Genuine relationship 4500 pages of FB convo. pls help

[sajan patel]

Hi,

Any help on this is always appreciated...

I have 3 years plus of Facebook messenger convo. it works out to be around 4500 pages and more.. it took me 6 hours just to copy and paste 6 months worth which was 700 pages or so. I still have to then go through all that and dissect the most relevant excerpts. This is painful. Any advise on how i might do this better?

[Obie]

Do what better?

[noajthan]

Hi,

Any help on this is always appreciated...

I have 3 years plus of Facebook messenger convo. it works out to be around 4500 pages and more.. it took me 6 hours just to copy and paste 6 months worth which was 700 pages or so. I still have to then go through all that and dissect the most relevant excerpts. This is painful. Any advise on how i might do this better?

When I did this some years ago I had hundreds of SMS messages on record.

I didn't include any content (after all its personal).
I just submitted long logs of message headers simply showing the date, time and recipient (my fiancee) for each message.

Maybe you can do something similar.

[sajan patel]

Do what better?

Thanks for replying

I just mean, rathar than spend hours and hours trying to get all these years of messages together wouldn't just 20 pages covering 3 year be enough. its actually really difficult even just to go through all those and find relevant comms. which show a genuine relaship. ie. affection , support. etc etc

[sajan patel]

Hi,

Any help on this is always appreciated...

I have 3 years plus of Facebook messenger convo. it works out to be around 4500 pages and more.. it took me 6 hours just to copy and paste 6 months worth which was 700 pages or so. I still have to then go through all that and dissect the most relevant excerpts. This is painful. Any advise on how i might do this better?

When I did this some years ago I had hundreds of SMS messages on record.

I didn't include any content (after all its personal).
I just submitted long logs of message headers simply showing the date, time and recipient (my fiancee) for each message.


Thanks for the reply...

It's hard to do that on FB , i wouldnt know how., also the ECO also wants to ascertain if the relationship is obviously genuine. so it doesnt hurt to have convos. where they can see affection, support, wedding talks, birthday wishes etc. and as we have a son together we have alot of talks about him, which also strengths our relationship status. Anyway i'll have to figure out a more efficent ways to get these msgs compiled
Maybe you can do something similar.

[John Green]

I have a similar predicament. I did not screenshot let's say 500 pages of Skype calls, but with respect to Facebook and Skype messages and calls, also for emails, they may not be the best pieces of information you can give. After all, anyone with a mind to can create an account and get his "accomplice" to say the "correct" things through these media to try to fool the ECOs at not much cost. They might even set up an account and get a friend to operate it in their name.

More important are actual meetings. In my case, I also saved the airline tickets for the times I went to visit my (now) wife, and I also have the visa stamps on my passport to prove it. My wife and I also have a property holding where she lives.

They gave her a UK visitor visa last year without much trouble, so that suggests that they have no problems with my assertion that we are in a stable and genuine relationship. I would guess that in terms of documents and events that give credibility, these are more powerful than Skype/Facebook/email messages.

Just my opinion.

[ILR1980]

Its easy to take screenshot of skype video calling history , facebook, email, whatsapp messages etc. Screenshot could be randomly like for each months

You should also send marriage/relationship photos

[sajan patel]

I have a similar predicament. I did not screenshot let's say 500 pages of Skype calls, but with respect to Facebook and Skype messages and calls, also for emails, they may not be the best pieces of information you can give. After all, anyone with a mind to can create an account and get his "accomplice" to say the "correct" things through these media to try to fool the ECOs at not much cost. They might even set up an account and get a friend to operate it in their name.

More important are actual meetings. In my case, I also saved the airline tickets for the times I went to visit my (now) wife, and I also have the visa stamps on my passport to prove it. My wife and I also have a property holding where she lives.

They gave her a UK visitor visa last year without much trouble, so that suggests that they have no problems with my assertion that we are in a stable and genuine relationship. I would guess that in terms of documents and events that give credibility, these are more powerful than Skype/Facebook/email messages.

