The Pictures and/or photo album

[Tom and Ling]

Hi everyone,

 

I would like to know how everyone handled the picture albums???

Since one can not get a stiff photo album under the window when being interviewed...what setup did other people use??

I have an album that you can take the sheets of pictures out of, but it would require the VO to view the pictures through the glass, first.

Ling is buying and album, but I have not idea what she is buying...So I would like to hear what other people did for their interview??

 

Tom and Ling

[Brian & Kathy]

Me and Kathy have a soft side 3 ring binder with the clear 4x6 picture sheets inside. We have about 25 pictures from our 3 trips, including pictures with friends, family and just the 2 of us. I went so far as to include a label for every picture with the date, location and names of other persons included in the picture. The note book is just a cheap job from walmart, soft side with 3 wire brads (no spine), so it can easily be slipped through the window.

[dale7570]

Hi everyone,

 

I would like to know how everyone handled the picture albums???

Since one can not get a stiff photo album under the window when being interviewed...what setup did other people use??

I have an album that you can take the sheets of pictures out of, but it would require the VO to view the pictures through the glass, first.

Ling is buying and album, but I have not idea what she is buying...So I would like to hear what other people did for their interview??

 

Tom and Ling

 

this was a concern of mine also. i ended up purchasing a small 4x6 photo album. it is only 1 inch thick and hold 36 pics. most of these small albums only hold 24 pics, so in that case you could use 2 albums if needed. these albums only cost about 2 or 3 bucks. the alternative would be to remove the pages from a larger album. good luck.

[jim_julian]

The pictures were all digital or scanned. I used PowerPoint, placed 2-3 per page with captions, used plain paper, and printed on a color laser printer. Slapped on a cover sheet explaining content and stapled the maybe 8 pages in the upper left corner.

 

Simple, flexible, can fit through any slot, can print multiple copies.

 

If need be you can do the captions in English and Chinese.

[Tom and Ling]

Thanks...Brian, Dale, and Jim,

 

All great ideas and helpful.........

 

Tom and Ling

[IllinoisDave]

I bought some of those plastic insert pages that go into albums. I cut off the tabs on the side with the binder holes and punched two holes in the top of each for an ACCO fastener. Put the pics in them so the VO could read the names and dates through the clear plastic in back. Fastened them together with the ACCO fastener. That way we could include as many as we wanted and if they were too thick to slide under the glass, my wife could just remove the fastener and pass them under.

 

You could also leave the side tabs with the holes on the inserts to keep them in an album until needed.

[Tom and Ling]

Thanks.....Dave,

The ACCO fastener sounds intriguing. Do you know what is the height of

the slot for the window is....I would imagine that it is atlest two or three inches.

I have been in The US citizen Service area....getting my Marriageability affidavit back in March but not sure what the height of the slots are..

 

Tom and Ling

 

 

 

 

 

I bought some of those plastic insert pages that go into albums. I cut off the tabs on the side with the binder holes and punched two holes in the top of each for an ACCO fastener. Put the pics in them so the VO could read the names and dates through the clear plastic in back. Fastened them together with the ACCO fastener. That way we could include as many as we wanted and if they were too thick to slide under the glass, my wife could just remove the fastener and pass them under.

 

You could also leave the side tabs with the holes on the inserts to keep them in an album until needed.

[dale7570]

Thanks.....Dave,

The ACCO fastener sounds intriguing. Do you know what is the height of

the slot for the window is....I would imagine that it is atlest two or three inches.

I have been in The US citizen Service area....getting my Marriageability affidavit back in March but not sure what the height of the slots are..

 

Tom and Ling

 

i think the slot is about 2-3 inches, but it is curved so a rigid binder would be hard to pass thru.

 

 

 

I bought some of those plastic insert pages that go into albums. I cut off the tabs on the side with the binder holes and punched two holes in the top of each for an ACCO fastener. Put the pics in them so the VO could read the names and dates through the clear plastic in back. Fastened them together with the ACCO fastener. That way we could include as many as we wanted and if they were too thick to slide under the glass, my wife could just remove the fastener and pass them under.

