Proof of Relationship for i-129F necessary in 2024?

[BoWrite 2]

Ok, so I know this question has been asked several times but I always see a myriad of answers. A lot of answers even include that it depends on what country you're coming from, and if it's a high-fraud country. My beneficiary is from Malaysia, so the embassy in KL. I haven't really heard anyone talking about it, and I don't know if they're known for "scams" or are a notoriously picky embassy or anything like that.

In every list and guide I've looked at for the longest time (including the guides on VJ), I've seen instructions for proof of relationship and how much to put/what to put/etc. But considering the i-129F doesn't ask for any, and even only asks for proof of the one trip, should we put any at all?

 

In short: Should my fiance and I include proof of relationship in our i-129F beyond the proof of meeting within the last two years?
I mostly see people recommending it nowadays in order to front load their application and make the consulate interview easier. Is this accurate, or would we just be slowing down the initial review process even more?

 

Also, related question: what does the i-129F mean in part 2, question 54 by "describe the circumstances under which you met"? Do they mean how we met in the first place, or do they mean a short description of how we met in person for the first time? How much (and in what part; cover letter, letter of intent, part 54) do we need to explain about our relationship's timeline/story overall?

 

We want to be concise, but not so much so that we get an RFE of course. Thanks so much in advance for y'all's help!!

Edited December 2 by BoWrite
adding clarity to "consulate interview" rather than just "interview"

[Edward and Jaycel 280]

The thing to keep in mind is that the embassy will get your entire I-129F packet and the Consular Officer will likely look at it while they are interviewing your fiancee. They did during Jaycel's interview. The I-129F packet I created to petition Jaycel had about 40 pages of proof of relationship / proof of meeting in person. When she went for her embassy interview, she was asked 4 or 5 perfunctory questions and was approved and had her visa issued within 3 days. Is that because we had so much evidence in the I-129F? If I was a betting man, I would say yes as the CO knew neither of us was married or had kids without asking and commented on the year I had spent there in the Philippines.  

[Edward and Jaycel 280]

1 hour ago, BoWrite said:

Also, related question: what does the i-129F mean in part 2, question 54 by "describe the circumstances under which you met"? Do they mean how we met in the first place, or do they mean a short description of how we met in person for the first time? How much (and in what part; cover letter, letter of intent, part 54) do we need to explain about our relationship's timeline/story overall?

 

 

For this part we did like a page and a half summary of how we actually met (online) and details of our first and second meetings and the time that I lived there in the Philippines. In that box we put "See attached sheet detailing our relationship" and included a separate page and a half that had "RE: Part 2, Question 54 - Describe the circumstances under which you met" at the top with our names and my (sponsor's) address and contact info (Just like a business letter)

[Rachel n Tyler 46]

The person at my interview (in September, so recently.) commented on the relationship proof I provided in the 129f. It made his choice really easy as we 'seemed really happy and in love.' I would provide it. It doesn't hurt.

I personally added 2 pictures from each visit with a little text on where it was taken, so I added 6 pages. (2 pictures on each page).

[Edward and Jaycel 280]

@BoWrite Here's the link to the Consulate Reviews for Malaysia from VJ members

 

https://www.visajourney.com/reviews/index.php?cnty=Malaysia

 

[Sam Burns 157]

7 hours ago, BoWrite said:

In short: Should my fiance and I include proof of relationship in our i-129F beyond the proof of meeting within the last two years?

If you want to get turned down in your application then by all means include the bare minimum. If you’re serious about the process then include whatever you think would convince someone you’re serious.

[Sarge2155 4,590]

32 minutes ago, Sam Burns said:

If you want to get turned down in your application then by all means include the bare minimum. If you’re serious about the process then include whatever you think would convince someone you’re serious.

I agree with this, we threw the kitchen sink at them, of course, that was back in 2018, but nonetheless, we threw the kitchen sink at them. Had no problems, as a matter of fact, all our packets K1, AOS, ROC, and N400 we threw the sink at them. All had no problems, NO RFEs and the only interviews was the initial K1 interview and the N400 for my wife.

Edited December 3 by Sarge2155

[apnzz 268]

Yeah like others have said.. your job here is to essentially convince a random stranger whose job it is is to scrutinise and decide if a relationship is genuine, that your relationship is real. Naturally that would require strong evidence - I'd encourage physical evidence more; proof of physical meets, time spent in person  - of course people include online things, that's common, and by all means, but imho the strongest evidence is always being physically together, travelling, doing activities etc etc.

 

Like Edward and Jaycel, we included about a half page just quickly summarising how we met - online via xbox video gaming, just because I felt like not everyone would understand, then included photographs of physical meets (several different meets), boarding passes, the typical evidence etc etc. That's essentially what the "describe the circumstances under which you met" means. They don't need an entire relationship story or timeline, just tell them how you met.

 

At the end of the day it's your job to try and convince a sceptical stranger that your relationship is genuine and real; what you include evidence wise is down to you, but most people will include how much they feel it is necessary to do so.

