"Gamer" couples and evidence of relationship?

[Sepzane]

Hello!

I'm sorry for troubling you guys with this question, but I don't really have anywhere else to turn. I have tried calling the CIC number a few times and well, I suppose I got unlucky.

My fiancé and I primarily play video games together, it is one of our shared hobbies. We have been dating for six years, but have only been able to visit each other five times.

We do not have any e-mails, but we do have chat logs from Skype and Discord, including call length times, as well as screenshots from our games, and gifts that we have sent each other over the years. (Although for this one, we don't have hard evidence that I say, sent him a box of homemade sweets for valentines, just pictures of what I made.) Also the odd ticket stubs from busses, movie theaters, etc. from our visits.

When I explained this to the CIC agents, I was told to "just be more loving in my e-mails, but don't overdo it." I told them we don't really have any e-mails, and I was just told again to be more lovey-dovey in my e-mails. I thanked them for the advice and expressed that I would do just that and ended it there.

As someone with a worrier-type nature, that really concerned me. Are we actually in danger of not having enough evidence to "prove" our relationship? Will the chat logs, skype call times, and screenshots not 'count'? I guess I could see why, as you might be able to forge them somehow? And how maybe people who are much older wouldn't really know what we're showing them if we were to include that sort of thing? Should we start communicating by e-mail from here on out? If anyone could help ease my nerves I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

[carolbb23]

Hello!

I'm sorry for troubling you guys with this question, but I don't really have anywhere else to turn. I have tried calling the CIC number a few times and well, I suppose I got unlucky.

My fiancé and I primarily play video games together, it is one of our shared hobbies. We have been dating for six years, but have only been able to visit each other five times.

We do not have any e-mails, but we do have chat logs from Skype and Discord, including call length times, as well as screenshots from our games, and gifts that we have sent each other over the years. (Although for this one, we don't have hard evidence that I say, sent him a box of homemade sweets for valentines, just pictures of what I made.) Also the odd ticket stubs from busses, movie theaters, etc. from our visits.

When I explained this to the CIC agents, I was told to "just be more loving in my e-mails, but don't overdo it." I told them we don't really have any e-mails, and I was just told again to be more lovey-dovey in my e-mails. I thanked them for the advice and expressed that I would do just that and ended it there.

As someone with a worrier-type nature, that really concerned me. Are we actually in danger of not having enough evidence to "prove" our relationship? Will the chat logs, skype call times, and screenshots not 'count'? I guess I could see why, as you might be able to forge them somehow? And how maybe people who are much older wouldn't really know what we're showing them if we were to include that sort of thing? Should we start communicating by e-mail from here on out? If anyone could help ease my nerves I'd greatly appreciate it.

Try Facebook do you have any photos when you guys visit each other. Do you guys talk on the phone get phone bills and highlight his numbers

 

[danawhitaker]

Hello!

I'm sorry for troubling you guys with this question, but I don't really have anywhere else to turn. I have tried calling the CIC number a few times and well, I suppose I got unlucky.

My fiancé and I primarily play video games together, it is one of our shared hobbies. We have been dating for six years, but have only been able to visit each other five times.

We do not have any e-mails, but we do have chat logs from Skype and Discord, including call length times, as well as screenshots from our games, and gifts that we have sent each other over the years. (Although for this one, we don't have hard evidence that I say, sent him a box of homemade sweets for valentines, just pictures of what I made.) Also the odd ticket stubs from busses, movie theaters, etc. from our visits.

When I explained this to the CIC agents, I was told to "just be more loving in my e-mails, but don't overdo it." I told them we don't really have any e-mails, and I was just told again to be more lovey-dovey in my e-mails. I thanked them for the advice and expressed that I would do just that and ended it there.

As someone with a worrier-type nature, that really concerned me. Are we actually in danger of not having enough evidence to "prove" our relationship? Will the chat logs, skype call times, and screenshots not 'count'? I guess I could see why, as you might be able to forge them somehow? And how maybe people who are much older wouldn't really know what we're showing them if we were to include that sort of thing? Should we start communicating by e-mail from here on out? If anyone could help ease my nerves I'd greatly appreciate it.

