Proof of ongoing relationship

[andreww 0]

hello all, first post here, the site has been very informative so far

i have a question regarding K-1 VISA and proof of ongoing relationship. My future wife and I have been chatting through Yahoo! messenger for 7+ months and will continue to do so until (hopefully) her K-1 VISA is approved. I have saved all my chat logs for the past 6 months, and will continue to do this. I'd print them out and send along with the package, but its 1000+ pages.... I was thinking of sending along a 1GB USB stick with the chat logs in TXT format / maybe word format. I have not sent in the initial K-1 visa package yet.....

Would sending the USB stick even be worthwhile? What other way can i send these chat logs other that printing them out? Is it even necessary to include these logs, so they can determine how we met? (we did meet online).....

thanks, Andrew

[Bobby+Umit 161]

All i did was take a sampling of our online chats over the course of months and provided that. 1000 pages = 10 pages.

They don't accept cd/dvd/usb thumb drives.

Edited May 28, 2009 by Bobby_Umit

[andreww 0]

All i did was take a sampling of our online chats over the course of months and provided that. 1000 pages = 10 pages.

They don't accept cd/dvd/usb thumb drives.

ahh, ok. then thats what I will do, just take sampling, 10 or so pages. thanks

[Marina-Del 10]

As Bobby said, no electronic media is accepted.

We did the same thing that he did though. We took a sample from the chats. We used about 1 page for each month of chatting. In your case that would be like 7 pages, which in my opinion is plenty since I doubt they will read them anyway. I would include maximum two pages from each month, as seriously, they wont actually read them.

Also, chat logs and things like this are secondary evidence. For the original I129F application you only need to show evidence that you have met in the last two years. Most people include evidence of an ongoing relationship, which is good too, but not needed.

So, I can see that you have met based on the picture! But include lots of undeniable proof that you have met in the last 2 years (pictures do not do this!) You want receipts from when you visited her (hotel, ATM, restaurant), passport stamps, boarding passes, ect.

Good luck! There are hundreds of lists on this website where people have listed what they sent so search for them and I'm sure you'll find a wealth of info! But don't hesitate to ask question either!

[wizardfitz 13]

i took a binderful of chats, emails. ym's and when the embassy pre screener saw the bulk of my proof they deferred and said thats ok, just slide me some pix LOL!

[Mononoke28 135]

I printed out two chat sessions per month for the previous 6 months before our interview, but I didn't print them all. I copied them and pasted them onto an excel sheet, then I edited out any information I didn't want them to see or stupid stuff that was not necessary like LOL's, smiley faces, stupid jokes, things like that. I compacted one topic of conversation and made sure it all fit onto one page only, so each chat was one page long and also that it showed our screen names and time stamps on it.

I also only printed out one e-mail topic per day. Ex.: my original e-mail addressed to my husband and his response, or his e-mail to me and my response. Two per month and that was enough. Otherwise, you end up with too many pieces of unnecessary paper.

The idea is to prove that you keep in touch on a regular basis, but at the same time make it as quick and easy to the CO to read everything if he/she decides to do so. Same for the USCIS.

Diana

Edited May 28, 2009 by Mononoke28

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

hello all, first post here, the site has been very informative so far

i have a question regarding K-1 VISA and proof of ongoing relationship. My future wife and I have been chatting through Yahoo! messenger for 7+ months and will continue to do so until (hopefully) her K-1 VISA is approved. I have saved all my chat logs for the past 6 months, and will continue to do this. I'd print them out and send along with the package, but its 1000+ pages.... I was thinking of sending along a 1GB USB stick with the chat logs in TXT format / maybe word format. I have not sent in the initial K-1 visa package yet.....

Would sending the USB stick even be worthwhile? What other way can i send these chat logs other that printing them out? Is it even necessary to include these logs, so they can determine how we met? (we did meet online).....

thanks, Andrew

No, They do not want electronic data. Print out sample chats, for instance I used FOUR emails from each of us and an "email log" that listed each email but was not the text. It was more than enough. So a few chats printed otu and some sort of "log" showing continous commuication should be fine

[Mrs. Disney 0]

We printed out 7 pages (front and back) of the e-mails he sent me and vice-versa. We also printed out Skype logs (about 10 pages front and back), although we didn't print out everything. Just a few samples from different months. We also got copies of envelopes we sent each other by snail mail. You should be good with a few samples of chat logs for proof of ongoing relationship. Print out everything, they like papers, and I don't think they will accept CD's, USB's etc. Good luck!

