Any stamping tips for Tampa

A

angiodan

Registered Users (C)
Hi friends, my wife and I are planning to get our passports stamped in Tampa in the next couple of weeks. We can go on any Tuesday or Thursday between 8:00 and 11:00. It is a little over 2 hours away from us, and I am wondering how quickly everything goes.

I would appreciate anyones experience at the Tampa office.

Thanks!
 
angiodan ,

We did our stamping in Tampa this week.

Parked car in INS parking lot at 8:00 am. Drove out of the parking lot at 9:00 am.....:D

There's a line outside . There were about 10 - 15 people ahead of us at 8:00 am.

Took us about 20 mins standing in line to get in (they call for security check one family at a time). No prior appt. needed even though they have large notices in red saying take a prior appt. (caused me a bit of a heartburn to see that when we reached there...but its no problem if you don't have appt.).

Once inside,you get a token and sit. They have 5 or 6 windows but we only saw 2 officers working when we were there. Once we got the tokens, another 15 minutes wait till we were called to the window.

Officer only looked at the courtsey copy of the approval (original went to the lawyers).

Only took the I 94s out of our PPs. Did not take any old visa's / EADs from us. When I asked if they wanted them, the officer said no, I could throw them out now. :p

Then he took us inside another room for FP and stamped our passports. Total time taken at the window + FP - 5 mins.

Bit of an anticlimax if you ask me. 5 long years of wait and it was over in 5 minutes ;)

Oh BTW, I don't know where you are coming from, but the morning traffic is bad all over (I-75 / I-4 / I-275) - so keep that in mind.
 
Thanks Duhki, appreciate the tips.

We are coming from Ft. Myers, I was thinking of leaving around 8:00, that way by the time I get near Tampa, the morining rush hour should be done, and I should be there around 10:15-10:30.
We can't leave much earlier since we have to get the kids off to school.

Was there different lines for certain types of appointments, or just one line for everything?
 
angiodan ,

There is only one line outside the building. When we went there, I asked a police women who was hoisting the american flag outside the building if there is any other entrance and she said no.

Of course, being curious beings as we all are, that's the exact same question everyone else who was coming after us, was asking the policeman standing outside ( even though they could see others standing in one line :D ).

Once you go in, you get a different number based on what you are in for. Our Number was Cxxx.

Inside, the officers are very nice and courteous as opposed to the idiots who answer the phone call at TSC (if you made any calls last year to ask to schedule FPs as everyone else was doing during that time......you'll know what I mean).

On our approval notice, TSC had written that the hours of the office were Tuesday and Thursday 8:00 am - 11:00 am.

You might want to find out if 11:00 am is when they close or they stop people entry after that time. It would be a shame if you miss out and need to make another long trip.

Best of luck.
 
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