Once you have got engaged you will be going down two roads: either (1) You will want to bring your Girl to the United Kingdom or (2) You will want to get married in the Philippines, whichever option you choose you will need to satisfy Entry Clearance Officers at the British Embassy in Manila, that you have a legitimate relationship and that your relatiionship is substing ! this means that the entry clearance officer has to make a decision that they
are confident that your relationship is in their view genuine. So how can you do this ?
My advice is to start building a portfolio of evidence from Day 1, although you don't have to make one as elaborate as I did, (look to the left you will
see my ring binder that I made) it would be good to start gathering the evidence you will need.
Sadly many British Nationals enter into relationships with Philippine Nationals without much thought given to making preparations for the "Evidence of Relationship" that the British Overseas Mission requires to validate an application for a Fiancee Visa or a visa to be issued for someone who is the spouse of a UK national. However they are more fortunate now, in that evidence is more in the form of e mails, chat transcripts and phone calls, however
Evidence of relationship (Katibayan sa Relationship) is a vital part of the vetting process carried out by the Entry Clearance officers to establish that the application meets the criteria to allow an entry clearance to be granted.
Many British guys do not think about this from day 1 and this is natural as at that time they do not consider this to be an important requirement, however this could not be more wrong, for one thing, if you start a freindship with a Filipina, evidence of this can be started straight away.
What is Required to Satisfy an Entry Clearance Officer that a Relationship exists ?
Letter Writing
Start writing letters, as many as possible, at least 2 a week, putting pen to paper is very important in a relationship of this kind,
See Courtship Advice - Effective Communication
Letter writing is the main source of proof that a relationship exists, and letters do show the serious of the relationship - why is this ?
For one thing, anyone who takes the time to sit down and spend an hour or so writing a letter even if its a 2 page letter and then be prepared to go to a post office and mail it, is considered to be pretty
serious about the recipient of such a letter especially in the context of your relationship, postmarks with stamps (not Royal Mail white labels) are good evidence of relationship, a six inch pile of letters from each of you, over say the course of 1 year, shows quite clearly that their is a active relationship between you.
Write lots of letters and keep them, tell your Filipina loved one to do the same, keep them in a safe box of some kind as they will be required at the interview appointment.
Photographs Very important for establishing that you have actually met, take lots of photos, keep a couple of big albums, make sure you are both in the photos, even if the photo shows public affection, (don't stage manage the photos - let them be natural don't be afraid to do a self timer, of the two of you embracing affectionately) do it, it shows that romantic attachment is in place.
Good tip for you, take photos in all situations, not just of her freinds family and yourselves, but take them while you are travelling together, the reason for this, is that it has come to my attention that the ECO's are clever at deciding if the photos were the result of a "Quick photo shoot in a ladies village in the provinces" if you take lots of photos as many as you can when you are travelling together, it shows that you are actually together, and its not a "mail order bride routine".
Electronic Mail transcriptsE Mail - many Filipina's have access to E mail now, this is a popular medium for many British-Filipina relationships in the 1st year, use this method of contact as I showed in
10 Points for Sucessful Commucation with a Filipina but what you can do for now is make a print of all your e mail messages, keep them in a loose leaf binder, it takes time to do these things, but trust me they will enhance your loved ones application later on, big time, keep every e mail printed, with the footer and header showing the time of the message, the date etc, and this will go along way to establishing your relationship.
Yahoo Messaging and Chat Transcripts 
Yahoo Chat instant messaging, this is almost certainly the favourite medium of British-Filipina relationships, its cheap, and you can chat for hours for relatively low cost, most chat rooms and Yahoo, now have enabled you to keep a copy or transcript of the chat session, many British Guys forget to do this, use it, print it off at the end, store it in another section of your binder, this is further evidence of a relationship.
Telephone Bills and Calling Cards
Most British-Filipina relationships end up on the telephone at some stage, you British Guys spend a fortune on calling, texting etc, if its your mobile phone, ask for an itemized bill, showing the numbers called, the ECO can easily spot that you regularly call your lady, by seeing that the same number is continuously called, keep copies of any calling cards you buy, this is another way of supporting your application later.
Aircraft Boarding Cards and Tickets
This is very important, this is evidence of your visits to the Philipipnes, dont get into the habit of throwing things away,
if you are a "throw away person" break the habit now, and start saving everything, boarding cards, plane tickets,
(incidentally plane tickets are ok. but boarding card stubs are better, dont throw that little stub away or leave it in the seat in front of you down the pocket.
Keep everything, staple your boarding card stubs to the ticket, and keep it in your file.
Passport Entries
Photocopy your pasport pages, this is evidence of your arrival in the Philippines, the more stamps the better, but dont worry you will have to supply the photocopied pages of your stamped areas in your passport anyway.
Sending Financial Support
If you are now sending money to your fiancee or spouse, this is almost certainly going to be noticed, incidentally, if you are the fiance of a filipina or a spouse of a filipina and you are not financially supporting her from your income, that also could be a stumbling block, if you are saying "We are engaged" but no evidence of support is given, it in itself may not be a problem, but it does not help the application, much better if you are financially supporting your lady.
Evidence of this is very important, keep copies of any bank transfers, Western union receipts, (Western union charges a fee for sending money, but it is the quickest way to get money to your lady) they also give you a copy of the money sent, these should be kept in your file, any other copies of money orders, etc should be kept.
Explain this Evidence Requirement to your Lady
Take some time to explain to your Filipina loved one, the process of "Evidence of Relationship" get her to come to our website and read it for herself if you want, get her into the habit of doing the same as you, then when you eventually make the application, get a little file, entiled something like this "Dave and Joys evidence of relationships file" something like that, means that when that day arrives for the two of you to go to the British Embassy for that interview with the ECO you will be armed with just about everything you need to allow a sucesseful entry clearance stamp in her passport.
Summary: Gina and I Wish you every success in your Interview, the general rule is this : The More evidence you take, the more stronger your case is,
even if the ECO does not look at most of it, at least you are armed with as much evidence as possibly can be collected, it is better to have too much
than too little, Good Luck. If you do want to take your lady away for your engagement, Hong Kong is a great destination, and they are doing return flight
packages for around $119.00 presently, so why not check it out at
Hong Kong Asia's World city (point your browser here to go to Discover Hong Kong) Its also a great place to propose, and if you want my recommendation
although it didn't happen this way for us, you could propose to your girl at the top of Victoria peak, I mean when she looks down on the beauty
of Hong Kong's skyline, and the thousands of skycrapers, how can she say "No" to you, best of luck all of you who go there behind us.
Have you taken a look at Boracay yet ?or have you checked out Thailand ? or fancy a
day out to the Province of Bohol
