Make default status 'pending' for all subscribers

All subscribers to my membership plan need to be approved before their membership starts, but the start date defaults to the date that they apply. Two questions:

1) Is it possible to make all subscribers' status go to 'pending' (even those who pay online) until I change them to 'active' in the back end?

2) Is there a way to keep the system from giving them a start date until they are approved and made 'active'?

I did something similar that may work for you as I don't think the component will do that without Tuan customizing something for you. (At least, for the pay online portion.)
I used 2 different subscription plans, basic and full.
Using joomla permissions, a person signs up for the website and now has access to sign up for a basic membership. We "approve" them for a full membership by changing their joomla access to "ApprovedMember" which then allows them to upgrade to the full membership plan.
(Our basic membership is free, set for 1 year from signup; full membership is paid which expires at the end of each year.)
If you think this scenario will work for you, let me know and I can give you more details.

Thank you, Brian, for the information. I would prefer not to make my customers go through two processes (applying and then upgrading), but it may be the only way.

Tuan,
Is there anything that can be done to Membership Pro to make this possible?

Thanks for your help!

Tuan,

Is there anything that can be done in the system to address this?

Thanks...

Hi Mark

We will have to customize the code, I am afraid of. You can upgrade to latest version (2.0. and then submit a support ticket so that we can try to do the modification for you. You test it and let us know if it is working as expected

Please do let me know what payment methods you are using on your site as we will have to edit code of the payment plugins you are using

Regards,

Tuan