Arriving in America

[The Robinsons 0]

NEWARK AIPORT, APR 07, CR-1 VISA

We arrived at Newark around 2:30 1 hour late because the baggage system had went down in Hamburg airport.

Visa packet and passport in hand I was directed to the tourist/immigration lines - they let my husband come with me. We ended up spending about 15 minutes waiting in line. The POE officer then looked in my passport, took the visa packet and called for another officer. That officer then seperated me and husband and took me to a room on a lower floor. He then instructed me to sit down and wait.

About 45 minutes later 2 female officers came running into the room, called my name, took my fingerprints, stamped my passport and told me to go to the gate of my next flight. She didn't tell me anything about what had happened, what to do next or anything. She barely spoke 5 words to me.

Anyway I went out to baggage claim where my husband was waiting for me. Went through baggage claim....they didn't even bother to check our bags. We then had to put them back on a belt so they could go to our next flight. At that time it was 3:35...our flight has scheduled to depart at 3:30. But thankfully it was delayed. So by running to the gate we barely made it on board. How our bags made it on there in that short of a time I still don't know.

But we made it to NC in one piece without any information on what to do next. After tons of calls to USCIS we later found out it took Newark over a month to send my visa packet to them and someone forgot to issue my SSN. It also took several months to get my welcome letter and there is still no sign of my greencard. 30 days my ***. But that's another story.

[Chris Parker 11]

I just remembered something...

People who enter on an Immigrant Visa MUST file a US income tax return as a resident for the entire year that they entered.. ie, we came over in November and the DAH was a US tax resident for the entirety of that year.

If you enter as a K-3, you will not have the same issue.

That's not exactly true...

In your first year, unless you entered on January 1, you are normally considered dual-status for tax purposes for the first year and have to file a paper return at a special address according to some special tax rules.

However, if married to a U.S. citizen or resident alien at the end of the tax year (as most people reading this probably are), you can make an election to be treated as a U.S. resident for the full year rather than as dual-status. Technically, you are supposed to attach a statement to your Form 1040 that you made this election to be treated as a U.S. resident all year, but I think that will be presumed anyway if you e-file and don't include the statement (IRS can't take away your right to be treated as a resident all year if you are eligible to make the election). It is often in your best interest to be treated as a U.S. resident for the whole year if you are allowed to do so (as you will see below), unless of you had a lot of foreign income just before coming to U.S. that exceeds the foreign earned income exclusion and you want to avoid paying U.S. taxes on it or there are some great tax treaty benefits you want to claim.

If you nevertheless choose to file your tax return as dual-status (or you aren't eligible because you aren't married to a U.S. citizen or resident alien at the end of the year, such as because you didn't immigrate based on such a marriage or you got divorced from them before the end of the year, etc.), your return is still Form 1040 if you are still living in the U.S. at the end of the year but with a bunch of exceptions like separating income as a U.S. resident from when a non-resident, no standard deduction allowed, and attaching a statement such as Form 1040NR to the return to explain any foreign income from before entering the U.S., etc. IRS Pub. 519 goes over all the tax rules for dual-status. I didn't bother with any of this because spouse came on a K-1 in November and we got married in January of the next year and therefore she was a resident all year for her first tax year anyway, but now with the mother-in-law here on an IR5, I'm going to have to go through the dual-status mess because she isn't eligible for the election (actually, it still won't be that bad, since she entered in January and had no foreign income for the few days earlier in the year, but the disallowed standard deduction could bite!).

Just wanted to do my part to make the discussion here on this topic more complete...

[NatPatBen 3]

Thanks, All, for posting your POE experiences. Even though I'm doing K1, this gave me a good idea of what to expect when my fiance & I enter next month.

[txladykat 1]

Well there seems to be no rhyme or reason to how they handle POE. My husband also came in through Newark from Hamburg in July of this year. He was directed to go through the US Citizen line. Lucky for him, there was no one in line waiting, so he was the very first one (in all my years of travel I have NEVER seen that happen! LOL). Anyways, yep, he went through the US line, not the immigrant line, and his processing took all of about 5 minutes! We expected delays (especially cause he was traveling on July 3rd), so we allowed 5 hours between flights, and it took him 5 minutes to get through....go figure!

[Chris Me lil D 17]

that's a good thread, i'm surprised people don't post in here anymore... would be great info for VJ members i'll surely share my experience next month...

