Arriving in America

[donandjacky 0]

I've been in the U.S. for almost two weeks now and thought I'd post my POE experience:

I got to Atlanta, GA at around 2:30pm got in the "US citizens and permanent residents" queue with my brown envelope in hand the officer there just looked at my passport asked me how I met my husband (I think that was more out of curiosity than anything elses though lol) and told me to go collect my bagage, go through customs and then turn left... The officer at customs took my envelope stuck it in a folder, gave it back to me and told me to go >left. There was guy right behind me who was going the same place I was while everyone else went straight ahead... I asked him if he was also immigrating to the states today but he wasnt...Turns out I was lead to go the the "things to declare" section and I kept thinking I was in the wrong place... The officer there took my envelope again, said to leave my bagage outside the waiting room and to take a seat until my name was called. Most people there were randomly picked out to have there bagage checked and I couldn't stop wondering whether I was in the right place...until I got to talk to another couple (American / Mexican) who was there for immigration purposes too I had to wait for about 50 minutes before I was called upfront. There was no second interview or anything. The officer asked me if I knew that I had to remove my conditional status in 2 years, took my finger prints, stamped my passport and that was it! He said it would take 3 weeks for my SS card to arrive and up to 8!! months for my green card to be mailed to me... He welcomed me to America and wished me good luck

[Anyta Holland 1]

Sorry that I didn't post this before....

Me and hubby got here on Sept 4th, so I thought I would share our experience in Houston Internation Airport.

We got here half an hour later than scheduled. When we got off the plane we were told to wait and that they were taking us to another side of customs to expedite everything, to me that menat, 'we're coming from the UK and they are taking extra care with us, given the recent threads'. Once we finally got to the customs lounge, it was only our flight there, the other flights were on the other half of the Lounge. Still we had to wait more than half an hour there 'till we got served by the Guard. I thought I'd try my luck and ask him if there was a chance to change his CR1 to a IR1 given tht it was our 2nd wedding anniversary, he said, 'Congrats, but no, good try though!' He was quite a nice guy and asked us to wait on the side for somebody to tell us where to go. Then another official came and took the MBE from us to the room at the far end. There were about a dozen people there, and it took about another half hour to get through. He put the envelope in a tray and asked to sit down and wait to be called. So we did.... I nice man called us about 20 minutes later, my husband was asked to sign some forms and took fingerprints, and that was it!

He told us to go to the Social Security Office to apply for the SSN, I think he was not familiar with the fact that it is triggered with DS230 part II, he was not sure, so we left it like that. He went on to explain that 90 days before the 2nd anniversary of him being here we needed to apply for the IR1 and that the GC should come on the mail in less than a month, but, if 6 months had gone by and we hadn't received it, then we should notify it. He also said that the stamp was good enough for him to travel and work without a problem!

Stress free!!! Good luck to everyone!

[meauxna 15]

I thought I'd try my luck and ask him if there was a chance to change his CR1 to a IR1 given tht it was our 2nd wedding anniversary, he said, 'Congrats, but no, good try though!'

Welcome Home!

Can you expand on the above? Were you, or were you not, married for 2 years at the time you entered the US?

It's not a judgement call; if you are you are, if you are not, you are not. If you "should be" IR-1, you want to get that corrected now (see Margaret's troubles with being misclassified as CR).

Thanks for the report, too!

[Anyta Holland 1]

I thought I'd try my luck and ask him if there was a chance to change his CR1 to a IR1 given tht it was our 2nd wedding anniversary, he said, 'Congrats, but no, good try though!'

Welcome Home!

Can you expand on the above? Were you, or were you not, married for 2 years at the time you entered the US?

It's not a judgement call; if you are you are, if you are not, you are not. If you "should be" IR-1, you want to get that corrected now (see Margaret's troubles with being misclassified as CR).

Thanks for the report, too!

Meuxna, I did ask, as it was exactly our 2nd wedding anniversary when we entered, the Officer said no, plain and simple, didn't give any reasons! Do you think I should argue that with USCIS?

BTW, thanks for the welcoming!!!

[meauxna 15]

I thought I'd try my luck and ask him if there was a chance to change his CR1 to a IR1 given tht it was our 2nd wedding anniversary, he said, 'Congrats, but no, good try though!'

Welcome Home!

Can you expand on the above? Were you, or were you not, married for 2 years at the time you entered the US?

