yvy23
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
I was met from the plane by an officer from CDC because I had traveled with my 2 cats in the cabin. She advised me that they needed to take the cats to their office and I could collect them after I had been processed. She showed me where I would be able to find them later and that she would need to see their paperwork. The line for people entering on ESTA and Visas was long and seemed to move quite slowly and it was probably about an hour before I reached the front of the line - I couldn't tell an exact time as I was not allowed to check my phone and wasn't wearing a watch. The first official looked at my visa and checked that I had the packet with me, checked his computer then asked me what had happened before the K-1 was applied for (I had 3 visitor visa refusals on file because I had wanted to visit for more than 3 months but had been refused. After that first refusal, my ESTA was of course cancelled, and I was then refused visitor visas twice after that even to visit just for a couple of weeks to see some concerts that my favourite band were playing in 2012). He then handed me back my passport, the packet and my X-ray CD and called someone over to take me to the further processing area. Once I got there and handed over the paperwork, a friendly man came and checked my name then told me that my friend, who had flown over to help me bring the cats onto the plane, had collected my bags and the cats and was waiting for me downstairs. I was very glad of this as I had been worrying about the cats being with strangers for all this time and was grateful that he had told me. Fortunately, I had put each cat's paperwork in their carrier and had shown her this before we travelled so she was able to show the paperwork to CDC without problems. He then went and watched our bags for a few minutes so that my friend could come and let me know that my fiance was waiting outside for us and that she was going to take the cats and bags to him so the cats could get out of the airport and away from the stress of having so many people and so much noise around them. A couple of minutes after that, one of the officers asked me to follow him back to the main processing area so he could complete my paperwork. This took about 30 minutes at best guess, and he asked me only a couple of questions about where I was going to live, that I had brought my cats with me, and when we planned to marry. He then called over another officer and spoke with him for a few minutes about the fact that I had previous visa refusals. I was a little concerned at this point, although London had of course been fully aware of the previous refusals when they approved the visa. Following this, he stamped my passport and handed it back to me, telling me that I must marry within 90 days or leave the country. His colleague then directed me to the baggage claim area and told me 'Welcome to the USA'. I then went to find my fiance who, by then had started to worry about the length of time it was taking for me to be processed. In all, had I not been travelling with the cats which meant I was late getting into the line in the first place, I think I would have been through much quicker but aside from the queries about the visa refusals, the process was relatively quick and painless once I got to the first officer.
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Port of Entry Member Review #15556
Entry Date: 2013-11-15