Organizing documents question

[nyssa]

Hello! I understand that the supporting documents are typically organized by one folder is pictures, one is cards, one is phone logs, one with wedding pics and cards and etc and so on. But our relationship doesnt really fit like that. We were friends online when he was illegal in the US from 2003 to 2007. He is the Canadian sponsor btw. We have chats online during that time period. He was living in one state in the US and I in another. In 2007 we started dating and he visited me and I him and that May I moved to his state. A year later we moved to my state. This year in May we got seperated at the US border after a trip to Canada for his sisters wedding. We got married this October and will be seperated again until my PR status I hope is approved! How should I organize this do you think? Most of our relationship we lived together in the US. If I seperate it into folders in the usual format I am afraid of confusing the IO. Thank you so much, this forum is amazing. Best of luck to all of you!

 

[AllisonVSC]

Here's what we did. Maybe it will help you think about organizing your evidence. We wrote a "relationship chronology" basically a Word document that was a narrative of our story and included digital pics with descriptions of the date and location, the people in the pics (son, brother, his mom, my mom etc). Following this was the supporting evidence like emails, chat histories, itineraries etc.

 

[nyssa]

Thank you allison. I was thinking of using the chronology option as I think it may be the clearest in explaining our mess of a history! Should I just seperate everything by time period then? I.e. Folder 1 is the pics and logs of 2003 to 2007 as friends. Folder 2 his visit in feb 2007 to visit me. Folder 3 my trip to see him. Folder 4 may 2007 to july 2008 living with him in FL. Folder 5 him living with me until the border seperation. 6 the evidence of our country seperation and my april and july visits. 7 the wedding and oct nov trip. Folder 8 evidence until submission of app? Or maybe just like that until the seperation of countries... Hmm i hope that made sense!

 

[universalmoe]

Based on reading forum posts and hypothesizing about various alternatives, here's what we did:
1. Wrote a "Relationship Chronology" with references to "Appendix xx" where we could support the narrative with either a picture, an email/chat, flight tickets, rental contracts. The Chronology was separated into Time Periods (i.e. pre-dating, dating, engagement, wedding, post-wedding); however, this separation in no way impacted the organization of the underlying support.
2. Each 'type' of support had a unique prefix:
a. All pictures, since they are similar sizes, would start with reference prefix "P". If you have five pictures, they would be labelled P1, P2, P3, P4, P5. The back of each picture would have the names of the individuals present, the date and the event.
b. All A4 size support (photocopies, emails, etc) would be behind a title page starting with reference prefix "A". If you have five pieces of support, each on an A4 sheet, each support page would follow a cover sheets separately labelled A1, A2, A3, A4 or A5. The cover sheet would also have a short title describing the underlying support page (and matching what you said in the chronology).
3. Pictures would go into separate envelopes and the A4 sheets would go into separate envelopes. Since we had more support than could fit into a couple of envelopes, we had a few envelopes for pictures and a few for the A4 sheets. Each envelope would then be labelled with the contents (i.e. Envelope 1: A1 - A3, Envelope 2: A4 - A5, Envelope 3: P1 - P3, Envelope 4: P4 - P5).
4. We wrote a brief explanation of the reference numbering system (i.e. P for pics and A for A4 sheets) at the top of the Relationship Chronology.

At the end, when reviewing the application, the Chronology and support looked easy to follow, so we were happy. But, we also felt that we had likely overdone the organization to facilitate the IO's review of our application.

Good luck...I know it's not easy (or entirely fun) summing up your entire relationship thus far, but try to enjoy the good memories you'll remember throughout the process

 

[mrsmissingmr]

Ok, this sounds scarier than I thought!

All I did was answer each relationship question fully (along with "continued on separate typed page"),
and provide about 20 photos from each of our trips (camping trip, museums, parks, the beach, Niagara Falls, and our wedding day).

I also photocopied any movie tickets that weren't too faded to see, as well as photocopied plane tickets either of us
salvaged. I hope that not having each and every one (and substituting the online itinerary sheet) doesn't cause
any major problem.

I have photos of small gifts we've sent each other, including flowers or stuffed animals, etc. You know, the ''cheesy stuff''.

We met online through a dating site, chatted on messenger (no records) and phone (again no records of my huge phone bills,
unless I want to pay my old cell phone provider 5 dollars a bill, and the record won't go too far back). Then we took trips back and forth and married during my most recent 4-month trip there.

Will my submission as stated above be enough, or has anyone experienced further doubt because of lack of records?
Thanks.

-Mrs. Missing Mr.

 

[Karlshammar]

We sent a bunch of pictures, a bunch of letters from her mother and friends who came to visit us here in Canada (neither one of us was born in Canada), and each sent a separate relationship letter. We had lots of chat logs, email, etc. from before we lived together but we didn't sent and of that in. We received approval without an interview.