Just my opinion.

yeah maybe im overthinking things cause im so stressed and want things to be perfect , four years of battling with this has worn me out completely. We also have a son together and im on this Birth certificate. if that doesnt count towards evidence of a genuine relatioship i dont know what else would... also countless photos of us together from my 5 trips there, wedding photos and plane tickets plus stamps. Countless videos and professional wedding video (although videos are not permitted ) so i guess your right, chats etc are of secondary importance but i think what is important is perhaps the quality of the convo rathar than the quantity.

yeah i know what you mean, a friend could help assist in making a convo. but im not sure if they would do 4500 pages of it. over 3 years worth....

thanks for the input.

[sajan patel]

I have a similar predicament. I did not screenshot let's say 500 pages of Skype calls, but with respect to Facebook and Skype messages and calls, also for emails, they may not be the best pieces of information you can give. After all, anyone with a mind to can create an account and get his "accomplice" to say the "correct" things through these media to try to fool the ECOs at not much cost. They might even set up an account and get a friend to operate it in their name.

More important are actual meetings. In my case, I also saved the airline tickets for the times I went to visit my (now) wife, and I also have the visa stamps on my passport to prove it. My wife and I also have a property holding where she lives.

They gave her a UK visitor visa last year without much trouble, so that suggests that they have no problems with my assertion that we are in a stable and genuine relationship. I would guess that in terms of documents and events that give credibility, these are more powerful than Skype/Facebook/email messages.

Just my opinion.

yeah maybe im overthinking things cause im so stressed and want things to be perfect , four years of battling with this has worn me out completely. We also have a son together and im on this Birth certificate. if that doesnt count towards evidence of a genuine relatioship i dont know what else would... also countless photos of us together from my 5 trips there, wedding photos and plane tickets plus stamps. Countless videos and professional wedding video (although videos are not permitted )and boths our names on the tenancy agreement on the property where she lives, so i guess your right, chats etc are of secondary importance but i think what is important is perhaps the quality of the convo rathar than the quantity.

yeah i know what you mean, a friend could help assist in making a convo. but im not sure if they would do 4500 pages of it. over 3 years worth....

thanks for the input.

[John Green]

I'm generally not qualified to speak on immigration matters (as the moderators here can amply confirm!) but I'm not sure that ECO's appreciate people bombarding them with hundreds and thousands of copies of internet related messages. I have no idea, but I imagine that busy ECO's simply skim through a sample of them. They simply don't have the time.

There is also the fact that actual meetings count a lot more as they are less likely to be fraudulent, because they involve a lot more in the way of cost to the sponsor and/or applicant, and applicants normally have to actually meet the lady several times before they will take them seriously regardless of how many internet messages they submit.

This issue of supporting documentation is something I also have on my mind. I did screenshots of some of my Skype calls to my wife, but by no means all of them. I saved a few emails but as her English is not that good, these are rare. I don't have a Facebook account. So I'm wondering myself if I have enough to satisfy them with respect we have a "genuine" marriage.

On the other side. She did not long after our marriage last year apply for the visitor visa and there was no problem getting it. Without my supplying to them more than a handful of internet related screenshots and printouts. And even though others had told me that, from the country she lives in, the UK is especially tough on applicants. So I don't have a high opinion of screenshots and printouts as having an important influence on ECO's decisions.

[sajan patel]

yes that is totally right, the ECO's have little time and do not want to be bombarded with huge amounts of documents to go through. Which is why i wanted help on how to condense down what i have. It is true to say that actual contact is far greater evidence than any chats etc. What i think they still do look for is affection , support, making plans for a future together, wedding plans, birthdays, showing care and support of a child if you both have one, even showing that you are both working together to plan for this process all give validity that the relationship is real. I have been googling spouse visa refusals and found a fair few where the ECO states "there was no contact on xxxx birthdays or no affection was shown etc and refused on the grounds of not being genuine, now this could be rare cases, but its always good to be thorough and at least submit short excerpts of any of the above to prove you are indeed planning a real future together and have the intention of stay together.

It really comes down to short quality chats. rather than daily chit chat. Add that to the quality evidence of meeting in person countless times, there would be absolutely no grounds for refusals on this part of the application.