[johnholmessc 0]

Anyone have an experience coming in through means other than the old airplane?!? I have been living in Italy with my wife and daughter (daughter is already US citizen) for a little more than two years now, but we are finishing up the final steps to move to the US (just waiting to complete the interview) and would like to do a transatlantic cruise... combine the travel and vacation in one. I assume this is a perfectly fine way to enter into the US, correct? Any experiences? Thanks.

[meauxna 15]

Anyone have an experience coming in through means other than the old airplane?!? I have been living in Italy with my wife and daughter (daughter is already US citizen) for a little more than two years now, but we are finishing up the final steps to move to the US (just waiting to complete the interview) and would like to do a transatlantic cruise... combine the travel and vacation in one. I assume this is a perfectly fine way to enter into the US, correct? Any experiences? Thanks.

I've known of at least 2 families who arrived by ship; they both gave it fantastic reviews!

Here's a couple of threads for you; don't know what happened to the VJ versions, stuff got purged here.

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=312523&

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=297397&

[Chris Me lil D 17]

So, my flight was scheduled on Aug 31st SOF-LON-BOS with AA operated by British Airlines from Sofia to London (Heathrow) and AA from London to Boston.

My flight was scheduled for 2.30 pm from Sofia, arriving at 8.30 pm in Boston.

I arrived at the airport at 1 pm. My luggage was 2 kg (~4.4 lbs) overweight so I had to take some stuff out and put it in my carry on (which was a backpack). I just have bought some medicine right before my check-in and I asked the British Airlines rep if it was ok to put them in my carry on as my other luggage was overweight anyway. She looked at them and said it was fine, as long as I didn't have any liquid medicine with me. I bought some Magnesium pills prescribed by doctor and Mustella cream as I am 5 months pregnant. However, the girl was very rude and she started raising her voice at me that I was late for my flight (it was 1.15 pm, still 1 hr and 15 min to my flight) and told me to hurry up and go fast through security and head to the terminal. I wanna tell you that Sofia Airport is pretty small compared to other European Airports. It has only one terminal (the new one which they built 2 years ago) with 9 gates. You could walk the whole terminal for no more than 5-7 min but still she insisted I was late. However, I had to say bye to my family really quick and get going.

Went through screen check. The guy asked me straight if I had Mustella in my carry on. I said yes. He said it was over 100ml and in general I wasn't allowed to have it in my carry on but he'd make an exception. I also had a painting with me which was a gift for our wedding and I went through hassle to get a certificate and have the painting with me on the flight, and no one ever asked me about that certificate and in the winter they wouldn't let my husband has it with him back to US without a certificate. WTH???

I got on the plane, flight was OK, food wasn't though, so good for me that I had lunch with my family before the flight.

On the plane I met some other Bulgarian guy with his UK wife. He wouldn't let me carry my backpack as it was very very heavy - 15 kg (~33 lbs) and he asked One Complete Service (OCS) company that helps passengers with wheelchairs, to help me carry my bags from terminal 3 to terminal 5. They refused by saying it was British Airlines (BA) responsibility. Then we called a BA rep and they said they could not do anything as I just got off their flight, it was AA (American Airlines) responsibility and I should contact them for assistance. However, a guy from OCS carried my heavy backpack to the bus and said I'd be able to take a wheelchair from terminal 5 once I arrive there.

So, I arrived at terminal 5, I looked around, saw the guy working for OCS, explained the situation, asked him for the wheelchair and he looked at me so stupid, shrugged his shoulders like he was saying "I DON'T CARE, NOT MY PROBLEM, LEAVE ME ALONE", turned his head on the other side and left me there alone, with all my stuff. I asked again for help, he only said to go and contact AA. I answered that if I wasn't pregnant I wouldn't ask for help, but I could not lift anything heavier than 2-3 kg (4-6 lbs). He did the same, gave me the stupid look, shrugged shoulders and kept reading his newspapers.

Tears started dropping down my face, I just couldn't believe that he was a "MAN" who didn't care a pregnant woman had to deal with all these bags. I felt so offended. I took my bags, went upstairs and went through security.

Here came the next problem. That Mustella turned out to be a big problem. Just because it was 200ml but not 100ml, the security said I:

a) could throw it in the trash (but I paid $30 for it)

B) take it with me, go through immigrations, check out, check in again and send the Mustella cream with one of my bags...

