How did you write your "Outline of Relationship"?

[ColorMePanda]

This is the part of the application that puzzles and frustrates me the most.
Ugh...I can't tell you how much I dread doing this.

For one I have no idea what they are looking for.
I don't know if they want a day to day, month to month, or year to year run through of our relationship.
I also don't know how much information they want. I don't want to give too much or too little.
I also don't know if they want to hear the lovey-dovey stuff or not.

Did you write yours in a more bulleted type format or did you write out paragraphs almost like an essay to explain how your relationship developed?

If someone could give me an example to go by, that would really help me.

 

[AlanWales]

I did mine (and my wife did hers) in a bullet point style.
date - First met online
date - flew to the UK to meet me
date - flew to Canada to meet the family

etc etc

 

[sbwv09]

All I really did was answer all the questions in my questionnaire in VERY great detail. I just did it narrative form from the beginning of the relationship on.

 

[iarblue]

When we wrote ours we wrote it like an essay.Just saying how we met and how we keep in contact with eachother about our weding where it took place if there was areception then of the travel when i went there and what we did while i was there leaving out the bedroom acrobats.

Ex..... Me and my wife met through an internet service and hit it off right from the first,we talked for hours on skype sometimes almost falling asleep at the computer.Afetr work we call eachother to talk about our day.Then after a little time(how long)we decided that we were so in love that we wanted to be with eachother for ever so we decided we were going to get married.
We discussed the wedding ideas,plans and decided where we would marry,if she was approved for a visa we were having it here if not we were having it there but we knew we wanted to marry.
So i packed my bags and i was gone so excited on the plane i thought i was going to pass out,got there waited 10 mins and there she was so beautiful,she ran to me jumped in my arms and we hugged kissed and were just like we were the only ones in the airport.
Got a cab back to her hometown were i met (whoever)talked for hours into the early hours of the morning,got showered off to bed.
The next day we spent doing a little shopping,a day at the beach,disscussed wedding plans,till the day of the wedding where we went to the court to do our civil wedding with friends(wo threy are ) in tow.as there they require civil marriage first.We got married and it was exciting but we wanted a church wedding too so we already had it planned and a coupl days later we were married ( church name)after we had a reception (where) with close friends and family.Danced partied till the wee hours.


So thats enough but get the idea just explain your life together and how you ended up where you are.

 

[bobshynoswife]

Here is a portion of mine:

9. Describe how your relationship developed after your first contact/meeting with your sponsor and if you and your sponsor dated or went on any outings or trips together. Provide photos and documentary evidence of events or activities in which you both participated.

