Format for Messenger Chats

[Sarahastridp 0]

Hi there,

I'm about to send my petition in and the last thing I have to prepare is a sample of my husband's and I Facebook messenger conversations. What is more important? Content? Frequency? Length of time conversed? We have known each other for 4 years, but we were just friends for the first two years, and conversed steadily the whole time. When I do submit samples of our chats, is it necessary to have the time date stamp on each message, or just at the beginning of each seperate conversation? Can they be slightly edited for irrelevant or inappropriate things, or is it important to cut and paste every conversation as is.

Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Sarahastridp

[phd1974 17]

You will not really need the Facebook conversations until the interview. If needed at the interview, then I would prepare a sample of conversations dating back to when you all first met, then (depending on how long you have been together) take different messages in frequency. For example, I known my wife since April 2012 and our interview was July 2014. I sent convos in sporadic periods .. (3 screenshots from May, 1 from June, 1 from September, 3 from October, 1 from December, 1 from January 2013, February 2013, etc.). In total, I only had 15 screenshots from Facebook, but I also had about 35-50 sporadic chats from our WhatsApp conversations as well.

BUT ultimately, when it came to our specific interview, he never asked for them and when I had the opportunity to present them (I said "I have Facebook and WhatsApp chat messages as well"), he said that he did not need them. So neither of my Facebook or WhatsApp conversations were seen by the interview officer and they were never used.

[Sarahastridp 0]

Messenger is almost exclusively how we kept in touch over the years, and in fact still do while he's in the UK. I don't really have much other than pictures without our conversations.

[JFH 12,192]

It's all about quality rather than quantity with all forms of evidence. A few messages over a span of 4 years to show the progression of your relationship is better than 300 pages of "I love you". Likewise a dozen photos over the 4-year period is better than 500 taken over the course of one weekend.

Good luck.

[Sarahastridp 0]

How should the chat be formatted? I pulled our entire chat history into a text file to make it easier to deal with, but then each individual message has a time/date stamp. Do they all need to be included? Or just one at the beginning of the conversation?

[phd1974 17]

Regular format.

For WhatsApp, my chat is formatted as so

11/14/12 2:11:40 AM: Lissett: <what she said>
11/14/12 2:12:15 AM: Lissett: <what she said>
11/14/12 2:12:29 AM: Reggie: <what I said>
11/14/12 2:13:01 AM: Reggie: <what I said>
11/14/12 2:13:34 AM: Lissett: <what she said>
11/14/12 2:14:08 AM: Reggie: <what I said>
11/14/12 2:15:33 AM: Lissett: <what she said>
etc ...

That's how WhatsApp formatted the messages when I had the chat emailed to me ... but this seemed to work well.

And again, you do not need to include your entire chat history, just break out sections that had meaningful (and not too personal) conversation, and like the poster said above, not 300 pages of I love you.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

You know what? You don't need any chats. Seriously. Prove you met face to face within the last 2 years. That's what they want. London (your embassy for interview) will not look at chats either.

If you met on the Internet, document all they need to know that it was not an International Marriage Broker site. They have gotten pretty picky about that lately

[Sarahastridp 0]

We didn't meet over the Internet. We worked on a cruise ship together. We're best friends on the ship, but contracts took us to other ships and we stayed in touch for years, always trying to line up vacations together or get back on a ship together but it never worked out. Finally we both quit and he came here to the US for three months and we really fell in love. We went through a lot in a short time, evicted because of a house fire, a death of a close family member of mine, and we decided at the last minute to get married before he had to go back to the UK when his tourist visa expired. I have pictures from when we first met, and a whole bunch of pictures of him and I and him and my family while he was here, and of our quickie wedding, but other than those, his visa waiver to be here and plane tickets, I have nothing but the chats.

I've changed my name with the SSA, gotten life insurance with each other as the beneficiary, and have evidence of being listed as next of kin when he had a recent hospitalization.

Are you sure we don't need the chats? Does it even matter what the content of the chats are?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

We didn't meet over the Internet. We worked on a cruise ship together. We're best friends on the ship, but contracts took us to other ships and we stayed in touch for years, always trying to line up vacations together or get back on a ship together but it never worked out. Finally we both quit and he came here to the US for three months and we really fell in love. We went through a lot in a short time, evicted because of a house fire, a death of a close family member of mine, and we decided at the last minute to get married before he had to go back to the UK when his tourist visa expired. I have pictures from when we first met, and a whole bunch of pictures of him and I and him and my family while he was here, and of our quickie wedding, but other than those, his visa waiver to be here and plane tickets, I have nothing but the chats.

I've changed my name with the SSA, gotten life insurance with each other as the beneficiary, and have evidence of being listed as next of kin when he had a recent hospitalization.

Are you sure we don't need the chats? Does it even matter what the content of the chats are?

Oh sorry. I forgot to look and thought you were fiancé visa. Forget what I said. You don't have to prove you met. All the K1s obsess over chats and I guess that's how I got sidetracked. London still won't be interested in chats at the spouse interview so don't fret over it too much.

I think you have some better evidence of marriage than most.