Good to know

Chat history for a partner visa

A partner-visa file often has to show that the relationship lasts. Messages can tell the months. They do not replace the country's official list.

Keep the dates. Do not invent lines. And do not count on a PDF to « get the file through ».

Messages can show a run of days. They do not replace the consulate's list of documents, and no one here can say a PDF will be accepted.

On this page

What messages can show

A regular chat shows dates, plans, sometimes visits. On its own it does not prove a relationship. It helps you find what was said, month after month.

The days

They follow each other in the export. That is what you reread, not a summary.

The two of you

The thread shows who writes to whom, with the names from the app.

The limit

Showing a habit does not secure a visa.

If you wrote on two apps, combine the files before you print two different stories. The step is here: one timeline.

A year of good-nights and tickets is not a story you compose. It is what the file already holds: dates, names, sometimes photos.

What to leave alone

Do not rewrite the times. Do not delete the quiet weeks. Do not replace the export with ten screenshots missing the top of the screen.

Leave this
Keep this
Messages
Writing new ones to fill gaps
The ones already in the thread
Dates
Retyping them from memory
The ones in the file
Documents
Guessing the list
Reading the official notice

How to keep the file is in keep a dated copy. WhatsApp and Instagram each have their own export: WhatsApp, Instagram.

If a month is missing, leave the gap. Filling it with messages written afterwards shows, and it is not a copy.

1
The official listRead it before you pick a period. It says what is asked, not what an article assumes.
2
The export next to the PDFThe PDF is for reading. The original file stays the source of the dates.
3
Nothing that is not thereDo not add a bubble, a time, a name. The copy stops where the file stops.

The official notice first

Each country publishes what it expects: forms, proof you met, length of the relationship. This page does not summarise those lists, because they change. Open the notice from the office that receives the file.

If, beside the file, you want something to keep, the book is a separate project: a couple's chat as a book. It does not stand in for the documents they asked for.

When the notice names a period, use those dates in the export. Do not widen them to make the story look fuller. The general method is here: keep a dated copy.

What this page does not do

It does not build the application for you, and it does not promise the outcome. It keeps you from an unreadable screenshot and a rewritten text.

The notice, then the copy

Write down what the official page asks: which years, which kinds of proof, which language. Only then open the export and see whether those months are in it.

The official page

It changes. Read it again. Do not trust an old memory of it.

The months they ask for

You look for them in the file. You do not rebuild them.

Advice

If you have someone advising you, they say what goes in, not an article.

If they are not, the PDF will not make them appear. A visible gap is safer than a page that was filled in.

Find the line, then the book

To reread a stretch, a name or a word is enough. The time is the message's time.

Search

The word, the name. You land back on the bubble.

The time

The message's time, not the screenshot's.

The book

To reread, in your hands. The PDF is included. The outcome is decided elsewhere.

In the app, a word or a first name is enough to find the bubble. Every message keeps the date and time from the chat. You choose where the book starts and where it stops, then you flip through the preview. Photos stay on the page. A voice note or a video opens from the QR code. The PDF comes with the book. The book is for holding the conversation and rereading it. It does not say what a court, a consulate, a bank or an insurer will do with it.

Common questions

Will a consulate accept a book or a PDF?

That depends on the country and the file. Only the official guidance, or the adviser on your application, can say.

Do we need years of messages?

Often a continuous stretch reads better than a binder of cropped screenshots. Follow the list they asked for.

Can I fill a gap?

No. Do not add a line that was never sent. A gap can be explained. It cannot be invented.

Should the messages be translated?

Only if the official notice asks for it, and in the way it describes. Do not rewrite the bubbles to make them clearer.

MonLivreSMS

Don't lose your digital memories

Closed accounts, new phones. Your conversations deserve better than the digital trash.

MonLivreSMS imports your SMS or WhatsApp exports and lays them out as a book or PDF. Free preview before printing.

  1. 01

    Gather your memories

    WhatsApp, SMS, Messenger… your chats come together. Private, yours only.

  2. 02

    Make it yours

    Colors, dates, words: it's your story, your way.

  3. 03

    It comes to you

    Your book ships anywhere in the world. And you already have it as a PDF.

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