Supporting Evidence Presentation / Organization

  I love organization. My closet is organized by color, everything in my refrigerator has labels and dates, and the Container Store makes me drool. Some call me odd. Or anal.

So what I what I would like to know, is how did you organize your supporting evidence? I think a neat presentation is very important, even if it's just your sock drawer (color coordinated of course!)

Did you section it off? What were your sections? Did you include an index? 

You have no idea how much I look forward to this part. Yes, I know I'm weird but please indulge me.

I don't have anything worthwhile to contribute; all I can say to this is a big "Ditto".
Inquiring (organization freak) minds would like to know 

I am certainly anal about organization but i let that go for this. I followed the order of the list of supporting documents on the UK visa site  and sectioned out the sections. I put the sections in paper clips and then had those little post-it note flags and labled it that way. I had thought about an expanding folder or in separate folders, but that just adds weight and cost. Some people do a table of contents type thing as well.  I JUST got all my stuff back (including my passport with my shiny new spouse visa...eep!! still so excited!) and it there was no paper clips to be seen and one or two little post it flags left...so literally don't driver yourself nuts 

good luck!!

What I did was to get the Avery Big Tab pocket dividers.  Then I organized the documents into categories: Identity, Proof of Relationship, Housing, Income, etc.  I labeled each divider with a different category.  Then, in a very simple cover letter, I included a table of contents with each category, and what docs they'd find there (i.e.  Identity: passport, birth certificate, biometrics receipt).  I put it all in just a basic cardstock report cover.

I am certainly anal about organization but i let that go for this. I followed the order of the list of supporting documents on the UK visa site  and sectioned out the sections. I put the sections in paper clips and then had those little post-it note flags and labled it that way. I had thought about an expanding folder or in separate folders, but that just adds weight and cost. Some people do a table of contents type thing as well.  I JUST got all my stuff back (including my passport with my shiny new spouse visa...eep!! still so excited!) and it there was no paper clips to be seen and one or two little post it flags left...so literally don't driver yourself nuts 

good luck!!

Congratulations!!!

So it was all  messy?   Boo. Did you staple stuff together (if so was unstapled?)

I was thinking post-it flags too, one color per section. So for example, all maintenance items will be green (wage slips, bank statements, other income, etc.) and accomodation will be blue (land reg docs, letter of invite, council tax bill). Makes sense right? And then I was going to staple each sub section (land reg docs, all 4 pages stapled). I don't love paper clips bc they come off too easy for my liking.

Please do tell more!

What sections did you have if you don't mind my asking? I was thinking these section headers:


Index
Applicant Statement (brief letter, explain some stuff more that there was no room for on app, our intent) then my passport and photo
Sponsor Statement (brief letter of support of my app, mirroring mine a bit) passport copy and birth cert.
Co-sponsor Statement (letter of invite to stay, offer of financial help should we need it just in case) passport copy
Accommodation (Land Reg Docs, Council Tax Bill, Photos, etc.)
Maintenance (2 main sections: a) our savings and financial details, b) co-sponsor's documents, of which there is a ton bc father in-law owns his own business and his income is, shall we say, diverse)
Relationship (Marriage Cert., photos)
As of yet Unnamed Section (traffic offenses and other miscellanea, hard to explain so no name yet until finalized)

Each Section will have a brief explanation of things contained. The reason I want to do this is because there's way too much to explain in a letter (4 pages seemed excessive!) Also, if something did get lost I hope and index plus section header sheet listing/explaining what's contained might draw their attention to it.

Any opinions?

I used some A-Z dividers, they come with an index card so I listed every single item of proof on the index card and put each piece behind its corresponding card. As i has less than 26 different piece of evidence this worked perfectly!

http://www.staples.co.uk/office-supplies/filing-and-archive-supplies/dividers/a-z-dividers/a4-a-z-punched-index-white

I also used small coloured post its and paper clips so that everything maintenence was green, everything relationship was pink and everything accomodation was yellow. Each post it also had written on what it was just incase it fell out of the dividers.

