jon&cess
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
Hello everyone! As promised, I'm gonna share my detailed POE experience last jan 18th of this year. POE was on SFO.
Hubby and I arrived on SFO last jan 18th at 6:30pm. A lot of people were in the US citizen's lane. Hubby instructed me to go to the new immigrants line, far right, only 3 people were on that line. I just brought my visa packet, passport & admission record (given during the flight) with me and left everything else with hubby. A serious faced, strict Chinese-American immigration officer was at the counter. When my turn was called, he asked for my passport and form (I think its a customs form - not sure though). Coz I was unable to present him the form (we were asked to fill up forms at the plane, hours before landing. An admission record for me, a form for US citizens for hubby and a customs form for the both of us. Those who traveled together will only get one customs form. Hubby has ours) he was lookin for, he shouted "next". He didn't even look at me, nor gave me instructions. So I asked him, where should I go, what should I do. Luckily, a fellow Filipina was next in line with me, so she showed me the form. After recognizing the form, I told the officer that I'm with my husband and he has that form, he stared at me and told me to "go to your husband". I thanked him and went back to my hubby.
After 30mins, our turn was called, a Indian-American immigration officer catered us. We handed out our passports, my visa packet and all of our 3 forms. He took my picture and biometrics and told us to move to another lane (I think its lane 7, left side - another line for new immigrants, he didn't open my visa packet). There were 2 lines at lane 7. The American immigration officer told us to go the 2nd line. He was only catering the 1st line! After an hour of standing and waiting in line, another officer approached his counter and gave out forms. Our American officer had run out of green card forms! That's when the American officer asked everyone in the 2nd line to get one form, print our index fingerprint, sign and move at the back of the 1st line! By that time, all of the other counters were empty. So, for speedy process, we were again, asked to move to another counter. A Vietnamese-American immigration officer will serve us this time. Again, we handed out our passports, my visa packet, all of our 3 forms and my green card form. Our officer was very friendly. The immigration officer on the counter beside us, catering another client, sounds pissed. She was shouting, telling the client he should not lie with her and that she can deny his entry to the US. Our immigration officer and hubby chatted for quite a while. I was already starving! Haha! When he opened my visa packet, he was in shocked. He can't find my pictures. He told me, each packet usually has 2 2x2 pictures inside but mine has none and those pictures were needed in order for them to issue me my green card. Luckily, I brought with me 8 2x2 pictures! LOL! So I gave the immigration officer 2. He later then explained us the removal of conditions procedure, asked us to sign and gave us a copy. He told us that the green card may took about 1-6months to process.
It took us 2 long, excruciating hours to get out of the airport!
BTW, I just received my US SSN last monday!
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Port of Entry Member Review #15107
Entry Date: 2012-01-18