 Welcome to Air and Vision. My name is McKenna Gott and today I'm going to tell you how to prepare for the Air Force background check. So once you've qualified to have an appointment with a recruiter, you get an appointment set up and you start moving forward in the process of filling out paperwork, your recruiter is going to have you fill out a background check. Now more than likely you're probably going to end up doing this online, but just in case my recruiter did give me a paper version of the background check, you will have to use a computer for this because you have to download an app on your phone. The app will give you a code and every single time you log in there's going to be a different code on your app and you have to type that in so it can validate that you are the only person using it. So I'm just going to go through this. There's a lot and I just want to help you guys be able to prepare for this because it took me about two and a half three days to fill it out. I try to do it as fast as possible, but there is so much that you have to do. It is very in-depth. It is a little bit stressful to try to figure out all this information all at one time. So if you guys can be aware of this and start preparing for it sooner and gathering this information over time, it is going to make life so much easier. Literally just going to go through these categories telling you what they are. Make sure that you are thorough when you're doing this because once you hit submit to your recruiter, you cannot change any information. I actually submitted all of my forms and then realized that the number in my home address was wrong. So I'm going to let my recruiter know about that. So there are going to be six main categories, but then all of those break down into sub-categories, but the six categories are going to be basic information, employment and military housing, friends and family, foreign contacts, criminal record, and background check. Originally, when I very first pulled out my email, I use Google Chrome as my browser and it actually wasn't opening up. So I'll have a link that you can click probably and then if not, they'll have one that you can copy and paste into your browser. Either way was not working for me on Google Chrome. So I had to copy and paste it over to Safari and it was working for me from that browser. All right. In basic information, they go over demographic, your name, your gender, height, your religious preference, phone number, address, where you were born. That's going to come up a lot. You're going to need to know that about your whole family. So actually, that's the next thing that comes up is dependence. So for me, I'm only going to have one dependent, which is going to be my husband, Kyle. But then you have to list your entire family, your mom, your dad, all of your siblings, whether they're full siblings, half siblings, then you also have to have your mother-in-law and father-in-law if you're married. And even if you are separated or divorced, you are still going to have to have this information. So things could get a little awkward if people aren't on good terms. But if you're going to join, you're going to need to know all of this information. So it's better just to get out of the way now and try to find out as much as you can. You are going to have to have, of course, their full name, first, middle, last, the relationship they have to you, their current home address, phone number, and also the city they were born in. That's a major thing that not a lot of people think about, is to start gathering that information. Now I am in the very beginning of the process of joining and you are going to be asked the same question so many times. It's ridiculous. At your recruiter appointment, they're going to scan all the documents that you need. With this, you're also going to have to scan your own documents to verify your name and your age, your citizenship. I used my passport for a lot of these, your social, college transcripts, marriage certificate, high school diploma, identifying information. You're going to have to have your social, which that will already be locked in from your meeting with your recruiter, the city and state where you were born, contact information, and if you have ever had any other names. So for me, I had a maiden name, of course, before I was married, so I listed that. And if you are someone who has ever changed your name for any reason, then you're going to have to list any aliases that you have had and the timeframe that you had those names. Next is U.S. passport information. So if you have a passport, you're going to need to manually fill in that information. Then it asks about your citizenship. So there are a few options like if you were born in the United States or a non-citizen and different things like that. There's a few different options. Asks if you've ever had a dual citizenship and you'll fill out. So some of these will be like yes, no answers. And there will be a lot of things that you have to fill in like where you have lived. For me, this was really annoying to do because you have to list all the way back to where you've lived for the past 10 years. So start gathering this information now. Put it on a Google Doc or somewhere where you can refer back to all of this easier. Because we lived in different countries. We stayed with friends. We've moved departments. So this was a headache to do. And then with each one of these places, you have a status of whether you rented or owned it. And I think there's a few other options as well. I just can't open it because I've already submitted it. Then the address of where it was. Then you have to list information of a friend or neighbor who knew you at that address. But then you also need to know the last contact date you had with this person. Their email, their telephone number, and their home address. So this was a lot of information to gather for all of these places. Oh, and if I didn't mention it, the timeframe of when you live there to each one. No breaks in between. But you have to put like this month, this day, this year to this month, this day, this year. Now, thankfully, there is a little button to the side that says estimated. So on the ones that you're like, I'm not exactly sure, but it was like around this. You can put like the general date that you think it was and you can click the estimated button. But of course, you want to try to be as accurate as possible on this. Then it's going to ask you where you went to school. And this is history of the past 10 years as well. So I listed my high school and then I went to three different colleges. So I had to list all of that. And then within this, you're going to have to list the dates that you went there from this date to this date. You're going to have to have the school name and the school address. For schools you attended in the last three years, list a person who knew you at the school, like an instructor or a student. Don't list people for education periods completed more than three years ago. So for me, I didn't have to list anyone on any of mine because I haven't gone to school in the past three years. So thankfully that worked out for me on that one because this went way more in-depth than I expected it to. So if you guys have been going to school the past three years, start gathering that. Next is employment for the past 10 years with no breaks in between. So unemployment is an option. So I had to go back all the