Proof of relationship prior to marriage

Hello Community,

I am in the process of preparing to apply for a spouse of a Japanese national visa. I am currently located in the USA, while my wife is in Japan.

Some context about us
We have been in a romantic relationship since the early of 2017. We got engaged in May 2019 and got married in March 2020 (after 10 months). Due to COVID-19 restrictions set by the USA (I am Australian, living and working in the USA), my wife's visa appointments with the US consulate in Tokyo got cancelled twice and therefore at the moment she is not able to join me in the USA. Long story short, I am stuck in the USA now, while she is in Japan. I want to leave the USA in order to reunite with my wife in Japan. Thus, we are trying to get me a visa to Japan.

Because we are newly married and living separately at this stage (thank you, COVID), we will need to provide documents to prove that our relationship prior to the marriage was genuine. Proof of relationship prior to marriage that we can provide:

1. Email conversations starting from the early of 2017 until today. I am thinking to print 3-4 email threads from each year to demonstrate that our communication has been consistent over a period of time. (I chose "3-4" number on my own, as there are way too many email threads that I can print!)

2. Photos. We have plenty of photos with just the two of us, as well as photos with our family members, family's friends and/or our friends. Unfortunately the photos do not have dates displayed. So, in other words, I can print plenty of photos from the past 3.5 years, but it will be difficult to understand when a photo was taken exactly, unless I make a note on the printed photo.

3. Travel itineraries of my trips to Japan and when we travelled together (both names on the itineraries). We also have my wife's (my gf at the time) itineraries when she visited me in the USA few times and also stayed with me for nearly three months in the USA.

4. AirBNB receipts with both names on the itineraries

Do you think (I understand that it is hard to guess what the Immigration may think) that the above is sufficient to demonstrate that our relationship is genuine? Should we provide anything else? (i.e.: a letter describing the history of our relationship)

Looking forward to your thoughts,

Mr. Zaggy

This post ended up in "Others" section. The webmaster has kindly moved it here upon my request

This page describes what documents are needed to apply for Certificate of Eligibility for Spouse of Japanese National (in Japanese):
http://www.moj.go.jp/ONLINE/IMMIGRATION/ZAIRYU_NINTEI/zairyu_nintei1.h...

And the questionnaire mentioned under 8 has other languages too, and the English is:
http://www.moj.go.jp/content/001245366.pdf

So I would say for photos, a few (with the two of you together) would do, but a chronological description of your relationship is required as part of this questionnaire. Best wishes.

Hi @AK,

Thank you.

The thing is that I am not applying for the CoE, but instead submitting the required documents directly to Japan consulate in San Francisco. The do not require the CoE for the non-CoE route: https://www.sf.us.emb-japan.go.jp/itpr_en/e_m02_01_03.html ("Spouse or Child of Japanese National") section.

But, I also think I should try my best to help them to help me. So, providing a chronological description of our relationship is going to only make the application look better.