K1 Evidence and Technology Pitfalls

[syntaxkid 0]

I recently petitioned a K1 visa for my fiance who is living in Toronto as a live-in caregiver, so my experience is limited. However, I think some of it may generalize for other countries as well and I've seen people on here struggling with some of the issues. So here we go:

1.) Phone Evidence- I started off with ATT which I would recommend as they provide inventoried billing with incoming and outgoing phone numbers and call length. The same goes for text. I thought I was slick for purchasing two unlocked Iphones for us in January. However, switching over to a pre-paid plan proved to be a bad move as T-Mobile doe snot provide detailed billing for its prepaid customers. I later learned this is rather ubiquitous and even ATT does not provide detailed billing for its prepaid customers. In short, stick with a post-paid plan with an unlocked phone if you want to maximize how much evidence you can retrieve later and still have the freedom of traveling with the phone. It's more expensive but this will save you a world of hurt when you are trying to use complex data query techniques to gather this information. There are third-party services online that allow you to retrieve your Iphone backup call histories but I'm not sure how secure this is, and in the end it isn't primary evidence if it doesn't come from the phone company.

2.) Skype- Skype does not store your call history or chat history on a server for your own protection, and with each new version, it has become increasingly difficult to print this data from the skype software. If you need to know, your skype chat history is located in a hidden folder on your computer locally. From here, you can print screenshots of your chats. Save yourself the agony, and take screenshots all along.

3.) Facebook- Facebook also does not save your chat history on its server in a fashion that makes it retrievable. It stores cookies on your computer locally and you can always retrieve later for screenshots. Again, taking screenshots along the way helps and will contain the html in it. Although it is still a picture of the chat, it is better than copy and paste and so this leans more toward counting as primary evidence. As with skype, remember that data is stored locally on your computer so try not to switch computers too much throughout your relationship unless you can later access that old computer.

4.) Pictures- Use a plan old camera with digital or oldschool time stamps if you want to play it safe. Iphones look amazing but those pictures aren't time stamped and unless you look different in the pictures or it is clearly a different season in your picture sets, no one would know that they weren't taken on only one trip (which is all that is required techinically within a 2 year timeframe.)

I hope this helps as I see many people asking at the last minute, "how in God's name do I print off skype, I have my interview tomorrow?!?" You now have an official head's up. Good luck to everyone!

[canadian_wife 1,785]

What primary evidence do you have? Visits? Holidays together? That carries much more weight than the secondary evidence you presented

Good luck

[C-ma'am 684]

What primary evidence do you have? Visits? Holidays together? That carries much more weight than the secondary evidence you presented

Good luck

What she said .... you need primary evidence: Passport stamps, hotel receipts, bank statements showing purchases, ATM receipts, boarding passes (not itineraries) ..etc Did you send any of this to establish that you have been in the same time and space, at least once, in the past two years?

[Boiler 43,388]

Errrr

You are going through Canada.

[syntaxkid 0]

yeah, I have all of that, my post was more geared toward people relying on the above forms of evidence to make their case stronger...err, canada is right!!!

[Boiler 43,388]

So why are you fussing?

[Inky 1,110]

Time stamps on photos mean nothing and are useless. They can be forged via computer and also changed by setting time and date on the camera itself.

Time stamp photos are not required for evidence and photographic evidence is secondary evidence.

[syntaxkid 0]

Was trying to be helpful to people attempting to retrieve skype and facebook messages or print them...there's no fuss, I posted this for someone else who pm'd me about printing skype...I thought people might want the head's up, especially if their fiance is canada and her phone bills are not helpful because of the privacy acts there...these topics have come up repeatedly and I thought people might want an official warning about it so that they can address it along the way rather than the day before the fiance interview

[syntaxkid 0]

screenshots containing html is better than cut and paste using excel; it may not be "primary" in the sense but it certainly seems more legit than B + W copy and paste...and original phone bills from the phone company are also better than extracting histories and exporting using excel...that is all

[Boiler 43,388]

Not required for 1st World Consulates.

[neodragon0l 6]

Hi. I am sorry to butt in... but I am also working on my K-1 visa. My fiancee is in the Philippines. We were introduced by a mutual friend in February 2008. We became friends and in June 2008, I asked her to be a girlfriend. I actually visited her in the Philippines in May 2009. I was a Filipino citizen then. I visited again in November 2010 for her graduation. I proposed to her on December 26, 2010 right before I went back to the Philippines. We took pictures of our trips and been trying to looking for other evidence to support our "proof that we met in person." What other things should I have in this section.

