Collecting evidence of a 7 year marriage?

[etoile]

We've been married for 7 years and have three kids. Neither one of us are particularly sentimental. We have a some photos and have taken family trips, and well just been living our lives. What do they want as proof of our ongoing relationship? It feels a little ridiculous at this point. lol Someone point me in the right direction, please?

 

[canadianwoman]

Anything you have that shows you have been living together as a family will be good. Because you have been living together for 7 years and have 3 kids, the visa officer will not need as much proof as he/she would if you had just gotten married and had never lived together.
Anything financial with both your names on it would be good: joint bank accounts, a mortgage or lease in both names, house title, car registration, etc.
Anything with just one name on it, but with the same address.
Your kids' birth certificates.
Photos of the whole family over the years would be great.

 

[BeShoo]

Check the list linked below, but most of what listed there will be self-evident as long as you've been living together for 7 years and have some evidenc that you do live together, do activities and a family, are financially interdependent, etc. I don't think it will take much evidence to show that.

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/spousal-sponsorship-t46995.15.html

 

[heatherusa]

We've been married for 7 years and have three kids. Neither one of us are particularly sentimental. We have a some photos and have taken family trips, and well just been living our lives. What do they want as proof of our ongoing relationship? It feels a little ridiculous at this point. lol Someone point me in the right direction, please?

We had the same problem - married almost 12 years... we have photos but neither one of us is a "keeper" of mementos. We have a 10 year old and have lived together in the US with no gaps - what more do they want????


I sent a copy of every tax return we filed together in the 12 years of marriage. I sent photos of us over the years. I sent copies of life insurance with each of us as beneficiary of the policy, health enrollment forms from over the years showing that I have enrolled him in my health plan at work. I sent copies of phone/utility bills with our joint names, or if not joint, then with his name on it and our mutual address and my name on it and our mutual address, with similar dates so they could see that bills were in our names at the same address. Bank statements showing us on bank accounts. I was able to come up with items showing us as living together and our lives intertwined for every year we have been together. My suspicion is that the longer you live together without interruption, the more it appears genuine.

I also had friends and family write that they are aware of our relationship and that is genuine.

 

[Smurf]

We sent the following:

1. Photocopy of marriage cert (with translations to English)
2. Photocopy of birth cert of children (with translations to English)
3. Photocopy of photographs of wedding
4. Photocopy of photographs of family on holiday / trips

;D

 

[etoile]

Thank you for all your suggestions. We've talked and I think we can come up with some pretty official records, actually.

So, these are the obvious documents that we'll include:

-marriage certificate
-birth certificates for all three children
-tax returns for the last 7 years
-bank account information (this is substantial, since Swiss people collect bank accounts as if it were a hobby. lol)

In addition we have these options of official government documentation:

-our community registration for each of the three communities we've lived in (Here in Switzerland you must officially register in the community you live in, so this shows we've lived and moved together three times. It provides official proof of cohabitation, I suppose)
-our "Familenbuchlein" or Family Book. Here in Switzerland this is more important than birth certificates. It has all of the information (places of birth, dates of birth) for every member of our family. It's a federal document.

We also have some old e-tickets for the whole family (maybe 2 or trips with all our of names listed together as travelling).

Is this sufficient? Are we still obliged to provide photographic evidence? It sounds strange, but sending personal photographs feels very invasive. I guess living here in Switzerland all these years has made me more Swiss. lol We've very few photographs of our marriage ceremony, since it was rather impromptu and we only had a very small apéro after the civil ceremony. We, of course, have family photos, but since I am a photographer... I am rarely in them and my husband is camera shy to a fault. lol Is this an issue?

In addition our documents are generally in 3 languages (sometimes more). French, German, and Italian. I would assume a French document would be acceptable or no? For the German only community documents, should we have them officially translated or is it okay if we provide the translation?

Thank you again for all your help. I really appreciate it.

