Chat Logs, Relationship History

[Arctic Circle]

Question regarding chat logs and relationship history. Some of you know from previous threads, my husband and I have been living together for a year and been together for nearly four. In our long distance days we talked quite a bit on Skype, Whatsapp and Facebook, and as you can imagine, it's been difficult getting some of the older logs from the early months of our relationship.

But, from reading some of the threads here and IMM5533, we don't even need to provide chat logs since we're living together? I'm concerned because the bulk of our relationship history is chat logs, especially chronicling the earlier days. In addition, we met online via social media (not facebook) and I figured I'd have to include our very first messages/emails to prove our relationship. I was admittedly freaking out a bit because we both deleted those accounts and the very first "messages" are gone with them. Did any other couple living with their spouse provide chat logs or did you just go ahead with the proof of cohabitation? Since we're living together and are married do we need to go into great detail on our relationship history? Of course I have the proof of all our visits before moving in together like airline tickets, hotel vouchers to go along with our pictures but the chat logs have me a bit concerned!

Apologies if this question has been done to death, I appreciate any help!

 

[jordo]

If you have a sampling of chat logs then you should include some, but not everyone kept their old chat logs, or in the case of my wife and I, we skyped but rarely typed... talked a lot. Our chat log would simply look like "Jordo called MrsJordo. Call started. Call ended and lasted 4 hours". and so on lol. Not very valuable to the CIC officer. A picture is worth a 1000 words. We relied on facebook screen shots from various points in our relationship where we were able to show comments between both us and our friends and family.

Chat logs, if you have them, are just one small facet of evidence of the story of your relationship you are trying to show to the officer. No one piece of evidence on its own would be convincing enough but pulling evidence from Facebook, from legal documents, from informal or formal letters from friends and family (did you get a Christmas card addressed to both of you? include that)... these all build layer upon layer of the story of your life together.

 

[Arctic Circle]

If you have a sampling of chat logs then you should include some, but not everyone kept their old chat logs, or in the case of my wife and I, we skyped but rarely typed... talked a lot. Our chat log would simply look like "Jordo called MrsJordo. Call started. Call ended and lasted 4 hours". and so on lol. Not very valuable to the CIC officer. A picture is worth a 1000 words. We relied on facebook screen shots from various points in our relationship where we were able to show comments between both us and our friends and family.

Chat logs, if you have them, are just one small facet of evidence of the story of your relationship you are trying to show to the officer. No one piece of evidence on its own would be convincing enough but pulling evidence from Facebook, from legal documents, from informal or formal letters from friends and family (did you get a Christmas card addressed to both of you? include that)... these all build layer upon layer of the story of your life together.

I also was thinking of relying on Facebook screenshots, because that's where we're most active and it documents pretty thoroughly our relationship history from the first "announcement" of our relationship all the way to present. My thinking was similar to yours: it shows both sets of friends and family commenting and supporting us.

We do have Christmas cards (and birthday cards and marriage congratulation cards lol) from both sets of in-laws! I was already going to photocopy and include them, plus all the cards we've exchanged with each other over the years. Did you include anything from your Skype logs at all or just figured it wasn't worth it? Thank you for the reassurance about chat logs just being one piece of the larger picture.

Somewhat off-topic question: On the Relationship Questionnaire, it asks to detail how we first got into contact, if the first meeting wasn't in person. We met online, before exchanging personal information. No problems in detailing the initial contact, but do I need to show proof of these first messages or is the info I put in the box sufficient? Like I said, we both deleted those accounts some time ago, just not using them anymore, and so all our messages on that platform are gone (kicking myself that I didn't think to save them!) I'm worried if CIC asks for additional documents of our early months, we won't be able to provide them.

 

[CaroM8]

I don’t think we even included chat logs in our application.. we’re married and basically had been living together almost since the beginning and could prove it with plane tickets etc..

But if you have them, include a few. But please don’t print out hundreds of pages of conversations, no agent is gonna read all that. In fact you might just piss them off! Haha.. Just a couple pages here and there from different time periods is fine.

 

[jordo]

No, I never included any proof of first meeting online. It's a extremely common way people meet in this day and age.

 

[Arctic Circle]

CaroM8: I think it was one of your old threads I came across when I was searching when you said you were not going to include them, I was actually wondering if you included any last minute or not! Haha definitely wasn't on planning on going over the 10 page limit, I can't imagine the poor VO going through pages and pages of mundane chat.

Jordo: Thanks for the info! Definitely reassuring to talk to someone who didn't include that and got approved.

Thanks to both of you for your help!

 

[CaroM8]

CaroM8: I think it was one of your old threads I came across when I was searching when you said you were not going to include them, I was actually wondering if you included any last minute or not! Haha definitely wasn't on planning on going over the 10 page limit, I can't imagine the poor VO going through pages and pages of mundane chat.

Jordo: Thanks for the info! Definitely reassuring to talk to someone who didn't include that and got approved.

Thanks to both of you for your help!

Hi!

No we did not include any chat logs or emails. We explained in our letters that since we had been physically together pretty much since the beginning of our relationship that our text messages are very mundane stuff like “can you pick up milk on the way home?” Haha. We did say that we had them available if they wanted to see them but they never requested anything extra.

 

[Stylove]

A question please.....is having a baby 3 years old with my just wedded wife enough evidence for a genuine relationship? We had the baby a fee yea

 

[Miraclejj]

A question please.....is having a baby 3 years old with my just wedded wife enough evidence for a genuine relationship? We had the baby a fee yea

Having a baby together certainly is a big plus, but it is not a decisive factor to prove the genuine of your relationship in the eyes of CIC

 

[Arctic Circle]

A question please.....is having a baby 3 years old with my just wedded wife enough evidence for a genuine relationship? We had the baby a fee yea

Also depends on other factors: in the updated checklist if you're living together, the first marriage for both of you, you have a child together, and have been married for two years or more, you don't need to provide additional information.

If you're just recently married, but have the other 3 factors, I think it's definitely a huge plus, but you'll still need to provide additional evidence they ask for like pictures, evidence of financial inter-dependency/shared expenses etc.

 

[ashpash22]

We had originally printed 20 pages of iMessage chats and Skype history but decided not to include them as it is not required if you are married or common-law, it only asks for that stuff if you are in a Conjugal relationship (and even then it said to submit a max of 10 pages). We have been living together 14 months, not married, so like you were a bit worried about providing previous information about the relationship. The being said, we had read a lot about how Canadian Immigration is trying to speed up the process and has made this application "easier" so decided we didn't want to add unnecessary pages unless they ask for it. We did, however, include some screenshots of Facebook and Instagram posts that we've made over the past two years of our relationship that show us together and having a joint public life (The last checkbox under Proof of Relationship to Sponsor - "Other proof that your relationship is recognized by friends and/or family") In the Relationship Questionnaire form at the end where it asks if there is anything else you want to add about your relationship, we just wrote a little story of how we met and how we dated long distance for 6 months before we moved in together and we have some proof of that if they want to see it. I wouldn't worry about it too much

 

[Stylove]

Great replies. However ill provide as much evidence as i can.

 

[canuck_in_uk]

Great replies. However ill provide as much evidence as i can.

Don't provide as much evidence as you can. Follow the checklist.