 

You could also leave the side tabs with the holes on the inserts to keep them in an album until needed.

[Don]

I printed our pictures 6 per page. Than she brought about 10 pages and just passed them thru. I added little titles and used Adobe Photoshop elements to organize the selected photos newest to oldest.

[Tom and Ling]

Hi Don,

 

So, I take it that what you are describing is printing on a color printer.

So all pictures are on computer paper??

I may have to experiment with a color printer and see how the pictures look.........

Jim did the same thing....Is pictures printed on computer paper ...OK for the VO or would they rather see actual color prints on photo graphic paper??

 

Tom and Ling

 

 

 

 

I printed our pictures 6 per page. Than she brought about 10 pages and just passed them thru. I added little titles and used Adobe Photoshop elements to organize the selected photos newest to oldest.

[rogerinca]

I at first was prepared to use 1¡± binders, but after a few trips to the windows, on recon¡¯s 2 ACH's and 2-ACS's, I decided to go with half inch very flexible binders (Avery) which also had a sleeve on the cover page to insert a photo or label sheet, for easy ID. The one inch would fit, but I didn¡¯t want to have any problems for Lao Po. A larger binder (1.5-2") may fit too, but you would have to open it up and slide it in through the window fully opened (in half) and feed it in that way.

 

I used 8x10 photos, which I printed out on glossy photo paper on my home computer/color printer. I also included descriptive text and date in the lower edge on each photo, in large easy to read text font.

 

I see nothing wrong with 4x6 photos and I am sure most use them. I just wanted to have very clear and easy to view photos for this process, so this is why I went with the 8x10's. I included the same with each of my petitions (both I-130 and the I-129) and then had the binder at interview time which had all the additional visit photos, since the initial filing of the petitions the year previous.

 

I tabbed the photo binder, and separated each visit by month/year in chrono' order. I included about 6 to 8 photos for each visit.

 

Of interest, all of the 8x10 photos which I had included with the I-129F petition, which made it to GUZ, were returned to me along with my wife and daughter's visas. So I know they made it to GUZ from the CSC and the NVC as a complete package.

[david_dawei]

pictures put on papers guys... this isn't a picture party to pass around albums.. keep it simple.

 

What if they ask for 'early' pictures? Are you going to direct them to page "xyz" of an album?? Think simple; for the VO and SO.

[yemmie]

I am using two report type folders that have 12 plastic sleeves that will fit 8.5 X 11 sheets. One folder is for pictures of us together in China, including some with her son. The other has pictures of us talking to each other on computer, along with her son and some other family members. All of the pictures are digital. I resized them on my computer and pasted them into word documents. Then, I typed in nice large 16 font captions. There are only 1 or 2 pictures on each page. The folders also have a plastic sleeve on the front, so I was able to put some really good pictures right on the cover, along with all of the pertinent petitioner, beneficiary, etc., information. These folders are only about a half inch thick and they are very flexible.

 

I think they turned out splendidly. Of course, they are not interview tested yet, so it is just my opinion.

[griz326]

We had one professionally created album of engagement pictures, but the rest were in those cheesy 4x6 photo albums you get for free from Walmart when you ask. The pictures were organized by site or event.

[Don]

Hi Don,

 

So, I take it that what you are describing is printing on a color printer.

So all pictures are on computer paper??

I may have to experiment with a color printer and see how the pictures look.........

Jim did the same thing....Is pictures printed on computer paper ...OK for the VO or would they rather see actual color prints on photo graphic paper??

 

Tom and Ling

 

 

 

 

I printed our pictures 6 per page. Than she brought about 10 pages and just passed them thru. I added little titles and used Adobe Photoshop elements to organize the selected photos newest to oldest.

 

I used photo paper in the printer and they were fine with it. The quality is quite good.