Best guidelines & advice - Proof of Relationship

[annabruce]

It is interesting to see how some organized their application.

My wife's application was sent back due to THEIR error in interpreting the online fee payment I made.

When we received the application back all of the order and explanations had been removed from the application. It was nothing but a largely disordered pile of paper.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't carefully organize you application. I simply question whether or not those people who assess are applications actually give a damn about how well or poorly we organize the application.

 

[fleo]

Who said immigration to Canada would be easy?

Who asked for it to be easy?

I generally dislike situations where human lives and futures are being decided based on unclear and inconsistent guidelines and someone's personal beliefs about those guidelines, possibly with a generous helping of all sorts of misconceptions. (Interestingly enough, if I hadn't met my husband and moved to Canada I would now have a law degree ^^).

I'm not expecting the process to be any different than it is and I certainly don't believe it should be particularly pleasant... but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy it, or not randomly grumble about it. After all, if you can't every now and then throw a virtual finger at CIC for being ________ (*insert objection of choice*), what can you do?

Also, we're terribly off topic. Oops.

 

[Love_Young]

Hey fleo I just want to say "hi". And tell you I certainly enjoy reading your posts. You should make your way over to both the inland threads if you haven't already.

(On a side note, I thought of other things I wish I had added as some proof to our app too, that would be CRA papers showing proof of filing as married/common-law and paper record from husband showing me listed as a contact and being his wife.)

 

[aerogurl87]

My boyfriend and I are looking to get me to immigrate there in about a year's time after we've lived together for a year, under common law. We've barely emailed each other over the course of our relationship as we keep in touch mostly through skype and text messages. Is there possibly any way for us to get old skype call logs from over a year ago like if we call the company or shoot them an email? Also does anyone know if it's possible for your phone company to give you a record of text messages as my boyfriend and I literally have thousands of texts to and from each other.

 

[clubcanada]

there is no one-fits-all solution. every case is different. people been married for 50 years will have to provide different evidence than people who just met and got married. So forget this approach and look at your specific situation: How can you convince a third party that your relationship is genuine? Provide proof of the past and show that your relationship will hold true over the next years. that's it.

my wife and I got married after a quite short period of time and most of the time we were apart over 12 time zones. we dont speak the same language and we come from different cultures. We haven't had a wedding party yet and she even hasn;t met my parents in person yet. We provided approx. 30 pics, travel items (flight tickets, hotel bill), a refusal for a visitor visa, skype protocol (no content), email listing (no content), three affidavits from friends. Application went through smoothly. I guess part of it was because it was a sound and compelling story with accurate organized supporting material. It probably helped that we both were not married before and no kids were involved. in addition, we pro-actively addressed potential questions right from the start by clearly explaining (e.g. cultural differences, language gaps, etc). Again, look at the full picture. A fishy story can't be balanced out through tons of proof but a compelling story does not need much proof nor explanation...

 

[Love_Young]

there is no one-fits-all solution. every case is different. people been married for 50 years will have to provide different evidence than people who just met and got married. So forget this approach and look at your specific situation: How can you convince a third party that your relationship is genuine? Provide proof of the past and show that your relationship will hold true over the next years. that's it.

You worded that so perfectly. And that is why I feel it is important to remind people not to use my table of contents as a "have to" guide. We included this based on OUR relationship and our's alone. Now feel free to use it to inspire you but please don't feel you have to include all that is there. Do what is best based on YOUR relationship. You can never go wrong with that.

 

[missmini]

there is no one-fits-all solution. every case is different. people been married for 50 years will have to provide different evidence than people who just met and got married. So forget this approach and look at your specific situation: How can you convince a third party that your relationship is genuine? Provide proof of the past and show that your relationship will hold true over the next years. that's it.

my wife and I got married after a quite short period of time and most of the time we were apart over 12 time zones. we dont speak the same language and we come from different cultures. We haven't had a wedding party yet and she even hasn;t met my parents in person yet. We provided approx. 30 pics, travel items (flight tickets, hotel bill), a refusal for a visitor visa, skype protocol (no content), email listing (no content), three affidavits from friends. Application went through smoothly. I guess part of it was because it was a sound and compelling story with accurate organized supporting material. It probably helped that we both were not married before and no kids were involved. in addition, we pro-actively addressed potential questions right from the start by clearly explaining (e.g. cultural differences, language gaps, etc). Again, look at the full picture. A fishy story can't be balanced out through tons of proof but a compelling story does not need much proof nor explanation...

that sounds like a fairy tale although i'm happy for u and happy to find positive replies too; which visa office, can i ask?