way to 2010 until like 2013 when I started working at Tim Hortons. And this was, I think, my least favorite page of all. Within the jobs, you have to list a supervisor. And then you have to list your supervisor's address and phone number and email. And I'm like, no, but I couldn't even remember my manager's full name for my very first job, let alone like getting his number and his email. So then even, yeah, I don't know, it just awkward. But you may have to do that. Now, I did ask my recruiter and he told me that it's okay for me to list the store location address underneath it. But I still have my supervisor or manager's first name and last name. And then if I knew their personal number, I listed that. Otherwise, you can list the store number, I guess. But before listening to me on this, make sure it's okay with your recruiter. Of course, before you do anything just because McKenna told you to. Make sure it's all good with your recruiter before you move forward with anything. Then it will go into some yes and no questions. I think to fill out a lot of the rest of this. If you've had any military history, this next part is actually where it goes into. A lot of the stuff I said about the family from the beginning, all the people that you have to list, it shows up at the beginning after you submitted it. But as you're going through it, it'll be towards the end. But all the same information applies that you have to fill out. People who know you well. So you are going to list three references on this. It can be friends, peers, colleagues, college roommates, associates, things like that. And this is in the last seven years. So all the people you list have to cover that time frame. So I actually started out with a childhood best friend, someone that I'm still best friends with today. And that already just covered that seven years with one person. And then my next two, I've known one person for like two years, one person for only like a year. You're going to have to have their name, their phone number, their email, and their home address, and also how long you have known them. So for all of these people, like I started from, like a general date that I think we knew each other from. And then I just hit until present on all of them, because I'm still friends with all of them. That's why I'm using them as a reference. All right, with the family that you have to list, I've talked about it a few times. I'm just going to go over it one more time to make sure I touch all the bases. You have to list their first, middle, last name, their relation to you, their birthday, what city and state they were born in, and also if they were born in the United States. If they have had any other names, is your relative deceased, yes or no? If they are not deceased, you have to list their address. Next is going into the foreign contacts. And it will be a few pages asking you some different yes or no questions. Oh, and then on this one, foreign travel. This one was fun. You have to list anywhere that you've traveled to in the last seven years outside of the United States. So we have been to Sweden, Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan. So you have to list the country that you went to, the number of days that you were there, and it does give you some options of a few different ranges. And then the dates that you were there from, and you can hit that little estimated check box, which I did, and then the purpose of travel. And there's a few options for you to click on. So for us, it was tourism. And then they ask a few different questions relating to why you traveled there. And then we go into police record and there's a few questions, yes or no, about criminal history. And then it asks about drug activity, then alcohol, investigations and clearance record. So this is basically like if you've ever been denied or depart from any government stuff, anything for court. Then there are some yes or no's about emotional health history. Then some yes or no about your financial record. Ask about bankruptcy, gambling, taxes, credit card stuff, delinquency involving enforcement, delinquency involving routine accounts, which personally for me, I did have to answer yes on this one. You don't just want to go through and say no to everything because if there is something that you lie about, they are going to find out because they have to do your whole background check. So you want to be honest from the very beginning because if you do lie on this, it will disqualify you from being able to join. And obviously that's the whole goal. That's where we're all trying to get. So there's no point to be right here at the beginning of your journey and lie and then be disqualified from ever joining again. So make sure you're honest. A lot of this stuff, you're going to talk to your recruiter about. He'll probably go over most of it and then you just have to come home and fill all this stuff out for yourself as well. So your recruiter will give you any advice, but just be honest. So for me, I had to say yes on the delinquent accounts and then it kind of gives you a dropdown to explain and you also have to give more information. So I had to put the loan company that it was through, had to go to that company to get my account number for that, list that and then when it was closed because after that all my payments were on time and all my student loans were paid off. So it's not anything that's been an ongoing issue, but unfortunately is literally right there at that almost, at that seven year period that it's still on my record. So of course I went ahead and put it on here because they're going to find out anyway. And the very last thing, just ask a few yes or no about use of information technology systems. It's just going to ask about if you've done illegal stuff with different things. But at the very bottom of the page, you don't have to stress about filling stuff out right away. It's not going to automatically send to your recruiter. At the very bottom of the page, there is a yes, I'm finished with this form and a no, I'm not finished. I want to come back to it later. If you click either one of those, it's still not going to submit it. It's just for your own knowledge to know like, okay, I'm done with this one and this is all good so I can keep moving forward or like, oh, I'm still working on this one. So when you click yes, it is going to check the page for any errors. And then this is what you want to look for. When I finally finished that employment history was the last thing I was working on and I saw this, I was so happy. So when you see this, you are going to know like, okay, I'm done with this page. I can move on and finish the rest. But when you hit no, I'm not finished. Underneath that, it is going to have a check for errors button so you can go ahead and do that for yourself as you're moving through it to see like, oh, I need this person's phone number and I don't have that yet. So just jot it down for yourself so you can reach out and get that person's phone number. Anyway, you guys, I know this was a very talky video and it was very boring. That's how it's going to be when you're doing this background check. This is literally the most in-depth background check I have ever done and it was so boring and stressful. So hopefully letting you guys know that you can go ahead and start getting that information will make it so much easier on you guys. I hope it helped and I will see you guys in another video.