I am pretty anal with this stuff as well and I was pretty happy with the organisation of it!

When we went to NYC to do our fiance visa a few years ago we brought our beautifully organized binder in to an expediting service. It was a thing of beauty--table of contents, labled tabs, everything in it's own little folder if there were no holes for attaching to the binder, etc.

Anyway the expediter man took one look at it, rolled his eyes, sighed, and said "The Embassay *hates* these things!" He proceeded to remove absolutely everything from our folders, remove all labels, and just pile everything up in the order that they would be looked at.

So this time when I mailed my ILR that's what I did. But I do kind of miss my multi-colored tabs. BTW don't let this one guy's opinion sway what you're doing with your docs, he may have just been a grump

I love organization. My closet is organized by color, everything in my refrigerator has labels and dates, and the Container Store makes me drool. Some call me odd. Or anal.

So what I what I would like to know, is how did you organize your supporting evidence? I think a neat presentation is very important, even if it's just your sock drawer (color coordinated of course!)

Did you section it off? What were your sections? Did you include an index? 

You have no idea how much I look forward to this part. Yes, I know I'm weird but please indulge me.

Bad news, there are no Container Stores in the UK. My sister torments me by sending pictures from her iphone.  She does it at Target too.
I sectioned everything off in one of those binders with pockets by how it was listed on the application. I reused the binder when I applied for my ILR.

BTW don't let this one guy's opinion sway what you're doing with your docs, he may have just been a grump

He wasn't.  When documents arrive at the consulate in a binder, they are removed from it and the binder is chucked away before the ECO even looks at the documents.  Best not to bother.  There are literally dozens of threads on this forum about how to organise documents, and in each one the same advice is given: Paperclips for individual sections, and a binder clip to hold the whole thing together.  And yet, people still think they need binders and colour-coded sections.  It's an amazingly pervasive and tenacious idea.  Think about it, though.  ECOs see hundreds and hundreds of applications.  They know what they're doing and they know what documents they need to see.  You don't need to guide them or explain every document.  They'll figure it out.  And anyway, no one ever had a visa application refused because their documents were out of order .   

   

Bad news, there are no Container Stores in the UK.

Ohh but there is http://www.aplaceforeverything.co.uk/ has the same brand Elfa...
I ordered Xmas ornament organizer of this place - Love it!

Ohh but there is http://www.aplaceforeverything.co.uk/ has the same brand Elfa...
I ordered Xmas ornament organizer of this place - Love it!

You are my new favourite person. I may break my credit card, but I will be sooooo happy doing it!

You are my new favourite person. I may break my credit card, but I will be sooooo happy doing it!

I am a storage freak!

Ohh but there is http://www.aplaceforeverything.co.uk/ has the same brand Elfa...
I ordered Xmas ornament organizer of this place - Love it!

Oh.my.god.  I think I've just fallen in love! 

But to add to the discussion, for both visas I've just done the massive binder clip with everything stuck together because I had read on here that bothering with the organisation really wasn't worth it.  Granted, my Tier 4 was in person, but she just took out what she needed, made copies, and pushed it all back at me.  I have a feeling postal applications receive a similar treatment.

I really went the extra mile this time, though, and shoved the mass into a plastic sleeve to make sure it wasn't all over the place when it arrived by post.    I just make sure to label everything and maybe write my name on things where it isn't in an obvious place, like on the envelope that was holding my 2 photos.

I bought binder dividers, wrote some categories on them, then held everything together with the dividers slotted in using large binder clips. My submission was about 1.5" thick because of tax returns. I didn't use a binder because I didn't want to punch holes in everything plus I didn't want to put everything in clear sleeves.

For a detailed breakdown of what I included along with the section names see the link in my signature regarding ILE.

Andy

it wasnt too much of a mess but there wasnt any paperclips left. We didnt staple anything to make it a bit easier for them to look through.