Spousal Sponsorship Photographs to help prove your relationship
If you’re married, these will be Wedding Photos. You will need to provide photos of your wedding day that include both members of the couple – the Sponsor & the Principal Applicant – and some of the principal invited guests like family members of both the Sponsor and the Principal Applicant.
As well, you should include Wedding Invitations if you have any left from the Wedding Day.
You should realize that IRCC officers tend to place a lot of value on Wedding and other family photographs as providing proof that a relationship is genuine. You might be surprised how closely they scrutinize the photographs you send them.
- Not enough photographs. You can reportedly send up to 20 photographs and you should consider sending at least 10 if not 20 to help solidify your visual evidence.
- The clothes the guests were wearing, the food and drink as evidence that money was spent on the wedding reception are carefully studied to try and see if they represent a real wedding event.
- So, officials are always looking at whether the photographs look staged or whether the participants were smiling, for example.
- A major problem is if the photographs don’t have dates and locations and the names of the people in the photo, written on the back of the photographs. This is crucial. Do NOT forget to do this if you are sending printed photographs.
One option to sending the original printed photographs – an option we mention at the end of Chapter 4 – is for you to copy and paste them in the final question in form IMM 5532 where they ask you if you have any other additional information to provide as evidence of the veracity of your relationship.
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- If you choose this option please put the relevant information (where, when, who etc.) underneath each photograph, similar to how photographic captions are presented in news websites, for example.
- As well, you should organize them in chronological order so that the captions (the written details below each photograph) give the story of your relationship in an easy-to-follow format that is both visual and written.
Remember, you’re not just mailing random wedding pictures to IRCC. You’re constructing evidence in the form of a narrative to help convince them that your marriage is genuine.
What to do if there are not enough good wedding photographs
If your wedding was civil, and not very many people attended, or the photos aren’t very good, you can use non-explicit honeymoon photographs and other photos of the two of you together to help your case.
With any photo that is not from a wedding, you must provide information about where and when it was taken, and why you were together.
What to do if you don’t have wedding photographs because you’re not married
If you have no wedding photos, you should provide photographs of the two of you together.
- If you are common-law: photos of the two of you living together as well as photos from tavel you have taken together. Get more tips about proving common law status in Chapter 8.
- If you are a conjugal couple: photos of any visits either of you has made to the other.
As with honeymoon photos, you must provide information about where and when the photo was taken, and why you were together.
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