Evidence of contact

Apologies if this has been asked recently.  I haven't had the heart to read this forum in a few years.

I'm FINALLY starting to get my spouse visa app in order.  My husband and I have been living in separate countries for the last two years.  During this time, we have mostly used Facebook messenger to keep in touch.  We have skyped or video-called via Facebook a few times, but I honestly detest being on camera, so we usually just chat on Facebook messenger.  It's easiest, as I usually have my phone on me, and can send him a few messenges throughout the day, even if I'm at work.

We have about sent around 15,000 messenges to each other over the duration of our relationship (11 years.)  To show proof that we have kept in touch while being apart the last two years, should I just print out screenshots of our chats?  Like, one every few weeks or something?  Is it okay to black out personal things that I don't fancy strangers reading? 

Thank you so much.  I'm sure I'll have a million more stupid questions for you lovely, helpful people. 

Welcome back .

I see from your other post you have been together 11 years and married for 3 years and that you lived in Japan until 2015, but have been in your home countries since.

Did you live together in Japan? If so, you’ll want to show evidence of living together (bills, tenancy agreements etc).

Then you just need to show messages/calls covering the time you have been apart since getting married.

You’ll want to include no more than 2-3 pages of messages/calls, but no actual message content, so it’ll be a case of taking screenshots of a selection of them, pasting them into Word and cropping out everything except the name/number and date, so you’re just left with a list.

- If you’re only showing 2-3 years of communication, I’d go with maybe 2 calls/messages per month (so 50-60 in total).

- if you need to show all 11 years of communication (because you weren’t living together), I would go with maybe 1 message/call every 2 months (so 6 per year... up to 66 in total)


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Hi SnowFish! 
It's also good to send any physical cards you have sent to each other, if you have any.
I'd go just a bit heavier on the relationship evidence during the period that you've been apart. The ECO needs to be convinced that you are in a genuine and subsisting relationship and not that you're just getting back together so that you can move to the UK.
You'll also need to explain the reason you've not been living together, you can do this in the sponsor letter.

Thank you so much! We did live together in Japan, and I saved a lot of joint mail and our tenancy papers.

I have travel documents from the three times my husband visited me while we have been apart, and photos of us together.

Sadly, the reason we have been apart is that we were both caring for sick patents. My mom died, so I no longer have any reason to be in the U.S.

Anyway, thanks to both of you for the advice!

- if you need to show all 11 years of communication (because you weren’t living together), I would go with maybe 1 message/call every 2 months (so 6 per year... up to 66 in total)

I had to google this. FB Messenger started in 2011, so unsure what the earlier posts were. When I was collating the chat history between me and my wife on FB Messenger, I found that the search option only went back as far as Jan 2016. It used to go back further but Facebook changed something in May 2017. So for earlier chat I had to use a Google Chrome Addon.

I had to google this. FB Messenger started in 2011, so unsure what the earlier posts were. When I was collating the chat history between me and my wife on FB Messenger, I found that the search option only went back as far as Jan 2016. It used to go back further but Facebook changed something in May 2017. So for earlier chat I had to use a Google Chrome Addon.

For Facebook messages, you can download your entire profile to your computer from the Facebook website (go to Settings and on the General Account Settings page, there's a link which says "Download a copy of your Facebook data." Click on that, and it will download everything).

I did that a few months ago, and the downloaded folder has every single message I've ever sent in there... going back to 2006. Then you just have to open up the message files from your computer to find the selections you want.

For Facebook messages, you can download your entire profile to your computer from the Facebook website...

Thank you sooooo much!  Doing that now! When I said messenger, I was also including all the private messages we'd sent in the days before smart phones and app became a thing...    We really only need the last two years chat logs, though.  We were living together before that.

You guys are all so helpful!  I can't thank you enough!

Edit: wow, downloading my facebook data was exactly what I need...  All 11 years of chat history is there! Thank you again sooooo much!