My husband and I fall into the gamer-type category. Our communication throughout the duration of our friendship and relationship was through IRC, games, and later voice chat (Ventrilo and Discord) and Google Hangouts. We had some text messages (usually during times where one of us was traveling to visit the other and didn't have access to wifi or data), but hardly any. We had hardly any e-mails between us at all, for the most part, and what e-mails we might have had didn't even occur to me at the time I sent in our application. Those e-mails would have likely been one of us forwarding something to the other that we'd talked about on voice chat or Hangouts.

For proof, I focused more on proving stuff about our visits between each other, and making sure it was obvious that there was financial support going on. We did this by providing copies of receipts and credit card statements. While the new system focuses more on certain things like joint bank accounts, joint lease agreements, joint utilities, naming each other insurance beneficiaries, none of these were things that we had. Not every couple has the opportunity to live together prior to applying, nor do all couples have life insurance policies or employment benefits depending on what they do. We included some of our chat logs (a small sampling). There's a section that also asks you to provide details about the relationship, ours was something like five pages, single spaced, where I basically described all our visits in detail and how our relationship progressed.

We got married after the same number of visits that you guys have had, albeit our visits were over a much shorter window of time. We met in person for the first time in October of 2015 and got married in July of 2016, and. We'd known each other for more than a decade prior to realizing we had feelings for each other and meeting in person.

I would look over the current application kit and familiarize yourself with the things it asks for as proof. Communication is actually a very minor part of it now. Figure out what you'll be able to provide fairly easily, and what you might have to work to provide. I suspect you'll be fine, as long as you provide what you're able to and explain why you cannot provide other things. We worried also about the person evaluating our file not understand what IRC or Discord were, for example. We were never asked for anything else, and were approved within a normal timeframe for my visa office, which was Ottawa.

 

[Sepzane]

Try Facebook do you have any photos when you guys visit each other. Do you guys talk on the phone get phone bills and highlight his numbers

Thank you for replying! Unfortunately we do not use facebook. Yes we have some visitation photos. And for the phone bills, we have some but not a lot because he does not have an unlimited calling plan like I did.

 

[Sepzane]

My husband and I fall into the gamer-type category. Our communication throughout the duration of our friendship and relationship was through IRC, games, and later voice chat (Ventrilo and Discord) and Google Hangouts. We had some text messages (usually during times where one of us was traveling to visit the other and didn't have access to wifi or data), but hardly any. We had hardly any e-mails between us at all, for the most part, and what e-mails we might have had didn't even occur to me at the time I sent in our application. Those e-mails would have likely been one of us forwarding something to the other that we'd talked about on voice chat or Hangouts.

For proof, I focused more on proving stuff about our visits between each other, and making sure it was obvious that there was financial support going on. We did this by providing copies of receipts and credit card statements. While the new system focuses more on certain things like joint bank accounts, joint lease agreements, joint utilities, naming each other insurance beneficiaries, none of these were things that we had. Not every couple has the opportunity to live together prior to applying, nor do all couples have life insurance policies or employment benefits depending on what they do. We included some of our chat logs (a small sampling). There's a section that also asks you to provide details about the relationship, ours was something like five pages, single spaced, where I basically described all our visits in detail and how our relationship progressed.

We got married after the same number of visits that you guys have had, albeit our visits were over a much shorter window of time. We met in person for the first time in October of 2015 and got married in July of 2016, and. We'd known each other for more than a decade prior to realizing we had feelings for each other and meeting in person.

I would look over the current application kit and familiarize yourself with the things it asks for as proof. Communication is actually a very minor part of it now. Figure out what you'll be able to provide fairly easily, and what you might have to work to provide. I suspect you'll be fine, as long as you provide what you're able to and explain why you cannot provide other things. We worried also about the person evaluating our file not understand what IRC or Discord were, for example. We were never asked for anything else, and were approved within a normal timeframe for my visa office, which was Ottawa.

Thank you for replying! That eases my nerves a lot. I'm glad we don't have to have a whole ton of e-mails because we certainly don't e-mail each other much at all. I'm so glad things like Discord logs are fine. I'm glad that we can use things like me buying games for him or helping him pay off student loans as 'proof.' I never really considered those as evidence before. I'm so glad specifically e-mails or hand written letters aren't a large part like I was lead to believe. I was really getting worried! Thanks a bunch!