Messaging history for form I-129F

[mc962 55]

They aren't going to increase the time it takes to approve a petition beyond the 5 minutes it takes to scan them, unless you include something weird like plans to do something illegal or something. 😆I'm obviously not saying this as something official, but unless you send every single message you have, it's not something that takes a while to scan over once they get to your case. (For context, our I-129F got approved within a day of the visajourney estimate I think, and we sent I think around 6 months of quick screenshots of messages).

My thought-process on messaging history was that they would be considered (in my mind) secondary, or even tertiary evidence. It can be useful to show a consistent relationship together over time, and it's nice for an immigration officer to see how you manage to communicate long-distance for as long as you have, but by no means required. I sent some brief scans of segments of monthly messages from Facebook Messenger for like 6 months back I think, I doubt they looked at them much.

I felt that the best evidence would probably be common passport stamps, as they are official entry/exit documents, followed closely by common hotel stays/purchases and photos of you together...the types of things that show you have a life together, and chat messages being the lowest priority thing for me (especially in my case as we mostly video-chatted, so most of the chat history was timestamps of "X called Y at this time"), especially since there generally isn't a great way to tell who was on the line during the conversation.

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by mc962

[payxibka 10,044]

16 minutes ago, mc962 said:

They aren't going to increase the time it takes to approve a petition beyond the 5 minutes it takes to scan them, unless you include something weird like plans to do something illegal or something. 😆I'm obviously not saying this as something official, but unless you send every single message you have, it's not something that takes a while to scan over once they get to your case. (For context, our I-129F got approved within a day of the visajourney estimate I think, and we sent I think around 6 months of quick screenshots of messages).

My thought-process on messaging history was that they would be considered (in my mind) secondary, or even tertiary evidence. It can be useful to show a consistent relationship together over time, and it's nice for an immigration officer to see how you manage to communicate long-distance for as long as you have, but by no means required. I sent some brief scans of segments of monthly messages from Facebook Messenger for like 6 months back I think, I doubt they looked at them much.

I felt that the best evidence would probably be common passport stamps, as they are official entry/exit documents, followed closely by common hotel stays/purchases and photos of you together...the types of things that show you have a life together, and chat messages being the lowest priority thing for me (especially in my case as we mostly video-chatted, so most of the chat history was timestamps of "X called Y at this time"), especially since there generally isn't a great way to tell who was on the line during the conversation.

 

When you say "immigration officer" who are you referring to?  The uscis adjudicator?

[debbiedoo 2,339]

16 hours ago, Hello729 said:

You will be fine.  Just follow what others have said on here.  By the way, she has on a big diamond right.   Does it mean you guys are married?

i have a big diamond on my hand too.

 

its called an engagement ring. different than a wedding ring. USCIS and American Consulates know this as it is part of our culture. I believe a receipt for such is also allowable as evidence of the relationship (we did not include ours, but i do think there was a pic of the ring perhaps).

 

chat messages are not required for the petition.

Edited December 10, 2018 by debbiedoo

[mc962 55]

5 minutes ago, payxibka said:

When you say "immigration officer" who are you referring to?  The uscis adjudicator?

The person looking at the materials and making a decision. I guess that would mostly be the adjudicator, although in theory I think the consulate also has access to whatever you sent and was scanned into the system? I just went with a neutral phrase and said 'immigration officer', but maybe I went too neutral 😅

[Hello729 74]

3 minutes ago, debbiedoo said:

i have a big diamond on my hand too.

 

its called an engagement ring. different than a wedding ring. USCIS and American Consulates know this as it is part of our culture. I believe a receipt for such is also allowable as evidence of the relationship (we did not include ours, but i do think there was a pic of the ring perhaps).

 

chat messages are not required for the petition.

Thanks!

[payxibka 10,044]

4 minutes ago, mc962 said:

The person looking at the materials and making a decision. I guess that would mostly be the adjudicator, although in theory I think the consulate also has access to whatever you sent and was scanned into the system? I just went with a neutral phrase and said 'immigration officer', but maybe I went too neutral 😅

Here's the rub.   The decision makers for valid ongoing relationship is the consulate.   The time frame for this decision is up to and including the date of the interview.  This is an impossible standard to prove at the time of the petition because you could have upwards of a one year gap.  That's why the uscis does not opine on this as a part of the adjudication process and why this information is not required to be submitted with the petition and is provided to the consulate at the time of the interview 

[MarkandCharity 17]

Conversations aren’t important. Pictures together. Boarding passes  and hotels receipts in my fiancé name when he visited me here is what I sent in.