[AbbynSheryl 0]

hey i just let u know that i send no chat log, no ym ims, no printed chat and i got approval in less than two months of my I-130. It is better to send with the application but when i send that paper i did not know about this site,lol. but i had attorney to do it and she never ask me anything about the chat on pc, only thing i had is the phone bill. good luck. abby n sheryl

[andreww 0]

thanks for all the tips! it is making this much easier to assemble the proper documents

[BirdyGirl85 23]

Oh man, do you really have to send chat logs and emails as part of proof on your ongoing relationship? My fiance and I do talk everyday, mostly online. But I don't save the chat logs. We call each other too, but I use a calling card to call him. I could ask my mom for the phone bill to show when he called me, but he hasn't called in a while since we can just voice chat online for free. I was just going to send our emails that show our flight reservations, photocopies of our stamps in our passport and pictures. Do having chat logs really help your case that much? My fiance does save some chat logs, and I could ask him for it, but I don't really like the idea of people reading our chats. I would have to edit out a lot things, like smiles, stupid jokes, and private things we wouldn't really want others to read.

Edited June 1, 2009 by BirdyGirl85

[Hell0W0rld 10]

Oh man, do you really have to send chat logs and emails as part of proof on your ongoing relationship? My fiance and I do talk everyday, mostly online. But I don't save the chat logs. We call each other too, but I use a calling card to call him. I could ask my mom for the phone bill to show when he called me, but he hasn't called in a while since we can just voice chat online for free. I was just going to send our emails that show our flight reservations, photocopies of our stamps in our passport and pictures. Do having chat logs really help your case that much? My fiance does save some chat logs, and I could ask him for it, but I don't really like the idea of people reading our chats. I would have to edit out a lot things, like smiles, stupid jokes, and private things we wouldn't really want others to read.

not sure where you are at in this process. but

start logging chats now, emailing now, saving phone logs now...... don't wait until the end and start doing this because it will be useless....

[Marina-Del 10]

When you file the I-129F you do not, technically, have to include things like chat logs, emails, phone bills...ect. These things are used to show that you are in an ongoing relationship. Most people do send these in with the I-129F just to give more evidence, but at this stage it is not needed. So no worries there. But as the last poster said, we need to know your timeline to know where in the process you are, what you are doing, ect.

Anyway, you DO need things like emails, chat logs, phone bills, letters, ect to show proof of ongoing relationship (which you need at the interview). Like Helloworld said, start collecting these things now.

And please don't send them a million pages of chat logs. As we said to the OP you can just send in excerpts. This prevents them from having to go through a million pages that they don't care about and from you having to send in personal information. I think we all edit our chat logs before sending them in. You can even take a black pen to them and do it by hand (or electronically). They just want to see that you are having some sort of communication going. Trips that you make during the process can be used too...but the more types of information you have, the better. If you use calling cards to call him, can you send in the old used cards? Or, my calling cards were all online and there was a section where I could print out every time I recharged my card. So, it didn't have his telephone number, but just that every week I was spending X amount of money on a calling card for Brazil!

Good luck and let us know if you have any questions!

[Ladylethal 12]

You don't HAVE to send them but most couples include samples to help with the proof, it's not mandatory but can't hurt either.

[BirdyGirl85 23]

The reason I haven't filled in a timeline is because I actually haven't started the process yet! My fiance and I have been together for over four years and he has been wanting to move to the U.S. since we got together, and we didn't start researching the information on how he can move here with a fiance visa until recently. We didn't research it earlier because he had to finish his military service he was required to do because he couldn't move away from Finland until his finished that. And now that he is done, we started researching what we needed to do to apply for his fiance visa. I wish we did research this long ago though. I don't really save anything, but now I will. (Although I'm not sure what good it will do know since I want to start this soon) We're lucky we can still print out our old flight reservations. My fiance saves most of our chat logs so I will tell him to save what he can. I threw away old used up calling cards, so that doesn't help me. I feel kind of frustrated, I didn't realize I would need things like that. But I guess it's my fault for not researching it in the past. I am planning to file for the fiance visa soon, but I am making sure we have everything and be careful not to make any mistakes. So I'm researching as much as I can before we start this process. But gosh I miss him and love him so much, I do want to start this process soon so he can get here sooner, and finally be together.

Edited June 2, 2009 by BirdyGirl85