Biometrics Completed - Columbus OH

mr4422 · March 22, 2006

10 FINGERS, 1 FACE, BUT NO TOES. BIOMETRICATING IN COLUMBUS

March 21, Columbus Ohio - The clock turned 11am this morning as the snow was finally starting to come down in what was thought to be a day of heavy snow, and MR4422 was just getting off a 12 hour shift at work. He called his wife to check to see if she was ready to go, as he was going to pick her up and take her to her biometrics appointment with USCIS. Arriving home at 11:35, he found his wife waiting with the appointment letter, passport and ID card in hand.

He contemplated whether he had time to eat lunch, as the appointment was at 1pm and it was a 10 minute drive to downtown. But a nagging feeling came over him and he decided this was too important to chance any delays. Even though the weather didn't look like it was going to be a factor, he took no chances and they promptly left.

They arrived downtown and determined where Leveque tower was, and found that it had a parking garage attached to it on Front Street, just off of West Broad. He told his wife it was going to cost about 5 dollars to park, and she started to pull 5 dollar bills from her wallet. He quickly explained to her that they pay when they leave the garage, not when they enter. They found a spot right away on the first level.

Having prepared his wife for the very cold and biting wind chill by having her bundled in a long heavy coat, hat and gloves and the hood of the coat pulled over her head, still could not remove the sting of cold this native thailand girl suffered during her 1.5 block walk to the building doors.

They looked over the huge directory(with small print no less) and did not see USCIS listed. Hmm, he thought, what name are they under? A guard asked them what they were looking for, and then directed them to the 3 floor.

Getting off the elevator on the 3rd floor, they were greeted by two armed security officers. They did a search of her bag and wanded them thoroughly with a metal detector. Then they were directed along a path that turned a few short corners and they checked in at the window. It was about 12:15.

the appointment letter was stamped, and a form was given to them to fill out with basic name/address/a# information. They returned this to the window, his wife's id was checked, and they were given number 25. As soon as they had picked up the paperwork the door on the left opened and a lady called for number 25. If thoughts could have been heard a loud thunderous "Sweet" would have echoed through the halls.

For the next 15 minutes all 10 fingers of his wife were scanned electronically, and her photo was taken. After the process had been QA'd by a supervisor, they were done.

They headed out of the building and decided to stop next door at subway to eat lunch.

It was 12:40pm. and their 1PM biometrics appointment was done!

Please stay tuned for further developments in this ongoing story.

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Reported by K.Visa and P.R. Greencard