diff --git a/src/umbraco.providers/members/MembersMembershipProvider.cs b/src/umbraco.providers/members/MembersMembershipProvider.cs
index aa51e6276c..e6eb61d018 100644
--- a/src/umbraco.providers/members/MembersMembershipProvider.cs
+++ b/src/umbraco.providers/members/MembersMembershipProvider.cs
@@ -849,7 +849,16 @@ namespace umbraco.providers.members
                     var approveStatus = GetMemberProperty(m, ApprovedPropertyTypeAlias, true);
                     if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(approveStatus) == false)
                     {
-                        bool.TryParse(approveStatus, out isApproved);
+                        //try parsing as bool first (just in case)
+                        if (bool.TryParse(approveStatus, out isApproved) == false)
+                        {
+                            int intStatus;
+                            //if that fails, try parsing as int (since its normally stored as 0 or 1)
+                            if (int.TryParse(approveStatus, out intStatus))
+                            {
+                                isApproved = intStatus != 0;
+                            }
+                        }
                     }
                 }
             }
@@ -1015,4 +1024,32 @@ namespace umbraco.providers.members
 
         #endregion
     }
+
+    /// <summary>
+    /// Adds some event handling
+    /// </summary>
+    public class MembershipEventHandler : ApplicationEventHandler
+    {
+        protected override void ApplicationStarted(UmbracoApplicationBase umbracoApplication, ApplicationContext applicationContext)
+        {
+            Member.New += Member_New;
+        }
+
+        void Member_New(Member sender, NewEventArgs e)
+        {
+            //This is a bit of a hack to ensure that the member is approved when created since many people will be using
+            // this old api to create members on the front-end and they need to be approved - which is based on whether or not 
+            // the Umbraco membership provider is configured.
+            var provider = Membership.Provider as UmbracoMembershipProvider;
+            if (provider != null)
+            {
+                var approvedField = provider.ApprovedPropertyTypeAlias;
+                var property = sender.getProperty(approvedField);
+                if (property != null)
+                {
+                    property.Value = 1;
+                }
+            }            
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/umbraco.providers/umbraco.providers.csproj b/src/umbraco.providers/umbraco.providers.csproj
index 41c1457c7d..8d96f0e181 100644
--- a/src/umbraco.providers/umbraco.providers.csproj
+++ b/src/umbraco.providers/umbraco.providers.csproj
@@ -107,6 +107,10 @@
       <Project>{C7CB79F0-1C97-4B33-BFA7-00731B579AE2}</Project>
       <Name>umbraco.datalayer</Name>
     </ProjectReference>
+    <ProjectReference Include="..\umbraco.interfaces\umbraco.interfaces.csproj">
+      <Project>{511F6D8D-7717-440A-9A57-A507E9A8B27F}</Project>
+      <Name>umbraco.interfaces</Name>
+    </ProjectReference>
   </ItemGroup>
   <ItemGroup>
     <BootstrapperPackage Include="Microsoft.Net.Client.3.5">