stackeria
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
We flew LHR-JFK on Virgin Atlantic on Thanksgiving day.
We arrived at terminal 4, which these days has a line for USC/LPR/returningESTA with self-use pre-screening kiosks and another line for others. We went down the USC/LPR line and asked where my wife should go and if I could accompany her. A very friendly and helpful screener directed us to bypass the kiosks and go straight to a room behind in "Zone 4." She said I could go along but they might send me back to get my passport stamped.
Now keep in mind we traveled on Thanksgiving day and it wasn't very busy... but we arrived to an empty room and a lonely immigration officer. I asked her if I should go back to the normal kiosk line while she processed my wife's POE but she said she could just stamp me in and that I could stay.
It went so quick I don't remember all the details but essentially she opened the sealed packet, took my wife's index fingerprint in ink and then verified her prints with the scanner. She stamped my wife's CR-1 visa and my passport and sent us on our way. All in all, it took maybe 5 minutes top and we were out of there and waiting at luggage claim before the first suitcase rolled out.
I'm the USC and I've never gone through passport control this quickly before!
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Port of Entry Member Review #15783
Entry Date: 2014-11-27