f = figure('visible', 'off');

h_first = uicontrol('style', 'check', ...
    'string', 'first', ...
    'tag', 'h_first', ...
    'position', [20 40 60 20]);
h_second = uicontrol('style', 'check', ...
    'string', 'second', ...
    'tag', 'h_second', ...
    'position', [20 80 60 20]);

disp('Press any key to set the UI objects to be visible.')
pause

set(f, 'vis', 'on')