Alekezam
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
I was fortunate enough to have the time and funds to travel to Ukraine to spend some time with my fiancee before heading to the US together. When we arrived in Houston we made our way to the immigration area where a number of greeters were giving instructions and directing people to the correct lines. I've entered the US through a number of different airports and I have to admit, Houston definitely has it's ducks in a row. From the staff to the visual prompts, everything is well organized and flows very smoothly.
I proceeded to ask one of the greeters where VISA holders need to go and he directed us to go all the way to the end of the hall where both signs and other greeters would ensure we would get to the right location. I am a global entry member so prior to heading to the end of the hallway I went to a GE Kiosk and printed out a slip.
We both proceeded down the hallway and along the way were multiple signs that indicated directions to the area where VISA visitors were to go complete with pictures of Visa examples. I sort of chuckled at one Visa picture showing a K1 Fiance Visa with a picture of a model looking woman showing the country of Russia. Even the US Immigration admittedly identifies Russian women as being "hot".....
Once we got the end of the hallway a greeter directed us to a line stating that all Visa types are applicable to that line. It may have just been a slow day but there may have been 10 people at the most waiting. Actually, Houston in general is a pretty easy airport to get through in regards to immigration. Lines are never long and in all honesty, my global entry status gives me almost little to no advantage over those who don't have it. In other airports it makes a huge difference, LAX, SFO, etc.
The officer and line was no different that the lines for US Citizens and others that do not require a Visa. When it was our turn the officer was friendly and jovial joking about how he's seen a K1 Packet before. He even tried to speak some Russian to my fiancee. For some reason I think he thought my fiancee couldn't speak English so he called one of the greeters standing nearby who happened to be Kazakh and asked her to translate a few questions to ask my fiancee. "How long has she known me?" "Do you have any drugs, alcohol, fruits, that you brought with you?" "How did you guys meet?". She answered and he pretty much sped through a quick summary on how we still need to get married, etc. etc.
From there he told me to go ahead and collect our bags and wait in the baggage claim area for my fiancee. He said that she would need to go to their processing room to have all her paperwork processed electronically and then would be given her visa stamp and escorted down to the baggage claim in approximately an hour.
I hesitantly left her there with him and collected our bags and patiently waited. I'd say about 40 minutes later she came down and all was good. She told me the processors in the room joked around by yelling out loud humorously "who is getting married soon?" knowing she was the only one so she was sorta forced to raise her hand in embarrassment.
All in all I'd say it took about 45 minutes from the point that we stood in line to when I met her downstairs.
Oh, and to those who freak out about the infamous slashed corner that appears on a lot of packets, it is indeed a standard thing that is performed by the embassy. Not entirely sure why but it doesn't really matter as long as you know it doesn't pose any problem as we had that very exact corner missing and had no issues whatsoever with entry. As long as it looks like a clean cut and isn't a tear no need to worry.
Very well done Houston!
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Port of Entry Member Review #16763
Entry Date: 2018-11-26