- October 12 – 14, 2008: First meeting (see passport stamps and photos)
- We continued to communicate on a daily basis after Laura’s first visit. Our feelings for each other continued to grow as we looked forward to her next visit to London. She emailed me daily, which I read each morning before work. I would occasionally email her back, but often didn’t have time. I would sometimes call her on my way to work, and always called her when I got back home, often talking 2 hours or more. On weekends, we would spend as much time together on the phone. During this time I told my friends and family about my relationship.
- December 28 2008 – Jan 03 – 2009: Second time Laura came to visit (see passport stamps and photos)
- On this visit, I introduced Laura to my family. I had never introduced a girlfriend to my family so they all knew how serious I was about my relationship with Laura. We exchanged Christmas gifts, I gave her a laptop computer to make communication between us easier, and she gave me a digital photo frame loaded up with pictures of her. I had assignments due this week, so Laura did a bit of touring London on her own, but we did have a lot of time together to sight see, as well as talk and bond with each other. We had a very emotional day towards the end of the trip, on January 2, 2009 Laura realized just how much she loved me, and this expression of her feelings for me further solidified how much I loved her, and that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her.
- After she returned to Canada our communication intensified. I started calling her every morning on my way to work (approx 10:30pm her time) and we would speak for up to 90 minutes before she went to bed. I would also call her when I returned home from work, and we would talk for hours on the weekend. She continued to email me daily during this time, I would email her approx 2x per week. We also sent text messages to each other. During this time, I knew I was going to propose to Laura, and was waiting for her next visit.
- April 10 – April 19, 2009 – Laura’s third visit to London (see boarding passes, passport stamps and photos)
- We visited with my family the day after she arrived, taking my nieces and nephews to a movie. My whole family (brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews) and friends really liked her. On April 13 we took the train to Brighton for a mini-hoiday (see train tickets and hotel receipt). It was in Brighton on April 14 that I asked Laura to be my wife. She said Yes, which made me the happiest man alive! We went out for dinner to celebrate. The rest of the trip was just spent enjoying each other and talking about our future. We also visited my family and announced our engagement, and called my parents in Nigeria to tell them about it.
- After she returned to Canada we continued with our daily communication. In early May she moved to a new house with wireless internet which prompted me to start using Skype as our main form of communication. While it was a bit awkward for her at first, she soon got the hang of it, and we were video conferencing every day. Because of Skype I was able to get to know her three children, Hannah, Eric and Clare much better, as well as meet the children Laura cares for in her home daycare. At this point, we had not told the children that we were engaged, we just told them that we were dating. They were all very supportive. Laura did tell her ex-husband about the engagement, he was very happy for her. She also told all of her friends and family.
- June 16 – 23, 2009: Laura’s 4th visit to see me in London (see boarding passes, passport stamps and photos)
- As my school was finished at this point, we were able to spend all of our time together, and had a wonderful week. We saw some exhibits in London (Bodyworlds exhibit, Henry XIII exhibit, Globe theatre etc), but generally stayed in the flat, cooking for each other, watching movies, and most of all, enjoying each other’s company! We also visited my sister and her family this week.
- When Laura returned to Canada she told her children about our engagement. They were very happy, and started planning what they would do with me when I arrived in Canada. We explained to them the immigration procedure so they were aware I would not be coming to Canada for quite some time. It was a long summer apart from each other, but we continued our daily contact, and discussed when/where we would get married. We thought about UK, but there is a 21 day residency requirement, and Laura could not be away from her job and children for that long. Knowing how much she wanted to go to Nigeria and meet my parents, we thought marrying there in the spring would be the best option. At this time I moved from my flat into my brother’s house to start saving money for my tuition and future life with Laura. We planned to have Laura visit in October, but would have to get a hotel room for her visit, so we decided to go on holiday and spend our week together in Edinburgh, Scotland.
- October 10 – 18, 2009: Laura’s 5th visit to see me in UK (see boarding passes, passport stamps).
- During this visit we travelled to Edinburgh (see flight itinerary, flat rental booking and photos) What an amazing week! We truly felt like a couple on holidays this week, as we were both in a new environment. We loved touring Edinburgh together and seeing all of the sights. We spent a lot of time talking about our future, and enjoying being in each other’s presence. At the end of the week I bought Laura a bracelet for her birthday, which was the day after her departure.
- More phone calls, texts, skype conversations, postcards and emails. We were so much a part of each other’s lives at this point that we could not go a single day without talking to each other. I spoke to her children several times a week, and also talked to Laura’s friends on Skype.

and on and on and on, until we finally got married in April 2010.

Hope this helps!

 

[bobshynoswife]

I wanted to mention, we also both wrote our own version of "our story" which had less detail about dates and places, and more details about our love for each other and plans for the future.

 

[ColorMePanda]

Wow thank you so much bobshynoswife.

May I ask how you wrote your story about each other?
You could pm it to me if you would feel more comfortable that way.
Thanks for all your help.

Also, one more question do they want us to describe our relationship from first meeting (like we met online) or do we explain from the moment we physically met?

 

[bobshynoswife]

For the above question I answered it from our first physical meeting, which was 3 months after we met online. IT does specify first meeting, so i went with that.

I will PM you my story...I would be happy to share it with someone other than the immigration officials! lol

Oh shoot, i just went back and read the question again, and realize it said first contact! I just read it as first meeting. Well, there's the first mistake on my application I have caught. Whoops. At least all the info is in our story, told from both sides.

 

[ColorMePanda]

:O Wow that was beautiful. It felt so nice to hear someone elses love story.
I am hoping so much that your husbands application is approved.