Ahhhhh, well, the security supervisor was very helpful though. She asked someone to go and ask AA for a wheelchair for one of their passengers. So, here I come. I have to sit down actually in the wheelchair, otherwise they won't let me use their service... Well, I did. Oh, and my 2 hrs overlay in London got extended with another 4 hrs. I had to stay at the airport for more than 6 hrs. Bummer!!!

Then next step, I have to go through immigration customs. The Immigration officer asks me why I didn't fill out declaration form. I said I didn't have to as I was a citizen of a European country. He gave me another stupid look and said: "And since when Bulgaria is a European Union Country???" and I looked at him like Doh! and said: "Two years so far"... Oh, he said, let me check that in the computer. A minute later some apology and I could go out of the airport.

Then I had to check in again, hehe... I gave them my other backpack that had only shoes inside as I had to take them out in first place from my luggage at SOF airport, then put the Mustella cream in it and check it in again with the AA officer. She started asking me questions about my visa, about my husband... and I looked at her stupid and thought: WTH? Ur not an immigration officer!!!! Then she told me they were going to give me a wheelchair, but I HAD TO sit in it, and then go through security again, and they'd leave me in the emergency room. She also said if I was 5 months pregnant and was having contractions, I shouldn't fly in a first place before making so much noise for one wheelchair. WTH? What? What? OK, I had enough $H!T from this airport. I thought that Air companies valued their passengers and it turned out they didn't give a #######, or... oh, wait a minute, I'm a foreigner, not an American citizen, so I probably don't know my rights and they can threat me as bad as they want.

I was left in the Emergency room to wait for the next 4 hrs, and have been said not to move anywhere. If I wanted to go to the restroom, I was expected to take my luggage with me. And I said to the girl: "Then what's the point of having a wheelchair for help, if I'll have to take my luggage with me if I need to go to the restroom, or to buy something to eat?" She just shrugged her shoulders, said not to leave my luggage unattended and left with the wheelchair.

There was another pregnant woman waiting as well. And an old couple sitting next to me. They said they were going to watch my luggage if I wanted to go to eat something. I thanked them and I did as kept crying all the time. When I got back, another lady from OSC came and asked me if I was OK. I laid down on a bench because I got contractions again and my belly was as hard as a stone and it was so painful. I couldn't answer at all. All I could do was nodding for an answer. And I fell asleep. At some point a guy came, woke me up, took my luggage and gave me a ride to my gate with a luggage cart. Then I got on the plane and the flight was safe. I did not have to fill in I-94. But I did have to fill in Customs Declaration.

I arrived in BOS at 12.20 am on Sept 1st, instead of 8.30 pm on Aug 31st.

Our flight was the only one arriving so late. There were all these hundreds of people waiting to go through immigration. I went to an officer, showed him the two orange packages I had with me from the embassy and asked where I should go. He sent me to Non-immigrants/Visitors line. There were only 3 booths open - 2 for US citizens and 1 for visitors. After 10 min of waiting, another officer came to check our visas. He sent me to booth #3 which they just opened. I stepped up there, the officer asked me how am I, when did I get married, since when I haven't seen my husband with very friendly voice. I answered, then I said last time he came to visit we went on a second honeymoon and this is when we made our baby, and when we found out about it hubby said no more honeymoons. The officer started laughing, he said I should've kept it a secret till I get back. I answered in the same friendly joking way: "Yeah, hunny, surprise! I got bigger " and he started laughing again, then he took my fingerprints, took a quick snapshot with the camera which made me ask what was that for, he said for X-mas cards. I asked if I was going to get one, he answered yes; I asked if he'd promise, he laughed and said yes, and then said: "OK, dear, now I'll take you to another level of immigration downstairs. Give me that bag here". So he took my heavy backpack and brought me to a second Immigration office downstairs, right where the luggage pick up was. He left my package on desk #1 (out of totally 3), said good luck with the pregnancy, welcome to USA and left. Total time upstairs - 5 min.

I sat down on a bench to wait to be called. A woman showed up, looked at my 2 big orange packages and said: "Holly $h!t, what is that?" I went to her and asked if I could go to the restroom while she is working on my CR-1 visa. She took me to it, unlocked it for me and said: "Take your time, hun, that's the biggest package of immigration paperwork I've seen lately"

If anyone would like to know what they have in the secret orange envelope that says DO NOT OPEN, I'll tell you the secret

I had 2 envelopes for some reason.

