Scrapbook Album for AOS interview

[pegbert64 0]

OK, I've finished typing up a description of how I put together the album for our AOS interview. We didn't have a whole lot of pictures, so I had to be creative. The officer was MOST impressed with the effort I had made, and I think it definitely worked to our advantage. When she asked us "What do you have to show me? Emails? Cards? Photos?", I just openned up the album to the page of emails, and she was free to flip through the rest of the book..... which she did! She asked us about a couple things (ie: who was in some of the pictures, commented on how cute our neice is, liked the dogs, noticed we'd been to a race, said "Wow.. you guys have a LOT of cards!!", etc) She seemed to actually enjoy looking at the scrapbook...... I made it very easy for her, with captions explaining what things were. When she looked at the pix of us with hubby's family, she asked him "What does your family think of her?" to which he answered "They adore her!" After she finished with the scrapbook, she said "Well, everything looks great...." and was ready to approve us!!

So all my work in organizing the album paid off: I wanted to give her an over-all snapshot of our life together, from beginning to now. The fact that I went to the trouble to save things like ticket stubs, emails, and cards demonstrated that this relationship is serious enough and REAL enough for me to enjoy keeping and sharing the mementos and memories. Whew!!! I'm sure that we would have been approved even without this effort; but, if nothing else, it got ME organized and better able to answer questions.

These are items OTHER than what is definitely requested (official documents, bank statements, joint taxes, etc...... those we filed in an accordian file) And, BTW, I am by no means artistic in any sense of the word. I wasn't going for some great, visual masterpiece..... just something organized and easy to follow.

My biggest advice when making the album is: DO NOT INCLUDE ANYTHING THAT YOU DON'T WANT THE OFFICER TO SEE/READ!!!!! Go over everything - and I mean everything - two or three times. Ask a friend or family member to look over everything too..... put your self in the place of the interviewing officer, and look for things to "catch" yourself on. If you can't explain something, or if something might raise a red flag regarding intent, overstay, unauthorized work, etc, TAKE IT OUT!!!!! Double-check dates on everything... including the printed dates on the back of photos. If there is a date stamped on a photo that may bring your place of residence into question, then don't put in the actual photos... make color photocopies instead. Look at the backgrounds of every picture too..... is there a landmark that would obviously place you where you shouldn't be? Are there 3 dozen empty beer bottles on the table???! Please be very careful! In an effort to provide information, make sure it's the information you want the officer to have!! If the officer asks you to hand them the album, would you be comfortable with him/her looking at EVERYTHING? I don't want to scare anyone, and perhaps I'm a bit over-cautious, but in something like an AOS interview, I'd much rather err on the side of caution!!

I typed up a page-by-page description of how we put the album together; I *think* I've attached the Word file to this post..... if not, send me a message and I'll forward it to you. Obviously, each person will have different things to include, and it's only what WE did...... you have to decide on your own what you want to do, but hopefully it will provide some ideas, especially for those like us who don't have a ton of photos to show.

Good luck everyone!

Scrapbook_Album_for_AOS_Interview.doc

[pegbert64 0]

One thing I forgot - I also included a print-out of our itinerary for our pending trip to Canada to visit my family. I was glad that I did, because she did ask if he'd met my parents yet, and we said "Not yet - they are in Canada", and then pointed to our travel itinerary. And, because of this, she did go ahead and give me a stamp in my passport, just in case the GC didn't arrive in time.

[*JG* 2]

I am a scrapbooker. I made scrapbooks for embassy interview, AOS and LOC. I just copy the pages and send them with the paperwork. So easy since they already contained the pictures, names, places, funny facts, etc.

[melusine 5]

wow... impressive...

awesome but i am really not a scrapbooker....hmm... i'm gonna think about it.. perhaps it can be fun after all

[pegbert64 0]

wow... impressive...

awesome but i am really not a scrapbooker....hmm... i'm gonna think about it.. perhaps it can be fun after all

I hear ya. I took a scrapbooking class once..... when everyone else was finished decorating their pages, I was still deciding which pictures to use. The instructor suggested I pack up and finish it at home. Alas, it's still sitting in a box, lo these many years later!

Like I said, I am NOT artistic. My album was very basic, but it did the job. I'll bet there are some really beautiful AOS journey scrapbooks out there!!!!