 

 

[BoWrite 2]

@Edward and Jaycel Thank you so much for all the detailed info! I really appreciate it, especially the link to consulate reviews for Malaysia. Super duper helpful, and makes me feel more secure in including a lot of evidence despite some other posts I've seen acting like it's a big waste of time. I especially appreciate the info coming from a couple with a beneficiary in the Philippines, as I imagine the level of scrutiny for a Filipino would be similar to the scrutiny for a Malaysian 😅 
Thanks so much again!
 

@Rachel n Tyler@Sam Burns@Sarge2155 Thank you guys for the tips 😄 It was nice to imagine for a little bit that I might not have to throw a crazy amount of evidence at uscis, but in reality we'll have to do so at some point either way, so may as well hit the ground running! I appreciate knowing everyone sends different amounts but still plenty of viable evidence. If anything, I now feel much more secure in my initial plan to send them a little bit overkill, haha. Thank you all!!

[BoWrite 2]

8 hours ago, apnzz said:

Like Edward and Jaycel, we included about a half page just quickly summarising how we met - online via xbox video gaming, just because I felt like not everyone would understand, then included photographs of physical meets (several different meets), boarding passes, the typical evidence etc etc. That's essentially what the "describe the circumstances under which you met" means. They don't need an entire relationship story or timeline, just tell them how you met.

Thanks for your detailed answer, appreciate the guidance!

Quick follow up question considering the online meeting-- my partner and I initially met through social media, but have been keeping up with each other on discord since then. We don't plan to use our call logs/chat logs as primary evidence, but I similarly figure I'll have to explain a little bit beyond the norm regarding sending them any discord logs (ie, "discord is a communication platform primarily used for gaming with friends," or something similar). How did you go about explaining meeting via xbox gaming? Or was that a little different, since you didn't exactly include evidence of you guys voice chatting via xbox live?

 

We've only been on two trips to see each other, since we have some cultural/financial restraints regarding trips for visiting. We'll use all the best pics we have from those two meetings, but I wanted to include some padding via call logs from discord. Just was wondering if you (or anyone else reading, I suppose!) had any extra tips for that kind of thing?

Thanks again 😁

[Edward and Jaycel 280]

29 minutes ago, BoWrite said:

Thanks for your detailed answer, appreciate the guidance!

Quick follow up question considering the online meeting-- my partner and I initially met through social media, but have been keeping up with each other on discord since then. We don't plan to use our call logs/chat logs as primary evidence, but I similarly figure I'll have to explain a little bit beyond the norm regarding sending them any discord logs (ie, "discord is a communication platform primarily used for gaming with friends," or something similar). How did you go about explaining meeting via xbox gaming? Or was that a little different, since you didn't exactly include evidence of you guys voice chatting via xbox live?

 

We've only been on two trips to see each other, since we have some cultural/financial restraints regarding trips for visiting. We'll use all the best pics we have from those two meetings, but I wanted to include some padding via call logs from discord. Just was wondering if you (or anyone else reading, I suppose!) had any extra tips for that kind of thing?

Thanks again 😁

 

Jaycel and I included screen grabs of our Facebook Messenger chats from the time we first met. We put the screen grabs (pictures) into a Word document and just included 3 or so per month from the time we met. We put captions above each screen grab detailing the date and we did the same for pics of us together. Put them in a word doc and a caption above each detailing the date, location and people in the picture.

[apnzz 268]

7 hours ago, BoWrite said:

Thanks for your detailed answer, appreciate the guidance!

Quick follow up question considering the online meeting-- my partner and I initially met through social media, but have been keeping up with each other on discord since then. We don't plan to use our call logs/chat logs as primary evidence, but I similarly figure I'll have to explain a little bit beyond the norm regarding sending them any discord logs (ie, "discord is a communication platform primarily used for gaming with friends," or something similar). How did you go about explaining meeting via xbox gaming? Or was that a little different, since you didn't exactly include evidence of you guys voice chatting via xbox live?

 

We've only been on two trips to see each other, since we have some cultural/financial restraints regarding trips for visiting. We'll use all the best pics we have from those two meetings, but I wanted to include some padding via call logs from discord. Just was wondering if you (or anyone else reading, I suppose!) had any extra tips for that kind of thing?

Thanks again 😁

We literally just said a small paragraph something like "We initially met through a gaming group chat in mid 2019. In late 2019 we started playing video games together daily and spending time together every day. This included watching movies and TV shows together, video calls, gaming and phone calls." 

 

I then said we physically met and listed all the dates and trips and times etc. Went into details and that's about it relating to written evidence. Then I included as much evidence and proof of physical meeting and the relationship as possible.

 

I didnt use ant proof relating to xbox, i didnt think it wouldve been useful. I included 1 page of call log screenshot and 1 page of social media posts (one announcing the engagement and one from a family occasion).

 

Amongst other evidence of course, but just was summarising here what i did in relation to xbox.

 

The officers are still people, they will understand what you're talking about, I didn't feel the need to go into more detail, because that's basically how we met, that's what I tell people if they ask how we met anyway.

 

We got approved with no RFE on Aug 23rd. (March 4 filed, initially part of the skipped period of cases). We are now at interview stage.

Edited December 4 by apnzz

[Stook 25]

We included some pictures from time we spent together in Thailand and photocopies of first and most-recent airplane tickets to Thailand.  And, the "Letter of Intent to  Marry".  No chat logs, no screenshots.

Got through with no RFEs.