Post 2/2
- Letters from friends
Like i mentioned earlier we had a lot of mutual friends, so I asked 15 of my friends to write a letter explaining how they know us and to shed some light on our relationship. I asked them to send me the letters as the body of the email and NOT attach word documents in the email I then took printout of the email which showed that it was sent by which email to which email address. They also ended the letter stating that if the officer wants to reach out to them they are free to do that via email or phone and gave their contact info. Some of the friends also attached pictures of themselves with us. This is, again, NOT necessary; if it fits for you, then you should do it.
With all the evidences this is what was done:
-Before every type of evidence I submitted a letter in which I mentioned what supporting docs were following the letter and whether they were copies or originals
- On all the receipts and every other peice of evidence I stuck sticky notes and labels with notes describing what the receipt is for. I used to send cakes, flowers and gifts through an e-gift portal (express gifts) and the invoice they used to send used to show any message I had sent along with that, so i stuck sticky note on the top of the page stating what this invoice is for and stuck a label on the part where the message was written highlighting it for the officer
- On emails and whatsapp messages I stuck labels and sticky notes highlighting an important part (like tell them that in this email your spouse is wishing you a happy birthday or congratulating you on getting promoted etc.). The immigration officer is mostly going to skim through the evdiences. If you provide them notes on every piece of evidence you have done them a huge favor and it will reduce their job immensely and will clarify any questions they have.
- When providing evidences I was being very pessimistic and critical person, evaluating the evidences form the point of view of a person who did not believe what he was seeing. So i made sure that I dotted all my I's and crossed all my T's and ensured that the officer will not have any questions about the application
- For photographs I wrote behind the photographs with a marker. I wrote the following:
- Date the picture or screenshot was taken
- Description: Mention what is happening in the pictures; if its from a particular rasam (doodh pilai, kheer wali rasam etc.) explain that rasam as well that what happens in it and tie it to its cultural importance. Again if you guys dont have such rasmain, its good no issues; I am just putting into details of what happened in my case and what we did.
- People who are in the pics and their relationship to the applicant or the sponsor (just write <sponsor's name> father, or <applicant name>'s mother, etc.). What I also did was that for big groups I mentioned that all the people in this picture are related to the sponsor or the applicant. So basically for the group containing all my cousins i just said everyone in this picture are osama's cousins UNTIL MENTIONED OTHERWISE. You can do this with group of friends as well.
- I also attached sticky notes on every social media proof again highlighting what it is for. Eg for the see friendship pages there were many posts of different checkins made, so i put sticky labels on them stating that this is a checkin made when we went out for dinner with blah blah, or checkin made for a dinner date or anything along those lines.
- Its great if you have multiple evidences for the same thing. EG any date you guys go to, submit a picture, a facebook checkin and a receipt
If you guys need any help you can always send me a message. Hope this helps everyone.
Good luck to you all.