To continue the story, I visited her again this past April (2012) so I can introduce her to my parents. Everything went well and that was a relief.

My other problem is "Proof of continued relationship." Like this post says, I relied on technology Such as Yahoo Messenger, and Phone Cards. The phone cards got expensive and so I ordered one of those unlimited Globe US Direct plans. I have the receipts in my inbox. However, my computer broke down and now I am missing January 2011 to May 2011 evidence of call and chat logs. I have June 2011 to present. We did not really write letters to each other. I think She has one or two letters of mine. But that's it. When you have a phone service like Vonage, or Globe US Direct, it is like calling her everything domestically. What else should I include? I plan to submit this by early June. I am really hoping that we can be together this Christmas.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

[syntaxkid 0]

see below

Edited May 26, 2012 by syntaxkid

[syntaxkid 0]

No you're not butting in, you're the type of applicant I wrote the post for...I think I didn't clarify that my post pertains more to folks helping their fiance with "proof of ongoing relationship", not the first half of the K1 process where you only need to provide "proof of meeting." I would bring your computer to the geek squad at best buy or someone else who knows about computers who can create a backup of your hard drive. From there, I can help you with retrieving the evidence you're looking for. It may be recoverable, so don't worry just yet. Let me know after you've done this.

[Moomin 292]

screenshots containing html is better than cut and paste using excel; it may not be "primary" in the sense but it certainly seems more legit than B + W copy and paste...and original phone bills from the phone company are also better than extracting histories and exporting using excel...that is all

Regarding Skype, there are programs to export call logs, or set up an account, pay some dollars to call phones and then have an account connected to your credit card. There's also Gadwin which is a screen(and window) capture program. On Facebook, there's "view history between ..." or simply, the chat appears where only the mail used to be. There are ways to get around most things.

I backed up my phone on my computer and therefore had texts and calls saved to print out if needed. But I ended up using Skype on my phone instead(much cheaper) when not being around the computer. At the embassy they didn't ask for any electronic related evidence - only if we had visited each other since filing the petition. The officer already had my passport to see for himself. At high fraud countries it may be a good idea to bring all sorts of evidence however electronic evidence is to me a substitute for meeting in person, and shows a bit of the in-between-visits. Embassies and USCIS tend to believe 3rd party agencies more, such as passport stamps, bank statements, phone bills.

It's not really pitfalls. Wait until you get to AOS interview and don't think you have enough evidence to prove a bonafide relationship - some people get caught in not being able to co-mingle anything officially on paper other than the marriage certificate.

[Moomin 292]

Hi. I am sorry to butt in... but I am also working on my K-1 visa. My fiancee is in the Philippines. We were introduced by a mutual friend in February 2008. We became friends and in June 2008, I asked her to be a girlfriend. I actually visited her in the Philippines in May 2009. I was a Filipino citizen then. I visited again in November 2010 for her graduation. I proposed to her on December 26, 2010 right before I went back to the Philippines. We took pictures of our trips and been trying to looking for other evidence to support our "proof that we met in person." What other things should I have in this section.

To continue the story, I visited her again this past April (2012) so I can introduce her to my parents. Everything went well and that was a relief.

My other problem is "Proof of continued relationship." Like this post says, I relied on technology Such as Yahoo Messenger, and Phone Cards. The phone cards got expensive and so I ordered one of those unlimited Globe US Direct plans. I have the receipts in my inbox. However, my computer broke down and now I am missing January 2011 to May 2011 evidence of call and chat logs. I have June 2011 to present. We did not really write letters to each other. I think She has one or two letters of mine. But that's it. When you have a phone service like Vonage, or Globe US Direct, it is like calling her everything domestically. What else should I include? I plan to submit this by early June. I am really hoping that we can be together this Christmas.

Any thoughts would be helpful.

Try using the command check disk to see if it'll save anything - unless you've already formatted your computer/hard drive. Otherwise I really do not think they want 5000 pages worth of chat logs.

Evidence; your passport stamps are worth gold. Credit card statements etc. You only have to submit proof of having met in person in the petition, not proof of ongoing relationship - that's not until you reach embassy stage. So when you're filing the petition in June, you just have to prove that you and your fiancee have met one time or more sometime within the past 2 years of filing the petition. Basically, that means that your most recent visit would be sufficient.