Christi85
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
I entered the US on a CR1 visa yesterday via LAX. LAX has a reputation for being a relaxed POE without any harassment, and it was true in my case. However the whole thing took a LONG time - read below to see what happened:
So we get there with hubby(our flight even landed 15' early) and we get into the Visitors line as we were instructed to do by the Officer we asked. That line wasn't too long, so after about 5 minutes' standing we got to the front and were seen by a very friendly middle-aged Officer. He took my brown envelope and my passport, took my fingerprints and my picture and wrote the date of my arrival and my flight number on the brown envelope. He then explained that I was going to be processed for a green card (I knew that!) but that he wasn't the person to do that, and sent me instead to another desk at the very end of the room.
So hubby and I walk there and we find ourselves in front of a large desk with two Officers, and a waiting area of over 30 people sitting there waiting. At that point my heart sank as I was hoping for a quick process and my hopes for that vanished after I saw how many people were waiting ahead of us. One of the Officers takes my brown envelope and passport, has me sign a couple papers, takes my fingerprints again (this time in ink) and tells us to go pick up our luggage and to come back and sit in the waiting area until we're called. So we do that (luckily the lugagge arrived very quickly) and we make our way back to the Immigration waiting area where we sit down and wait patiently.
To make a long story short, the whole process was moving very slowly with an average of one name called every 5 minutes. Luckily most of the people were families so the waiting area started to empty after a few names were called and no new people were coming. So I guess our flight's timing was probably just bad! At some point the two Officers must have realized that at this pace it would take forever to process everyone, so they asked some other colleagues to come help them out. This sped the process up by a lot, as there were now about 6 people processing passports and paperwork.
A whole hour and a half after our initial arrival at Immigration, my name was finally called and I was handed my passport with the stamp serving as my temporary green card, together with two letters: one explaining that I'd be getting my green card in the mail and that I could use the stamp on my passport as proof of my status and to obtain a Social Security number, and the other one explaining the process to remove conditions on my PR status in 2 years' time. I was also assigned an alien number (A#).
My advice to those going through LAX: it IS a relaxed airport and you shouldn't get harassed at all or given any grief, unless there's something very wrong with your documents. From my experience, it seems like can get very busy and the Immigration Officers may not necessarily process paperwok in a timely manner, so if you're catching a connecting flight in LAX, make sure you book one with a BIG gap (2-2.5 hours at least) just in case you get there at a busy time like I did.
Also, you may be interested to know that, even if LAX is not your final destination, you're still required to collect your baggage there and re-check it , so allow extra time for that too!!
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Port of Entry Member Review #14932
Entry Date: 2011-06-07