Biometrics, Phoenix AZ, Walk-in review

[Robert B 1]

Hello All,

Today I decided to try my luck at walk-in biometrics. I thought I'd write something, and hopefully at least one person will benefit from this.

Getting there, and getting through:

Since I haven't been able to drive ever since my OPT card expired I had to go by public transportation. I was surprised to see how fast it went (keeping in mind that Phoenix has a horrible reputation when it comes to public transit). I got on the lightrail (beginning of the track on the east) at 05:40am, around 06:20 I arrived at the Central and Thomas station, at which I got off, and took Bus 29 east (around 06:40). The bus stop you want to get off on is 26th st and Thomas, which is right next to the ASC. I got there at exactly 07:00am.

I was first in line, but only about a minute later other people started showing up. By the time 08:00 rolled around there were about 50 people waiting. I think they are getting stricter with walk-ins, since they had to talk amongst each other before they let me in (I had a print out receipt with confirmed flights that showed them I wouldn't be there on my scheduled date, and they all looked at it, and compared dates). Anyways, thanks to Andymac (who replied to another thread of mine) I knew exactly what to expect. They want you to fill out your A# and the receipt numbers on the form (in my case MSC....), which are all located on the appointment letter. Make sure you fill it out quickly, it isn't rocket science. But this place is almost like the motor vehicle department, lots of people waiting, one person to help you. Anyways, things went smoothly from here on out.

Things I didn't know:

You can bring cell phones in, as long as they are completely turned off.

They don't check your bags

You can bring somebody else, but they will have to sit on one of the chairs inside.

The people inside were all super nice and courteous. Besides having to wake up at 5am my day went great!