albopower
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
I went through JFK POE with my fiance' and my family (brother, sister, Mother). We landed at 2:00PM on a Monday (Monday after Easter Sunday). The immigration room was dead-empty. Less than 20 people in the citizen line and less than 10 people in the non-citizen line. I've never, ever seen this room that empty. Awesome!
I asked the TSA agent at the entrance if I should go through the citizen or non-citizen line. She said we could all go through the non-citizen line together (we are all U.S. citizens, except my fiance'). We waited not even 5 minutes. A young hispanic woman with forearm and neck tattoo's waited on us. She was very polite and sharp. She opened my fiance's brown envelope, took her digital fingerprint and processed her in less than 10min. I had already filled out an I-94 and customs slip (blue one) on the airplane for my fiance'. I also had filled out a customs slip for me, my mom and brother and sister. She processed that portion extremely quickly as well. She didn't ask my fiance' anything. She sent my family to baggage claim and escorted me and my fiance' to another processing room for what she said was "ink fingerprints".
When we arrived there, she handed our paperwork to a guy behind the counter and told us to sit down and wait for my fiance's name to be called. She was very sweet, wished us the best and left. There was only like 4 people in this room. My fiance' and I sat down. The guy behind the counter took the envelope, shuffled around some papers, ripped off the bottom portion of the I-94 and stapled it to my fiance's passport. He shouted out my fiance's name about 1 minute after we arrived. We both approached the counter.
He handed us the passport with the I-94 stapled inside (he did a crappy, uneven job stapling it- partially hanging out of the side of the passport) and said "you have 90 days to get married, goodbye". I asked if we needed to get ink finger prints and that the other agent said we needed to. He said "No" very rudely. I asked if we could have a copy of her vaccination records since I don't want her to have to get them again for adjustment of status. He said "No" very rudely again, and said "you have 90 days to get married". I politely asked for a copy of the vaccination records again, but I could sense he was very, very frustrated. He told us to leave. He did not collect her X-rays either.
What a joke. I am grateful that she's here and that we got in relatively smoothly, but there are so many inconsistencies in the way this process is executed. It seems some of the gov't agents just do whatever the heck they want within reason. Its upsetting.
I know I've read that people have gotten copies of their vaccination records before. I have no idea why I was denied. I did not want to push the issue with this guy in fear of backlash against me or my fiance'. Its just unfortunate that things are so variable.
Anyway, overall it was a very positive experience at JFK minus one rude, misinformed agent. Best of luck to all.
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Port of Entry Member Review #14670
Entry Date: 2010-04-05