 

[EaSt CoAsT GiRl]

The documents can be in either French or English, so if you have documents in French already, no need to translate

As for pictures, they will want to see pics of you together whether you have been married for 7 years or not. So send some of you and him together as well as with your children, friends and other family members if possible.

All of the other proof sounds great

Best of luck to you.

 

[BeShoo]

Are we still obliged to provide photographic evidence? ...

We've very few photographs of our marriage ceremony, since it was rather impromptu and we only had a very small apéro after the civil ceremony. We, of course, have family photos, but since I am a photographer... I am rarely in them and my husband is camera shy to a fault. lol Is this an issue?

In most couples, there is one partner who takes most of the pictures, so that's not unusual. Try to find some with you in them. Otherwise, you might just indicate "Photo taken by ________" to say that you were there.

Try to include a couple of wedding pictures, any of the apéro if any were taken, honeymoon if you had one. It would be helpful to have some pictures of the development of the relationship before the wedding. There don't have to be many, but it helps if they are separated in time (different clothing, hairstyles, etc., are good). Remember, these don't have to be good photography or flattering; they are only "evidence."

If possible, include some candid shots, so they don't think the pictures are staged. A variety of different places and people is much more important than quantity of pictures. I'm sure you only need a very few. Don't send your only copies. You may not get them back.

 

[HoneyBird]

where are you living right now?
cause you must prove that you will move to back to canada when you are doing the sponsorship.
others will best advise on this.

 

[etoile]

Thank you again for all your responses. They've been really helpful in determining what exactly we should send with our application.

We live in Switzerland now, but we plan to move to Canada (myself and the children officially) in November after lodging our PR application in Paris. We have a home in Canada and I am in the process of enrolling the children in school there. We have a bank account there with BMO. I think that should be enough, no?

 

[can_usa_97]

We've been together 13 years in June , and married 13 in October. We have 2 kids together.

We sent;
A variety of photos & 'text' covering the last 13 years. It was an 85 page document.
joint tax returns
joint mortgage
joint checking account/savings
kids birth certificates
affidavits from his mom & sister
mementos (the few we had left from our dating days)

HTH

 

[canadianwoman]

In addition we have these options of official government documentation:

-our community registration for each of the three communities we've lived in (Here in Switzerland you must officially register in the community you live in, so this shows we've lived and moved together three times. It provides official proof of cohabitation, I suppose)
-our "Familenbuchlein" or Family Book. Here in Switzerland this is more important than birth certificates. It has all of the information (places of birth, dates of birth) for every member of our family. It's a federal document.

We also have some old e-tickets for the whole family (maybe 2 or trips with all our of names listed together as travelling).

Definitely include all these.

Is this sufficient? Are we still obliged to provide photographic evidence? It sounds strange, but sending personal photographs feels very invasive. I guess living here in Switzerland all these years has made me more Swiss. lol We've very few photographs of our marriage ceremony, since it was rather impromptu and we only had a very small apéro after the civil ceremony. We, of course, have family photos, but since I am a photographer... I am rarely in them and my husband is camera shy to a fault. lol Is this an issue?

You don't need as many photos as a couple who have never lived together. It's obvious from your other evidence that you are in a genuine relationship. But I would still send in photos. Photos spanning the length of your relationship would be best. Include a description of each photo (on the back, on the margin, or with photo and description together in a Word document) stating who the people are, where and when it was taken, and the photographer - if it's you or your husband.

In addition our documents are generally in 3 languages (sometimes more). French, German, and Italian. I would assume a French document would be acceptable or no? For the German only community documents, should we have them officially translated or is it okay if we provide the translation?

Anything in French is fine the way it is. Anything only in German or Italian has to be translated. If it is an official document, get it translated by a certified translator. If it is just extra proof, such as emails, you can translate it yourself to save money, but still include a signed declaration by the translator stating the language translated and swearing that it is a true translation of the original.