US Citizen married to UK citizen-- settlement visa question, proof of relationsh

Hi everyone,

I am a US citizen who came over on a visit for marrage visa and married my spouse in London. Now for the terms of my visa, I must fly back to the states and submit my spousal application for settlement.

We are using A. Briggs expediter. My main question is: what should we send as proof of our relationship? I am including 3 photo printouts of us together, Skype logs from when we were doing the long distance relationship (shows time and date of calls), phone records from our mobile/cell phones showing our calls, and a letter explaining how we met (we met in an online game last year and flew back and forth to visit each other several times, while keeping in contact daily via skype, online and phone). I am also including airline receipts from our trips to see each other. Is this enough? I am so paranoid that my application may get denied for some reason I can't predict. My expediter told me we 'probably won't need our AIM (aol instant messenger) history' but is she correct?

Thank you!
Sasha

Since you've gotten married, first and foremost the biggest evidence of your relationship will be your marriage license. I agree with your expediter that chat logs might be unnecessary if you have photos and phone bills, since that evidence could be considered as more solid evidence when put up against skype/AIM logs (which can be photoshopped, as where phone bills and such really can't be if they're hard copies).

With my spousal visa, I included a few months of phone bills, a few photos, my marriage certificate, and a couple screenshots of my inbox. The bigger part of your application will be the bank statements and accomodation and such, with a couple phone bills and photos and the marriage certificate thrown in. If you include too much the ECO might just ignore most of the online stuff and focus on the other things.

Kittenfish is correct. Your marriage certificate is proof of your relationship. Include a wedding photo and I think you're good to go. It's not like a fiancee visa where you have to prove a relationship. Nor do you have to provide proof of 'intervening devotion' because you've just married & you're together to just before the application for the spousal visa. You're really overthinking this and the ECO won't even look at 99% of your 'evidence' either. They're just going to check to make sure your marriage is valid (your marriage certificate) and that's pretty much it.

I had the certificate, two screenshots, and a few wedding photos.  That was it, which is good because we never called each other. 

Kittenfish is correct. Your marriage certificate is proof of your relationship. Include a wedding photo and I think you're good to go. It's not like a fiancee visa where you have to prove a relationship. Nor do you have to provide proof of 'intervening devotion' because you've just married & you're together to just before the application for the spousal visa. You're really overthinking this and the ECO won't even look at 99% of your 'evidence' either. They're just going to check to make sure your marriage is valid (your marriage certificate) and that's pretty much it.

I'm sorry but in theory yes a 'marriage license' is all you would need to prove your marriage, but i don't believe it proves a relationship, i would include as much has you can and never leave anything to chance.

On completing the Spouse visa application this is included in the list of supporting documents required:

* evidence of contact between you and your sponsor for example letters, email, telephone bills, etc.

foxymel1uk - I'm commenting based on my experience. I sent my marriage license/certificate and screen shots of our email in boxes, I submitted no photos, actual emails, no letters and I think I only sent a 1 page summary of my Verizon PAYG outgoing & incoming calls. This was only because I applied 4 weeks after we got married and I was showing contact between myself & my husband during that period. But, I was also providing copies of all my husbands bank statements, paystubs & employment contract. If we weren't in a relationship then why would he give me those documents? Dunno just my logic.

My guess (non professional, of course) would be that you would need more evidence of a legitimate relationship if there's a large gap in ages, or a particularly short relationship, or a huge gap between the marriage and filing the visa, and any other scenario that might make the ECO question if everything is square. I generally advise people to include a few phone bills and photos if they're available before anything from the internet since there's more room for manipulation and such with chatlogs and emails and such.

Chatlogs from Skype and im logs are pretty much worthless really.  Anyone could have been talking on that, there is no way to prove that you were the two people using them.

For instance, my friend would chat to my finance for hours when we were watching tv at her house on my screen name because I was too lazy to log out.  But you wouldn't be able to prove that it wasn't me.   

I'm sorry but in theory yes a 'marriage license' is all you would need to prove your marriage, but i don't believe it proves a relationship, i would include as much has you can and never leave anything to chance.

