biometrics experience

[Guy&Hoa 0]

Hi all,

I just wanted to describe in detail my wife's biometric experience for those who are curious and wanted to know what the process was like. This description only pertains to the Oakland, CA ASC.

Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but we just wanted to write how it was.

We drove to the Oakland, CA USCIS/Application Service Center this morning and lined up with about 60 people waiting outside.

At 8:00am they opened the doors and a USCIS employee stood guard at the entrance and carefully screened all appointment papers and identification. Spouses and family members were also allowed inside. After we were let inside, a security guard gave us a clipboard, a sharpened pencil and a number chit. Inside, it was a fairly large room with about 7 to 8 rows of chairs, 10 across. A TV was playing football games on low volume. At the far end of the room, (2) tables were setup with (3) USCIS employees sitting and waiting. One table had an old fashioned fingerprint setup and the other table had paper stamps. We were directed to sit down and fill out an information sheet on the clipboard. On the information sheet, they wanted you fill out the name of the appointee, address, SSN, alien number, phone number, father and mother's name. They also wanted you to circle what reason you were there. We circled the I485 and the I765 numbers. At the bottom of the information sheet were some boxes that USCIS filled out.

After a few minutes, the USCIS employees at their tables began calling out numbers, and they also had a large LED sign that ticked off the numbers as they were called. We only waited about 15 minutes before our number was called. My wife presented her appointment letter, her passport and her information sheet. They looked over all the information, checked her ID again, signed the bottom of the information sheet, and stamped the appointment letter with a big, official red paper stamp. They then directed my wife upstairs to get her finger-printing, photograph, and signature taken.

Upstairs they had about 4 machines that took digital photographs and digital fingerprints and digital signatures. There was a small line of people that you had to queue up, but the whole process took about 15 minutes. They told my wife after she finished that her cards would be in the mail. She noticed some people could not use the digital equipment because their fingers could not be discerned by the equipment and also their skin pigmentation was too dark, so they had to backlight their faces with more light and use an old fashioned finger print kit for them. In all, USCIS had all their bases covered and the whole process was very quick, it took us only 45 minutes from beginning to end. All the USCIS employees seemed courteous and non-confrontational.

Just thought I would share our observations about the biometrics process in our case.

All the best..

R/

-Guy&Hoa

[TinTin and Samby 11]

Thanks for sharing!

Warm Regards,

Samby

[hope2018 25]

great post

[PeterFB 0]

Thanks, it's very helpful!!

Peter and Thi

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