It's not a judgement call; if you are you are, if you are not, you are not. If you "should be" IR-1, you want to get that corrected now (see Margaret's troubles with being misclassified as CR).

Thanks for the report, too!

Meuxna, I did ask, as it was exactly our 2nd wedding anniversary when we entered, the Officer said no, plain and simple, didn't give any reasons! Do you think I should argue that with USCIS?

BTW, thanks for the welcoming!!!

Gee, that is a DRAG! I don't know the answer but I'll look later on.

Makes you think it would have been worth camping at the border til the next day... rules, sheesh!

[meauxna 15]

ok, the way they have it in the casual langugae:

Your permanent residence status will be conditional if it is based on a marriage that was less than two years old on the day you were given permanent residence. You are given conditional resident status on the day you are lawfully admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa or receive adjustment of status.

Well, you were on that cusp. So, your marriage was "less than 2 years old"--I'm guessing that is where the officer went with that. Only because a partial day 'in' the US = a full day in the US. If you were admitted at 3pm 9/12/06, it still counts as being a PR for the whole day of 9/12.

Here are 2 older discussion threads on the topic. Paul Gani got that Inspector's manual *somewhere* but I can't find it online.

http://tinyurl.com/jgdsr

He quotes

this is what the INS POE Inspector's manual says:

14.6 Conditional Residents.

Admission procedures for conditional immigrants (based on spouse or investment) are discussed in 8 CFR 235.11. Procedures are generally the same as for other immigrants, but in spouse cases, if the marriage upon which the visa is issued occurred more than 2 years prior to the date of admission, you must admit the alien unconditionally, regardless of the visa symbol on the immigrant visa. Conversely, if you encounter an immigrant visa classified as unconditional, where the qualifying marriage occurred less than 2 years before the date of admission, you must admit the immigrant conditionally.

Again, your marriage actually did not occur more than 2 years prior to the date of admission.

There is a hint of a suggestion here that you could "try" to "correct" this by filing I-90:

http://tinyurl.com/kuvac

Here's the relevant sections of the CFR & INA (law).

§235.11 Admission of conditional per-manent residents. (a) General—(1) Conditional residence based on family relationship. An alien seeking admission to the United States with an immigrant visa as the spouse or son or daughter of a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident shall be examined to determine wheth-er the conditions of section 216 of the Act apply. If so, the alien shall be ad-mitted conditionally for a period of 2 years. At the time of admission, the alien shall be notified that the alien and his or her petitioning spouse must file a Form I–751, Petition to Remove the Conditions on Residence, within the 90-day period immediately pre-ceding the second anniversary of the alien’s admission for permanent resi-dence

Link to the INA

http://tinyurl.com/zkfhy

(g) Definitions.-In this section:

(1) The term "alien spouse" means an alien who obtains the status of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence (whether on a conditional basis or otherwise)-

(A) as an immediate relative (described in section 201(B)) as the spouse of a citizen of the United States,

(B) under section 214(d) as the fiancee or fiancé of a citizen of the United States, or © under section 203(a)(2) as the spouse of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence, by virtue of a marriage which was entered into less than 24 months before the date the alien obtains such status by virtue of such marriage, but does not include such an alien who only obtains such status as a result of section 203(d).

INA 216 total: http://tinyurl.com/zkfhy

The very bottom line? Weigh whether or not it is worth roughly $200 and one more form to fight this. At the moment, I would not draw a positive conclusion in your favor. I'm interested in what others have to say on this. If it gets to be a discussion, maybe it needs its own thread.

[Yodrak 7]

I've often wondered what the call would be if status was granted on the 2-year anniversary.

How about challenging the decision for free, by filing I-90 when the card arrives on the basis that the card has the wrong classification and expiration date due to USCIS administrative error? (even though the error, if there is one, was made by CBP)

Yodrak

ok, the way they have it in the casual langugae:

Your permanent residence status will be conditional if it is based on a marriage that was less than two years old on the day you were given permanent residence. You are given conditional resident status on the day you are lawfully admitted to the United States on an immigrant visa or receive adjustment of status.

...

The very bottom line? Weigh whether or not it is worth roughly $200 and one more form to fight this. At the moment, I would not draw a positive conclusion in your favor. I'm interested in what others have to say on this. If it gets to be a discussion, maybe it needs its own thread.

