ARUBA port of entry

[Baslied 1]

Hello everyone,

 

Checking the visa journey port of entry reviews I noticed that ARUBA POE isn't in the list, does anybody from here entered through there with an immigrant visa? how was the experience? My husband and I are leaving from Venezuela and we have the option to go through Panama (which POE would be miami) or Aruba, thank you

[Andrea&Henry 311]

Is not  my case (My poe was Miami) but a friend of mine, also a venezuelan VJ member is the only member I know personally who used Aruba as a POE. He told me it was pretty much the same experience I had in Miami, just that the waiting period was a little shorter. Basically your venezuelan spouse needs to go through costumes like any other immigrant with his passport and the yellow envelope in his hand. (This envelope can NOT be open under any circumstances, but an immigration officer at the POE and it has to come in your purse or carry on luggage). The immigration officer will check his visa and passport, take finger prints and then he/she will escort both of you to the immigration room (we all go through that, so is a standard procedure). The immigration officer will give the yellow envelope to the another officer inside the room and you just need to wait. You will see people with other types of immigrant visas as well. You are not allow to talk or text on your cellphone, tablet or any other electronic device. The waiting period depends largely on the amount of people they are processing, weekends, mondays and holidays are the busiest days. You can take from 30 mins to 4-6 hours depending on what I mention before. I know my friend was there for almost an hour. I was an hour and a half. 

 

I strongly recommend you to avoid weekends and holidays, specially holidays and to book your connection flights with a at least 3 hours gap just in case it takes longer.

 

Once you are there, and is your turn, one of the immigration officers will call your name and open the package in front of you, will check a few  documents and then he/she will stamp the passport and you can go.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Progress Reports to General Immigration-Related Discussion.

[Baslied 1]

19 hours ago, Andrea&Henry said:

Is not  my case (My poe was Miami) but a friend of mine, also a venezuelan VJ member is the only member I know personally who used Aruba as a POE. He told me it was pretty much the same experience I had in Miami, just that the waiting period was a little shorter. Basically your venezuelan spouse needs to go through costumes like any other immigrant with his passport and the yellow envelope in his hand. (This envelope can NOT be open under any circumstances, but an immigration officer at the POE and it has to come in your purse or carry on luggage). The immigration officer will check his visa and passport, take finger prints and then he/she will escort both of you to the immigration room (we all go through that, so is a standard procedure). The immigration officer will give the yellow envelope to the another officer inside the room and you just need to wait. You will see people with other types of immigrant visas as well. You are not allow to talk or text on your cellphone, tablet or any other electronic device. The waiting period depends largely on the amount of people they are processing, weekends, mondays and holidays are the busiest days. You can take from 30 mins to 4-6 hours depending on what I mention before. I know my friend was there for almost an hour. I was an hour and a half. 

 

I strongly recommend you to avoid weekends and holidays, specially holidays and to book your connection flights with a at least 3 hours gap just in case it takes longer.

 

Once you are there, and is your turn, one of the immigration officers will call your name and open the package in front of you, will check a few  documents and then he/she will stamp the passport and you can go.

Thank you so much for your very detailed reply!  that makes me feel better