May I ask, where did you put each thing?
Like what did you use for Question 9 asking about the development of your relationship?
Where did you put your love story?

 

[bobshynoswife]

I can only tell you what I did, and since we are in the beginning stages of this process, I can't say if it's the right thing to do.

I printed question 9 on a separate sheet and then put that page right behind the page in the application. So instead of form IMM 1544 being say, 6 pages long, it ended up being about 12, because most questions required an additonal page.

For our stories, I put one copy of mine in with the Sponsor application, one copy of his in with the Applicant documents, and then 2nd copies of each in our 'additional documents'.

My application had 4 parts:

1. Envelope with Sponsor application and documents
2. Envelope with Applicant application and documents
3. A huge portfolio full of evidence such as our stories, travel evidence, photos, receipts, etc.
4. A huge portfolio full of evidence of our communication. Skype logs, phone bills, photocopies of postcards and letters, text messages, emails. (this alone was 417 pages)

Hope this helps!

ps. I would love to hear your story too!

 

[buddhadimple]

We're taking advice from someone on here who got approved quickly and they did a "timeline", although I'm not sure how they did it exactly so I'm hoping this would be good?

So what we've done is a bullet-style list of how our relationship progressed:

"A: [date] First meeting
B: [date] First Social Outing
C: [date] Blah blah blah"

or whatever.

We're planning on attaching papers with title pages that have a big "A" on the front or something to that effect.

So it shows all the dates and events on one page, and then all the evidence is stored behind it under that letter. We want to organise it so that they can easily access any documents that they want right away instead of sifting through a bunch of stuff to find what they need. Like maybe they don't care about a certain thing we did with the photos, so they can skip that if they want. Or maybe there's something really important they need to check before they continue, so they can check that easily by looking at the front page and going, "right, first meeting is under A," and flip straight to the A section.



**We haven't applied yet though***

 

[gridhack]

I agree with doing things in point form with a very short description of what happened in your relationship and marriage and tie it in with the provided evidence. My guess is that an IO will spend a few mininutes at most to ensure that all the requested evidence is there - phone records, photos, travel documents and tickets, hotel bills, emails etc. I think that if you provide a long narrative, the IO will just skim for evidence and not read it carefully. This is based on doing a lot of presentations at work, you have your audience's attention for a few minutes before they start to drift off, so make sure all the important stuff is at the beginning.

One thing that I would do is address any red flags in your relationship. I found this list in a blog by an immigration lawyer;

immlawyer.blogs.com/my_weblog/2006/10/spousal_intervi.html

Generally speaking, the visa officer looks for compatibilities between the couple. This means that, while perfectly genuine, an 'unusual' match may attract greater scrutiny. These matches may include couples where an age difference is greater than the 'norm' (defined as the husband being 5-7 years older than the wife; or where the wife is older). Other incompatibilities may include inter-religious or inter-caste marriages.

The compatibilities the visa officer is looking for are the following general categories:

Age (the husband is expected to be 5-6 years older)
Education (it would be unusual for one partner to be significantly more educated - or less - than the other)
Marital status (a second marriage for either the sponsor or applicant is a red flag)
Language
Religion
Social background

Good luck!

 

[msingh2013]

What if the age is around 10 years difference? Do they look at it with a raised eyebrow?

 

[bacontoaster]

In ours we also included a brief outline of our future travel plans during the immigration process and plans after landing. We included things like plans for having children, finding employment, where we would live, my plans to go back to school etc. Basically all the things we currently have to keep on hold until our processing is done.

Often when the sponsor doesn't live in Canada they ask for detailed plans about re-settling, but I think it doesn't hurt to show them what your goals as a couple are after moving to Canada.

 

[truesmile]

What if the age is around 10 years difference? Do they look at it with a raised eyebrow?

We don't believe so, certainly not for us. Perhaps we were lucky to be done in under 8 months out of the Manila VO. But I will say, it IS part of the whole package and combined with the rest of your story, "yes" it could raise an eyebrow. But then again there's the 56 year old who recently made the "victim of marriage fraud" news who successfully sponsored a young 27 year old successfully.