Answer to va guy and to whoever might need PP stamping in INS Arlington office
Directions and Parkings:
1.If you go by Metro, please get off at Ballston Station and go up onto the street N. Fairfax Dr. and walk westbound to the street #4420, the INS office is at your left side. Maybe you will see some people on line there if you are not too early.
2. If you drive through 66, exit at exit 71 (Glebe Road exit) to the N. Fairfax Dr. and then drive straight ahead and pass just one traffic light the INS office is at your right side. You will see a big sign WACHIOVA on the top of the building, pass the building you can turn right to the parking lot ($4.00 for whole day if get in before 8:30am), or you may park at a street meter parking but you need remeber the meter parkings only allow 2 hours limit and you need fund it again in time.
Address:
4420 N. Fairfax Dr.
Arlington, VA 22203
Line:
I arrived there @5:20am. There were 15~20 people on the line already. The line was getting longer very quickly after 6:00am. The door opened @7:30am. A couple of security persons came out to distribute red and blue folders, he/she would ask for the type of your case, then gave you a corresponding color of folder. For PP stamping case, the folder is red. I was told to go to suite 210 on the 2nd floor. Exactly at 7:30am, the door opened and line began to move into the door. Everybody needs to pass the security examination. If everything is OK, the security personnel would ask you to go to suite 210 on the 2nd floor. At the door of the suite 210, another officer checked the documents, and told me to go to line B. (There are two linea, A and B. Line A is a little shorter and faster. ) There were two officers distributing the numbers for the two lines.
Documents required:
I was asked to give the officer the following documents:
---Passport(must not expire within 6 months, otherwise they might ask you to take extra photo or to have your PP extended first);
---all I-94(s)--no matter expired or not;
---Approval Notice(I presented the courtesy copy);
---Two Photos (ADIT formats as on your EAD if you have);
---EAD and/or AP(I had only EAD. Beware of that if you don\'t surrender these, you might have to have more trips to get PP stamped);
The officer put the photo and EAD in to a small envolpe and stapled them all together, and gave it back to me, then gave me a number. Then I was free to sit down and/or walk around to wait for my number to be called. I got my number at about 8:03am.
Before PP stamping:
Only one window was open for processing all cases at beginning (@8:25am), so it was very slow. The extreme case happened was that one of the PP stamping case before me took atleast 70 minutes which was not succesfully stamped due to the Passport problems--it depends on one\'s luck to encounter this kind of case. It was around 10:15 another 2 windows opened (total 6 windows). It was a little bit faster but still slow because the officer was processing all types of cases in turn. At 10:25am, 2 more windows opened (5 windows in total were open at this time), it was getting very fast. At 10:35am my number was called and displayed on the Digital Display Board on the wall.
Stamping:
My case is very simple. The officer took all the documents stapled. She took my index finger print and my signature, then told me "You are able to travel and work by using this stamp. It takes 6 to 12 months to get the plastic card. That\'s it.". I thanked her and got out of the building with freedom at 10:45am.
What if your Photo not good and more----
There is a photo express just next to the INS front door. You can took INS instant photo there(1~2 minutes). Some people distributed the INS photo flies to people in line before the door opened.
It was cold in the morning at this season. The Cafe shop is also next door of INS which opens at 6:40am. You can have coffee and breakfast there.
I took a sun-chair with me for the long time lining and also took a very thick overcoat.
Hope this help. Best wishes to all of you.