Edited September 15, 2006 by Yodrak

[AussieDude 0]

I thought I'd try my luck and ask him if there was a chance to change his CR1 to a IR1 given tht it was our 2nd wedding anniversary, he said, 'Congrats, but no, good try though!'

Welcome Home!

Can you expand on the above? Were you, or were you not, married for 2 years at the time you entered the US?

It's not a judgement call; if you are you are, if you are not, you are not. If you "should be" IR-1, you want to get that corrected now (see Margaret's troubles with being misclassified as CR).

Thanks for the report, too!

Meuxna, I did ask, as it was exactly our 2nd wedding anniversary when we entered, the Officer said no, plain and simple, didn't give any reasons! Do you think I should argue that with USCIS?

BTW, thanks for the welcoming!!!

Gee, that is a DRAG! I don't know the answer but I'll look later on.

Makes you think it would have been worth camping at the border til the next day... rules, sheesh!

My 0.02 worth (perhaps this discussion needs its own thread, but I'll post here anyway), I'm guessing the 2 years would be based on when the I-130 petition is lodged/approved (for DCF this is the same day), thus for Anyta, the actual date may be a few months ago. However, the manual meauxna (by the way, hope you don't mind me calling you that, I'm not sure I've seen you sign with another name on other posts, if I've missed it, pardon me!) is quoting from states that its irrelevant what the visa says, and it depends on the date of entry to the US.

This might be a very ignorant question on my part as I'm sure you had circumstances which required it but, was there any reason you couldn't have left a day later and arrived the day after your anniversary?

By the way, thanks to all those posting their POE experiences!

AussieDude

[Anyta Holland 1]

Thanks all for your inputs!!!

I will wait until we get the GC and see what it says, and then probably challenge it with the I90.

As for the date we arrived, we could have probably done it to get here the next day, but to be honest I didn't think any of it, until the question crossed my mind at the POE (very clever of me!)....

Again thanks! Will let you know what happens!

[Tim and Bethanie 1]

Tim came through ATL on the first of September, with a CR-1. He states it was the best POE experience he has yet to have. He turned in his MBE, was directed to go downstairs where he received his stamp in his passport. He was done with everything in less than 15 minutes, no questions asked. Sorry it isn't a very ellaborate post, but it was uneventful which is a good thing.

Bethanie

[kittykatwoman 0]

I entered the states September the 1st through Chicago o'hare with a IR1, i went to the resident line and it took 5 minutes. Painless and stressless.

I was quickly welcomed to the United States by a very nice officer.

The whole process, endorsement, customs and health department for my cat, took something like 30 minutes.

[groomit 0]

I entered the states September the 1st through Chicago o'hare with a IR1, i went to the resident line and it took 5 minutes. Painless and stressless.

I was quickly welcomed to the United States by a very nice officer.

The whole process, endorsement, customs and health department for my cat, took something like 30 minutes.

Same POE...but I was less lucky that day.

There were about 20 people waiting there, only one officer was in charge of checking that immigrant's orange envelop...He mostly spent his time talking to numerous unoccupied co-workers who were walking around...

Finally, he called me, took my fingerprints, gave passport back (3 mins). NONE QUESTION.

I wasted about 2 hours, sitting down but upset .

Conclusion : Immigrant, enter US thru Chicago POE...it lasts longer but NO WORRY !!!

[Candace 2]

Shameless bump.

[Hannah and Grant 0]

this is so helpful!

ive been wondering what to expect on the American end of things.

worrying, as well. i remember how frightening LAX was the first time i was there in June.

i cant wait for my ''welcome to America''....

[Euro 3]

I entered on K3 & CR!..............both pretty straight forward!!

K3 POE was philly, they took my Brown envelope & me into secondary to be processed,I was told to collect my luggage first before going to secondary,the whole processing took about 20 minutes as lots of brown envelopes going through Philly at the same time, they did'nt ask me anything they processed it all while i sat in the waiting area, when they had done they called me up to give me my passport back, with the I-94 stapled in!! & they explained the AOS process to me!!.

I went back to England for my CR1 interview & entered at Chicago POE, i stood inline at the "Visitor" line, i handed in my brown envelope, then was told to go to the end desk to be processed, the officer throw my white I-94 away saying i didnt need one!!, he then took finger print for my greencard, stamped my visa & explained this was my temp greencard untill the actualy card arrived, he was very nice!!, took 5 minutes

Amanda