Arlington Passport Stamping Experience
It all started yesterday 6:30 AM and finally ended today 11:00 AM, yes you heard right - today.
Yesterday I was at the Arlington regional office at around 6:30 AM. By then, the queue outside the office building had grown so big that it circled 3/4th of the office building. By around 7:30 the door was opened and people were allowed in (At least I believe so, as I couldn't see the door from where I stood, but the queue started moving). I entered the building at around 8:15 AM. But, we were informed that room 210 upstairs, where they did the stamping, was full and that they could not serve any more customers. I was asked to go to room 102, where a guy told us a polite sorry and asked us to come some other day. Damn!! Hard luck!!
So the next day (today), determined not to miss the slot this time, I showed up at the BCIS office at 5:00 AM, but was surprised again to see a queue that circled almost 1/3 of the building. I could recognize familiar faces in the queue from the pervious day. I guess, every body was as determined as I was. Any way, at around 7:15 a lady came out from the building and started giving out paper slips, directing each person to the room we had to go, after asking our case information. My slip instructed me to go to Room 210. At around 7:30 the door opened and people hurried in. I went directly to room 210. There was yet another queue, a much slower one than the previous one, to collect a token. When I reached the counter, the immigration officer asked for the approval notice, photos, EAD(s) and AP(s). He arranged them in order and gave me a token to yet another queue. The token type varies depending on the type of the case. Mine was of the “D” series, which I believe is for Green Card stamping. But this time at least I was able to sit while the numbers were called. The D series was the fastest queue and it moved along at a nice pace. When my number was called, I went to the counter and the immigration officer, without even asking a single question, stamped my passport and took my fingerprints and signature. It took less than 5 mins !!
At the end of it all, I looked at this stamp (a plain simple red stamp) and wonder at the whole process, After years of painful, frustrating, stressful and some times nerve wracking wait, I finally have what I want. But then, why am I not jumping around with joy? Is there something wrong with me? I looked around and I saw couple of other faces who also got stamped today, and they are also not showing much emotion either. Maybe this whole ordeal made all of us too numb to react. Makes me wonder even more!!! Did I just get something priceless? I guess so, at least I spent so much of my time and effort for it, so it should be! I guess time will tell.