How to Export a Telegram Chat: Desktop JSON Export Guide for Visa Evidence

Why Telegram exports are different from WhatsApp

Unlike WhatsApp — which exports per-chat from your phone — Telegram’s real export tool lives only in Telegram Desktop. The mobile apps have no first-class “export this chat” button, so the desktop client is the only practical way to get a structured file you can use as evidence.

Telegram’s export is also more flexible. You can export a single chat or your whole account, choose JSON or HTML output, and pick which media (photos, videos, voice messages, stickers) to include. For visa evidence, the JSON format is the right pick because tools like PartnerProof can parse it precisely — timestamps, senders, message content — without ambiguity.

This guide assumes you want one chat (the one with your partner), as JSON, with photos and videos included, and nothing else. That keeps the export small enough to handle while preserving everything an immigration officer would want to see.

Install Telegram Desktop

If you only use Telegram on your phone, install the official desktop client first. It is free and available for Windows, macOS, and Linux from telegram.org/apps. Log in by scanning a QR code from your phone (Settings → Devices → Link Desktop Device). Wait a minute or two for chats to sync; recent media in particular may need time to download.

On macOS, install “Telegram Desktop” from telegram.org or Mac App Store, not just “Telegram for macOS” — some users find the Mac-only build lacks the same export menu position. The Desktop build (also referred to as the Schema-D client) is consistent across platforms.

WARNING: There is no native chat-export feature in the iOS or Android Telegram apps. If you find a guide claiming there is, it is out of date — export is desktop-only.

Export a single chat as JSON

Once Telegram Desktop is signed in and synced, you can export the conversation with your partner in under a minute.

• Open Telegram Desktop and click the three-line menu (top-left) → Settings → Advanced.
• Scroll to Data and storage and click Export Telegram data.
• Uncheck everything by default. Then check only Personal chats (or use the Only export selected chats option if you want one specific chat).
• Under Photos, Videos, Voice messages and Stickers, decide what to include. For evidence, including photos and videos is usually worth the extra download time.
• Under Format, choose Machine-readable JSON. (HTML is human-readable but harder to feed into evidence tools.)
• Click Export. Telegram will warn you the download must complete in the background; leave the app open.

TIP: If you only want one chat (most evidence use-cases), open that chat first, click the chat name at the top → ... → Export chat history. You get the same JSON option without selecting from the full account list.

What you get and what is in result.json

When the export finishes, Telegram saves a folder (commonly called DataExport_YYYY-MM-DD) containing result.json plus any media you chose to include in subfolders like photos/, videos/, voice_messages/, and stickers/.

result.json is a single structured file with metadata (chat name, type, ID) and an array of message objects. Each message has a numeric id, a type (message, service, etc.), an ISO-style date such as "2024-01-15T10:30:00", a from field with the sender name, and a text field. Text can be a plain string or an array of formatted entities (mentions, bold, links). A good parser flattens both forms back to readable text.

For visa evidence, the date and from fields are what matter most. They give immigration officers (and any tool you use to format the chat) a clean, unambiguous timeline.

Upload your result.json to PartnerProof

Once the export finishes, drop the result.json file into PartnerProof. The file is parsed entirely in your browser — nothing is uploaded to any server. PartnerProof then organizes the messages chronologically, lets you select representative excerpts, redact private content, and add photos.

If you also want media in the final PDF, you can add the photos/ and videos/ folders separately as photo evidence. PartnerProof will read EXIF metadata where available and interleave media with messages on the timeline.

• Go to PartnerProof, drop result.json onto the upload area.
• Optionally drop the photos/ folder for image evidence.
• Choose your destination country to apply the right date format (DD/MM/YYYY for most of Europe, MM/DD/YYYY for the US, YYYY-MM-DD for Sweden and IRCC) and paper size.
• Sample messages, redact anything private, and download the PDF + ZIP bundle.

Common pitfalls and how to avoid them

A few issues come up regularly when people first export Telegram chats for evidence.

• Mobile-only Telegram: there is no chat-export feature on iOS or Android. You must install Telegram Desktop.
• Forgetting to uncheck other categories: by default Telegram will try to export everything (contacts, stickers, all chats), which can be gigabytes. Uncheck what you don’t need.
• Closing Telegram before the export finishes: large exports take a while to download all media. Leave the app open.
• Choosing HTML instead of JSON: HTML is fine for reading but harder for tools to parse cleanly. JSON keeps timestamps and senders structured.
• Secret Chats: Telegram secret chats are device-local and do not sync to other devices, including Desktop. They cannot be included in the export and will not appear in result.json.

WARNING: Telegram secret chats are not part of the desktop export and cannot be recovered if your phone is lost. If your most important conversations are in secret chats, regular cloud chats are usually a safer choice for long-term evidence.

Using the export as immigration evidence

Once you have a structured Telegram export, it can support many of the same evidence categories WhatsApp does. For most visa categories, communication records help demonstrate a genuine, ongoing relationship — they are usually supplemental to mandatory documents (marriage certificate, financial proof, sponsor’s status) rather than a replacement.

Different agencies treat chat evidence differently. IRCC (Canada) explicitly lists "printed text messages" as acceptable proof of contact in spousal sponsorship (see canada.ca). USCIS and UKVI accept chat logs as supporting evidence of a bona fide / genuine and subsisting relationship. European routes like Belgium’s legal cohabitation explicitly recognise “electronic messages” as proof of stable, lasting contact (see dofi.ibz.be).

PartnerProof is a document-formatting tool, not a law firm. For case-specific advice, talk to a licensed immigration lawyer or consultant in your destination country.

INFO: Whatever country you’re applying to, always verify the latest evidence requirements against the official agency website (e.g. canada.ca, uscis.gov, gov.uk, sem.admin.ch, dofi.ibz.be) before submitting.

Frequently Asked Questions