- In one of them I suppose I had the DS-230 stamped and signed at USEM, medical record, I-130, G-325A, I-864, DS-3032.

- In the second one was all the evidence we sent to USCIS and NVC as a proof of a bona fide marriage - pictures, copies of chat history, e-mails, swarn affidavits from friends and relatives, copies of cell phone invoices and call history, copies of my old visas to US ans all issued documents to me.

How do I know? Someone at the embassy has torn off the package at one of the edges and it was enough to be able to see what is inside.

So, after working over my paperwork for about 20 min, she called me, took the fingerprint of my right index twice on two dif papers, made me sign them twice, gave me back my passport with a stamp that said CR-1 visa and said I'm all set. I asked about the SS# but she told me as I already had one it was forever. I knew she wasn't right, I mean, I know I'm supposed to receive a new one no matter, but just didn't want to argue with her. Took my stuff and left.

Went to pick up my luggage. Someone already have put it all for me on a luggage cart, yayyyy

Went through customs. They asked me if I had any food with me. I asked if the jelly is considered to be food. The girl said NO, just any fresh vegetables, fruit... I answered NO. Then the 4 guys were staring at my suitcases. One of them asked me if I had any stones in my luggage. I answered I had some shells from the Black Sea, as well as a stone with two dead mummified crabs on it. He made a joke about Bulgaria and that we had a sea but not an ocean, then he said I'm good to go, and I left. It's already 1.20 am... I'm tired and sleepy, my feet are swelling a lot, they are so big... I'm pushing the carriage...

...

First door after Customs - big empty room

...

Second door after Customs - Bostan Logan Airport, a huge bouquet of 36 red roses and a hubby, waiting imapatiently to hug and kiss me and our Daisy for finally welcome back home

[alex and astrid 38]

I have a POE question - We are all going to or have carried the mysterious brown envelope through the immigration hall...but CPB take it off you and you do not get it back? IF they do take it from you, do you get a copy if it, since we can't open it ourselves? I'm a tad confused!

[rebeccajo 14]

I have a POE question - We are all going to or have carried the mysterious brown envelope through the immigration hall...but CPB take it off you and you do not get it back? IF they do take it from you, do you get a copy if it, since we can't open it ourselves? I'm a tad confused!

No, you don't.

Most of the stuff in it you have already seen anyway.

[alex and astrid 38]

Oh, Ok. So then I should just ensure that everything we submit we have copies of ourselves? So far, it's just been our petition packet we have sent (and each have a copy of) but once I have my medical and police check, make heaps of copies of that too, and keep them for any future usage?

[Coco&Kitten 42]

Oh, Ok. So then I should just ensure that everything we submit we have copies of ourselves? So far, it's just been our petition packet we have sent (and each have a copy of) but once I have my medical and police check, make heaps of copies of that too, and keep them for any future usage?

Don't worry, you will never need these copies again...

[mosstoss 7]

Hi guys,

So we plan on entering the US in December. My wife got her CR-1 visa last month.

A quick question, so when we got the visa, we had not yet completed 2 years of marriage. Thus, the visa is a CR-1 visa. By the time we enter the US though (in December), we will have completed 2 years of marriage.

How do I ensure we get the non-conditional GC? Do we need to inform the immigration officer at the POE for this?

thanks!

[meauxna 15]

Hi guys,

So we plan on entering the US in December. My wife got her CR-1 visa last month.

A quick question, so when we got the visa, we had not yet completed 2 years of marriage. Thus, the visa is a CR-1 visa. By the time we enter the US though (in December), we will have completed 2 years of marriage.

How do I ensure we get the non-conditional GC? Do we need to inform the immigration officer at the POE for this?

thanks!

Congratulations!

You should be prepared to show the officer that you have been married 2 years at entry and that your wife should be admitted as IR-1. Have an original copy of your marriage certificate to hand and be extra nice and polite since you're asking them to do a little extra.

Be sure to handle this before your wife leaves Secondary inspection; it's harder to fix afterward.

Good luck and please post back about your experience.

[coraliesolms 47]

Just a question. My daughter is a USCit by birth, I am the one with the IR-1. When we go through customs, are they gonna seperate us into different lines? Shes only 3, and would most likeley panic. Can she go through the immigration line with me instead?