PoE (Point of Entry) experience - Sweeeeeeet

[Krikit 1,164]

Moving from Process to Progress.

[Atif and Shumaila 0]

Congratulations!

[hellraiser 42]

My personal view on this is what the immigration officer said, it's a combination of few things that determines how easy/hard PoE can be:

1. Papers that are in that sealed envelop - the human error by the embassy is always there

2. The immigration officer himself - the person's mood, his personal views and thoughts, and

3. How many people are in queue on that day - this could be bit similar to the previous one.

Some may say it depends on the attitude of the candidate, but i guess anyone who is migrating all by him/her self is bound to be nervous or at least bit lost an confused!!! This is not something one does on a daily basis.

What I wanted to say is in my opinion the dependency on the ease level for PoE is mostly external and beyond our control regardless of airport or cities (there could be some and very little) and I wish everyone had a smooth of an experience as mine. If you cannot accompany your love ones I want this to be even more comfortable so the experience of the other half starts on a positive note. Goo luck too all and thanks for your wishes.

[Princessblack 21]

Congrats and good to know.

[AK2011 0]

Though belated, let me wish you congrats and thanks for sharing your story! Hope you both are enjoying your new life!

[hellraiser 42]

Yes. I am glad that left behind those stressful and painful days. Though getting the SSN, GC and other papers are constant effort, still nothing comes close to those days of uncertainty. I got so much support from many on this site and can never really thank enough to all for their suggestions, encouragements, or even saying something negative, which helped me to understand the loop holes and be prepared in advance.

[El Cachalote 12]

Our Point ofEntry (PoE) was JFK, New York and fortunately I was accompanying my wifeexperiencing the whole thing first hand. I don't think our experience could beany simpler. On arrival we went to the Immigration checkpoint fornon-immigrants with my wife and asked the CBP officer:

Me: Is this the right window for a new immigrant.

CBP Officer: Yes, I can take it.

I handed over the sealed envelope along with her passport to the officer.

CBP Officer: Is she your wife?

Me: Yes

The officer tore the envelop, quickly scanned the papers in there, keyed insome info in the computer, and asked my wife this:

CBP Officer: Can you please put 4 fingers of your right hand on the screen.

My wife did that and then the officer asked to put her thumb. After that thesame for her left hand. Once the finger printing was done, stamped her passportwith the entry seal, gave us the papers back and told us:

CBP Officer: You can go to counter 4 in the back.

So I asked if he can take care of my passport and did the same taking few moreseconds.

Afterwards, we took all the papers to the counter 4, which is nothing but somedesignated areas on the floor marked with 1, 2, 3, and 4. We were the onlypeople who came to 4 and the officer promptly told us "come on guys"with a smile. He then took a quick scan of the documents, and asked me

CBP Officer 2: Would you have any more passport size photo graph with you? Idon't see the required number in the bundle.

Fortunately we had more than 5 copies of photograph with us. While we weretaking them out of our bags, the CBP officer went through the papers andrealized the photos were in separate plastic bag where they should be in thepacket and told us that we are okay; however he took the extra photograph justin case. Then took the index finger impression of my wife, asked her to signher name and said "You are done, welcome".

I mean, I was ecstatic and couldn't resist saying "I heard so manyhorrible stories about the PoE and never thought it would be this simple".The officer smiled and said that depends on combination of paperwork wereceive, number of people in here, and of course the officer.

I walked outwith my head high, and with a really big smile on my face.......... Things workedout mysteriously well for me, and I personally thank God, my wife, hers and myfamily members, and the people whole helped me with their thoughts andsuggestions on this site. I wish all a smooth ride as well. May god with youall the time.........

I guess I will be out of this site for a while, until the time when herCondition needs to be removed to change the CR1 status. Bye all for now....

Thank you for this wonderful and detailed story. My wife (Visa Cr1) and I will be arriving in Miami POE. I hope our experience will be as easy as yours!

Sincerely,

Magnus