If you're worried about leaving stuff to chance, direct that worry to financials, not proof of intervening devotion which, for Americans, is not much of a hurdle.

It's your dime and you can send a couple-dozen-trees' worth of paper if that makes your heart easy and  you don't mind the money wastage, but it'll all get separated out before the ECO even sees it, most likely. Besides, if your application comes down to your Skype logs, you're probably screwed.

If you're worried about leaving stuff to chance, direct that worry to financials, not proof of intervening devotion which, for Americans, is not much of a hurdle.

It's your dime and you can send a couple-dozen-trees' worth of paper if that makes your heart easy and  you don't mind the money wastage, but it'll all get separated out before the ECO even sees it, most likely. Besides, if your application comes down to your Skype logs, you're probably screwed.

You should leave NOTHING to chance, finances, proof of relationship NOTHING!!!
and if it comes between worrying about money wastage for sending a 'couple dozen trees' worth of paper, or sending to little and having the risk of having your visa denied because you didn't provide enough evidence then i know which side of the fence i would prefere to be on.
I don't think anyone mentioned about the application coming down to 'skype logs'?
I think you should send a little of each to prove an ongoing relationship, everyone is entitled to there own opinion 

Like Mort mentioned, the proof of a legitimate relationship isn't as huge a hurdle for Americans as it is for people from other countries, hence why some people advise focusing more on finances/accomodation than those other things. I don't imagine that the percentage of Americans who get refused a spousal visa just because they don't have enough skype logs/photos/whatever is very high--refusals would probably be much higher based on finances and such, hence why some people on here advise to focus less on the relationship proof and more on the money and housing (especially with a spousal visa when there's a marriage certificate included).

You're all making me feel a lot better. I'm in the US and married my English husband two months ago in Vegas after knowing him for three years. I'm about to send off my spousal visa application and am including chat logs, a one-sheet photo collage of our trips together and our wedding, flight receipts, and of course our marriage certificate.

Off to FedEx in about an hour to fire it over to the expediter. Yeeee!

I personally am included one month of phone records and a screen shot of emails back and forth.  My husband stated in his sponsorship letter that we communicate through IMs, email, phone, etc.  I also included a letter to explain certain things in my application; I included this statement in the letter "I have provided a small example of intervening devotion between myself and the sponsor.  I have many other examples that can be provided, if needed." 

Kittenfish is correct. Your marriage certificate is proof of your relationship. Include a wedding photo and I think you're good to go. It's not like a fiancee visa where you have to prove a relationship. Nor do you have to provide proof of 'intervening devotion' because you've just married & you're together to just before the application for the spousal visa. You're really overthinking this and the ECO won't even look at 99% of your 'evidence' either. They're just going to check to make sure your marriage is valid (your marriage certificate) and that's pretty much it.

FI and I will be getting married in November and as soon as I get my passport back with my new name, which should be within the following week, I will be submitting my spousal visa application. So, with such a short time frame between the wedding and application, do I need to really provide proof of intervening devotion? We talk online & on the phone everyday, but the phone calls are all through Skype, so we don't get traditional phone bills. As others have stated, skype records don't carry a lot of weight, do they? So should I even bother with anything other than our marriage certificate and a couple of photos before & during the wedding? I kinda tend to err on the side of not wanting to overwhelm them with too much unnecessary information.

Good lord! That was longer than I intended it to be. LOL

FI and I will be getting married in November and as soon as I get my passport back with my new name, which should be within the following week, I will be submitting my spousal visa application. So, with such a short time frame between the wedding and application, do I need to really provide proof of intervening devotion?

No, as it has been explained to me, intervening devotion only needs to be proven if there is a significant amount of time between the marriage, the couple being apart and then applying for a visa. Ball park time when you need to start proving intervening devotion is 3 or more months time apart.

As others have stated, skype records don't carry a lot of weight, do they?

If you have something that identifies the number coming in or the logs from your account (ie your name and you can highlight the number from your DH) then I say go for it. Its the Instant Messanger logs that are fairly useless.

So should I even bother with anything other than our marriage certificate and a couple of photos before & during the wedding?

I wouldn't.