of the 25 with some friends, I live in this country alone and we don't know each other families yet but they are aware of our relationship (I even talk with his mom on facebook). About the letter we did describe in a romantic way how we met, I thought they wanted people to be specific and we included as much details as we both could in one page (we include a letter each with our own version). I'm still waiting for NOA 2 btw.

 

What I mean is evidence from family and friends are good to include if you have it but not mandatory, the relationship and the application is about the two of you and if you are both legally free to marry then you are good to go.