Originally Posted by
herodias
1) The degree of commitment of the parties to a shared life: We showed photos, messages, plane tickets, joint purchases, joint bank account, joint accounts and bills with letters addressed in both our names, and our plans to buy a house together. Also letters from friends and family. I think everything you are already providing shows this.
Yes, although I think photos with friends and family and their letters fit more into "public recognition", whereas joint accounts and bills would be more like "financial interdepence" but I guess there's a bit of overlap.
Originally Posted by
herodias
2) The performance of common household duties by the partners: We just outlined how we did these tasks together or split them in our cover letter, but didn't provide any actual evidence for this point apart from grocery receipts using our joint card. It was fine and we weren't asked to provide other evidence (I don't really know how you would).
Well, exactly. There hardly is a way to prove those things and a personal description doesn't serve as evidence. The last thing I want is bore the officer with meaningless details. My main intention, apart from proving our relationship of course, is making the officer's job as easy as possible. I'm sure everyone thinks the same. Keep things concise, precise and organised.