Davis2015
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
Difficulty Rating: 0
Our experience with the Customs/Immigration officers was swift and pleasant. It was asimply quick as any transaction I've had coming back to the states from a foreign country. They opened his packet, made a comment on how lucky we must be to have made it through the process so quickly, and sent us to the last immigration stop before we could re-check our bags. The fact that I was in uniform (coming straight from my deployment to travel with him) may have given us the edge with the officers...maybe.
We sat in this room for about 30 mins or so while other passengers were being interviewed on their stay. (Just a note, we could overhear one officer questioning a gentleman who had apparently entered on a work visa. The officer was seriously grilling him, basically asking him what his entire life plan was while in the US and the guy didn't seem to have the answers the officer was looking for. He was with two other gentleman all their for the same reason I suppose and I didn't see any of them get through, and I saw one get taken into another back room, which he never came out during our time there. Make sure you know your stuff, what you're doing and what your plan is especially on a work visa.)
After witnessing that, we were prepared for a similar grilling by the time they called us up. However, they didn't ask us anything at all besides small talk about my deployment, our plans now that we're finally together, and the attending officer even asked how our process was overall. He did some stamping, typing, stamped his visa for the 1 year approval and told us his residency card would come in the mail anytime between 1-6 months, and to call if it hadn't gotten there in 6. (We vacationed until 9 Feb and the card was in the mail around the 12th).
And that was it. He bid us farewell, we returned it, and we re-checked our bags for our next flight. It was amazing and the only part of the entire process that I can say didn't make me want to pull my hair out!
Good luck! Just be honest, relaxed and truthful. You'll be fine!
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Port of Entry Member Review #16184
Entry Date: 20160201