 

[Nej]

I will be getting married the beginning of Dec and we are trying to organize everything. My fiancee and I met online in Jan. I have our first emails and we have instant messages from Feb til Oct and it's almost 600 pages long. I'm living in Canada since Oct. I'm trying to find a way to format the IMs. Would just sending a doctument with the timestamps work or do they need all of the info, such as timestamps and conversation? Also we barely have pictures as we are total home bodies and stay indoors. We spend our time taking walks, listening to music, and playing video games. We visited each other in May and July for long weekends, but no pics were taken. Will this be a problem? Our IM conversations were something like 2-5 hours a day plus 1-2hr phone calls a day and I have those records.

 

[nyssa]

Wow thank you! Your posts have been incredebly helpful. I may not need a lawyer after all!

 

[Nej]

I will be getting married the beginning of Dec and we are trying to organize everything. My fiancee and I met online in Jan. I have our first emails and we have instant messages from Feb til Oct and it's almost 600 pages long. I'm living in Canada since Oct. I'm trying to find a way to format the IMs. Would just sending a doctument with the timestamps work or do they need all of the info, such as timestamps and conversation? Also we barely have pictures as we are total home bodies and stay indoors. We spend our time taking walks, listening to music, and playing video games. We visited each other in May and July for long weekends, but no pics were taken. Will this be a problem? Our IM conversations were something like 2-5 hours a day plus 1-2hr phone calls a day and I have those records.

thought I'd bump this up. any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Swede]

I will be getting married the beginning of Dec and we are trying to organize everything. My fiancee and I met online in Jan. I have our first emails and we have instant messages from Feb til Oct and it's almost 600 pages long. I'm living in Canada since Oct. I'm trying to find a way to format the IMs. Would just sending a doctument with the timestamps work or do they need all of the info, such as timestamps and conversation? Also we barely have pictures as we are total home bodies and stay indoors. We spend our time taking walks, listening to music, and playing video games. We visited each other in May and July for long weekends, but no pics were taken. Will this be a problem? Our IM conversations were something like 2-5 hours a day plus 1-2hr phone calls a day and I have those records.

Regarding IM records, send them one whole conversation for each month or week. I sent one conversation for each month that I had for me and my sponsor and it ended up being over 80 double-sided pages in size six font.

For trips taken together you could send them tickets, boarding passes, bills etc.

Photos are naturally better than no photos, but as long as you are honest just send them what you have and explain any shortcomings and you should be fine.

 

[nyssa]

One more question and I should have it all figured out! =]

On all the forms, it says after responding to each question, you can attach a piece of paper explaining further/any other documents which support your answer to said question. Well, on the Spouse/Sponsor Questionaire they ask you everything under the sun, and I have proofs to back up each answer. But then doesn't that defeat the purpose of the portion of the Applicant Check List that says #9: Proof of Relationship to Sponsor?

For example, question #15: Was there a marriage?" Would I attach all my support following that form of the wedding? And question #27: "Have you and your spouse lived together?" Would I attach all the pictures and phone conversations and proof? If I do all that... there would be nothing left in the "Proof of Relationship" section on my Country Specific Form!

I think understanding that will make it easier for me to sort through the comments left here, and what I've found elsewhere... and I'll be done with this question! ;-)

 

[Karlshammar]

I answered the questions on the form, then wrote a separate sheet with a narrative of our relationship's development and our future plans together and had my wife do the same, and then just sent along our proof (a bunch of photos and some documents with both our names like utilities, credit cards, lease, etc.).

 

[nyssa]

Okay, forgive me karlshammar (I know I already got a ton of helpful advice, I just wish to clarify where this supporting document goes... even for the other forms! They say attach everything behind the forms but that leaves nothing left for the Additional Proofs section!) but are you saying that you attached the relationship chronology (like an outline? bulleted, sort of?) behind the sponsor/partner questioniare and within that chronology you pointed to your proofs in the Addistional Proofs section (i.e. your utilities, credit cards, lease, etc?)

Many thanks always. Just trying to clear up that one little bit!

 

[Karlshammar]

Ah, I see. Sorry, I misunderstood your question.

I just gave all the stuff to my lawyer and she took care of sending the stuff, so I'm afraid I don't have the exact details on this.

 

[toby]

Complicating the issue of how to organize the supporting documents is the fact that different IMM forms ask for the same supporting document.

I tried several organizations, but they seemed to be too complex.

So finally, in each application (sponsorship and immigrant), I wrote an Index listing each section:
• receipt for payment;
• cover letter;
• sponsor document checklist;
• IMM forms (some with Annexes) in the order mentioned in the checklist;
• supporting documents (in the order requested in the IMM forms and document checklist);
• explanatory sheet to the document checklist (to explain supporting documents I added that were not mentioned in the checklist. For example, I attached a lease of accommodations in Canada to show my intent to reside there. I am the sponsor, but have not lived in Canada for several years, and needed to show my intent to reside in Canada.
• additional supporting documents in the order mentioned in the explanatory sheet.

Then I numbered each page (1, 2, 3, etc), and went back through the application, adding the page number to each reference. For example, if in an IMM form I mentioned the lease (e.g. page 45), I added “see page 45” in the form so that it could be found easily, right at that moment, to create a more easily-understood application. If I mentioned the same lease in the Immigrant application, I stated “see page 45 in Sponsorship Application”.

Now, who knows whether this will speed approval. Stay tuned for “News at 6:00.”