Phone logs question

[Lady_Ashka]

Hi guys, I have a question about how to present phone logs. I have been putting together our proof of relationship (common law outland, though i live in Canada with him, i am Polish) and these are the issues i encontered, please let me know what you think.

The story is that as we met in 2011and later in the course of our friendship developing into a relationship, we exchanged lots of texts, of course, but:

1.because we both lived in Poland at the time (not together, though), and he was granted polish PR, we did not think saving these texts was necessary. Also, one time we had qn argument and i deleted some of them, and others got lost when i was changing phones. Here i just wrote in the cover letter to this section that this these texts got lost and we did not save them. Hope that's ok? These were from 2011 to summer 2013.

2. I have two phones, my Polish and my Canadian number. I hope they will not treat that with suspicion? My Canadian operator does not have service outside of Canada so when i'm away i have to use my Polish number. I also used to communicate with my husband through that number before we moved in together. So basically the Polish number covers the time until we moved in together in Canada (september 2014) and my trips after that time that i took without him. Hope it's not too complicated.

3. This is a real bummer: my Canadian phone is an older model (no Android!) and although texts can be accessed through a reader... the phone itself gives weird dates for some of the texts. For 2014 (starting from september; these are all our daily texts) it says it was.... 2008, even though we did not know each other then. And then for only some 2015 texts it gives 2009, though other ones give 2015. Also, a few of my 'sent' messages from 2014 and 15 disappeared, so for some there are only his texts to me. I tried to fix the date problem but it's an old phone and nothing can be done.
Also, my husband did not save any of these (because i was doing it).

So now i am in a pickle: i can take screen shots of all these (2014-now) or export them into an Excel file that can be in turn formatted into a word file-i know it's good to show screen shots because they cannot be edited, but on the other hand i am afraid that once they see 2008 they will get suspicious about the timeline of our relationship.. what do you think i should do? As it is now, i took print screens of a few texts from each month (these are our daily texts so most of them are like 'do we have milk?') and pasted them onto the word file with other texts, with a note that all texts can be presented through print screens on request. In other words, for our daily texts starting with the time we moved in together there is a word document with texts in a table, which starts with a selection of screenshots of what the texts look like in the reader, followed by the table with other texts (in which i changed 2008 to 2014 and 2009 to 2015, even though i assume this is wrong). Alternatively, i was thinking maybe of simly not including the texts with wrong years, but that ends up with the file not featuring large chunks of time (for instance all 2014 would be missing).. so is this ok, or is it better to give them screens of all texts (it's s fairly large selection) and just explain that 2008 stands for 2014 and 2009 for 2015, and that if they want to read 2015 chronologically, they will have to look at day dates of both 2009 and 15 to figure out which text fits where?

So to sum up we have no texts for when we met and both lived in Poland (but we do have emails), then texts from when he lived in Canada and I still in Poland (from my Polish number; there are also emails and skype logs), then from when we moved in together (but with the problem described in 3; with a few emails) - daily texts (my Canadian number), and then another pile for texts we exchange when we are travelling separately (starting after we moved in together; with emails amd skypes) from both my Canadian and Polish number,depending on whether i was staying in Canada as he was travelling or the other way round.

What do you think guys?

 

[canadianwoman]

Explaining why you don't have the texts from a certain time period is fine. Explaining you have two phones is fine.

About the date mix-up.... I am not sure what would be best. I am leaning towards just explaining the dates from one phone are not correct.

 

[Lady_Ashka]

Thanks canadianwoman! I guess they don't want Word documents with a threat that someone altered them, so I guess I'll just do screen shots of what they look like and explain, I assume since all the other evidence we can give them points to the fact that we've met in late 2011 and out first communications are from early 2012, they will not consider it likely that we've known each other back in 2008? His job record will show that he only went to Poland to work in 2011.

I have another question, though - do the phone/Skype/email logs need to be from each month between 2011 /2012 and 2016, or is it ok to give them only a selection that does not necessarily present each month? The file is pretty thick as it is. Or do they want to see communications from each month from after we've moved in together? We often don't write that many texts, and only an occasional email while we're both at work, so there sometimes isn't much.

 

[canadianwoman]

Giving them just a selection is the best choice. The visa officer does not want thousands of pages of texts and emails. There are various ways to do this: some people send in a few from each month, some send in important discussions, others just send the logs showing the dates and times things were sent (not good for you, since some of the dates are wrong). You could just choose a selection, and explain that you don't have many from certain time periods because that is when you were living together. I think just sending in a selection, then saying you have x number of pages more that you will send if the visa officer wants more evidence, would be enough.

If you have a lot of other evidence, especially if it is 'concrete' evidence such as a lease with both names, utility bills in both names, proof of support, etc., you need correspondingly less of the evidence such as emails and texts. I would send in some in any case, but it basically people who don't have much other evidence who should be sending in a lot of texts and emails. The goal is to have a wide variety of different types of evidence.

 

[Lady_Ashka]

Giving them just a selection is the best choice. The visa officer does not want thousands of pages of texts and emails. There are various ways to do this: some people send in a few from each month, some send in important discussions, others just send the logs showing the dates and times things were sent (not good for you, since some of the dates are wrong). You could just choose a selection, and explain that you don't have many from certain time periods because that is when you were living together. I think just sending in a selection, then saying you have x number of pages more that you will send if the visa officer wants more evidence, would be enough.

If you have a lot of other evidence, especially if it is 'concrete' evidence such as a lease with both names, utility bills in both names, proof of support, etc., you need correspondingly less of the evidence such as emails and texts. I would send in some in any case, but it basically people who don't have much other evidence who should be sending in a lot of texts and emails. The goal is to have a wide variety of different types of evidence.

Thanks, canadianwoman! I think sending a selection along with an indication that we have x more to show, along with an explanation that some of the dates a wrong or that we don't have many from other periods looks best for me.

As for evidence, we have a joint apartment lease (and an affidavit from out landlord confirming we have lived together since September 2014), utility bills in both our names, credit card statements for a credit account that is attached to our joint checking account (and a letter from the bank confirming that it's our joint account and that we have credit cards issued for it), our bank account agreement, our taxes together, lots of IDs and mail to either or both of us all showing the same address, a joint family gym membership, lots of receipts for household purchases (like furniture) and expenses (groceries), evidence for trips and outings together (for trips always showing both of us in the guest list), lots of photos, texts, Skype logs, and emails from before we moved in together (along with photos showing us together back in Poland, and flight details and passport stamps for visits to each other from that time), and then emails and texts from after we've moved in together, communications when we travel separately, a few of my emails with his family to show we get along well, as extra evidence some other documents proving that we live at the same address (like dentist receipts, etc), and also his Polish immigration documents to prove that he was to live there permanently and so we did not think gathering evidence from that time was important, and of course we have letters from family and friends in support of our relationship, screen shots of when we were Skyping with my family together. I hope all in all this will be enough!

 

[canadianwoman]

It should be enough. Good luck!

 

[Lady_Ashka]

Thanks!!! keep your fingers crossed!