 

[clubcanada]

that sounds like a fairy tale although i'm happy for u and happy to find positive replies too; which visa office, can i ask?

my wife is chinese, so it was processed in beijing.
what makes it sound like a fairy tale? we live in a global environment and our story is not much different than other people's story working abroad (including my parents).

What probably helps is that there was nothing that would have made our case complicated (age, kids, previous marriages, arranged relationship, met on internet, 'history' etc.). It also depends on the circumstances of how a couple met and the prospects for a common future.

 

[missmini]

still from what i read here an officer might have more red flags in a situation like yours than in others (different backgrounds, no family meeting)...this does not mean a negative outcome, it just means longer processing times, background checks, possibly an interview; an officer has the option to waive all this or not...me and my partner live in a country which is neither his home nor mine, we work here; i never had the chance to meet his parents and also, he got refusal visas to meet mine in Canada...we r from different cultures too but in rest all good: no kids, no other relationships, no divorces; so it should not be complicated but i read stories with cases stronger than ours which got red flags; that is why i said that the way that visa office processed ur case sounds like a fairly tale and they r so fast too

 

[Jianadaren]

our supporting docs included photos, joined insurance, joined bank account, bills with both our names on, letter from apt rental agency stating we both living in the same apt, registration papers for both, tickets for trips together, travel passport stamps in both passports, hotel bills/booking records incl. both names. we never provided any phone calls history or emails though (living together - no need to prove more). our friends who've also gone through this process included photos of gifts to each other, copy of joined gym membership agreement.

 

[Heidyincnd]

I have gone thru all the posts stating the evidences of your relationship to prove that you are genuine and most of you have emails, phone logs, travel tickets, joined insurance, bills with both your names on, letter from apt rental agency stating both living in the same apt, tickets for trips together, travel passport stamps in both passports, hotel bills/booking records incl. both names .. Since I came here holding temporary resident visa and we met and loved each other at first sight so basically I don't have all the above mentioned stuffs such as neither emails as we spent most of the time together and nor call logs (as I was using my sister's number so I assume this will not a good proof), after marriage we stay at my hubby's brother house so we don't have proof for this but photos of our out-going times such as: dancing, coffee time, visited some famous places in town before our marriage (we could not travel far as my hubby had to work), our wedding ceremony, wedding party, registration papers for both (certificate of marriage), joint bank account, our relatives' and friends' letters of our genuine relationship...do you guys think that I have these enough to prove or not? Are there any ideas of this?

Thanks for your replies

 

[Eswiz]

This is one of the things I was stressing about the most and I wish I hadn't read this thread because now I am stressing more!!!

I had no chat logs or emails or phonecalls because my partner was living in the apartment directly downstairs from mine and that's how we met, and we barely spent any time apart. I suspect our situation will appear complicated as we both have teenage children and he is still married to his ex although they have been separated for 10 years. I included about 40 pics of each of us together or with each other's kids or with each other's family. I included court documents that prove that he is separated and a letter from my ex showing I had permission to bring my kids to Canada.

We weren't planning to apply for common law so we hadn't been gathering evidence. I have included copies of the lease, joint bank statements, life insurance and medical and a whole load of printouts from facebook where I talk about him to and to him there, including where his son as put me down as his (other) mother there.

The evidence seems very sparse compared to what a lot of you have sent and I didn't put in an index, just tabs linking the sections to the checklist that goes with the application.

Collecting the pictures was really hard because when I started to look I realised that there weren't a lot of us actually together as one of us was usually taking the picture. It got worse when we got a kitten together and stopped taking pictures of anything but the cat. I could have sent immigration 100s of damn cat pictures.

 

[canadianwoman]

When you don't have emails and phone records because you live in the same town, you just have to submit more of other kinds of evidence. For example, letters from friends, relatives, neighbors, the landlord, etc. stating that they know your relationship is genuine. More photos of the two of you together. If you adopted a pet together at the SPCA, proof of that could be included.
Both of you sound like you have enough proof.