Dallas stamping experience

[waitsucks9]

We went for passport stamping (I151). It was pretty smooth. We were out of there within 2 hours including waiting outside and inside. A few things:
1) Make sure you make appointments. We saw people standing in another queue wihtout appointments. They were waiting forever. It seemed that as long as there were people in appointment queue, they were not called. Even they were called, the officer simply told them to go back and make an appointment.

2) It is not necessary to go early because they didn't let us to into the queue until 15 min of due time. We were ahead of time for about 30 min. We ended up having to wait besides those guys in the queue for 30 min.
3) It was unclear if they needed seperate appointments. My wife and I had appointment separately. We presented to the guy and he told us to let the officer inside know that we were together. So we went in and told the officer we were together. She processed us together in the same window
4) make sure you watch the display for your token number carefully. We saw a guy being called many times (just 2 # before us). Somehow he managed to miss it. Later he was trying to get help. The lady told him it was his responsibility to watch for the number. They later reluctantly gave her another number without kicking him out (but I bet he had to wait for a while).

5) hearsay: DO NOT be late. I heard from a lady outside complaining about how they do business. The lady (who was helping her mother in law for GC issues) said that if you are late, you will not be allowed to get a token (tough luck!). Obviously they need time to process all the appointments. Let's say they have 30 people for 10:00am, and if you go ther at 10:30am AND they are still handing out tokens for those people, I guess you can get yours as well. But it's better to be a few minutes earlier to avoid any uncertainties.

6) don't expect VIP treatment or you will be disappoited.

Question:
Anyone knows how long it takes to get the plastic everyone has been dreaming for?

 

[texas!!!]

Thanks for sharing. I got PP scheduled for this Friday with only on appointment letter. Hopefully they can process family as a unit.
PD 7/99
ND 4/02
FP 5/03
AD 5/04
PP 6/11/04

 

[nvi]

Infopass experience in Dallas

Some background:
We are CSC approval cases and moved to TX after 180 days and changed address as usual.

We received approval notices advising us to go to Dallas for stamping - the usual stuff !

Now for the experience:
I did the infopass request for appointment for myself and my wife (I made the requests at different times, though on the same computer). I must have hit the back button the browser window earlier - we got the same "code number" though we had the two appointments at the same time with our individual names. Of course, I never checked that the "number" was the same. We waited for good 3 weeks after the approval (since infopass appointment takes longer!) and went to the Dallas center early monring on June 4th to be turned down - only one of us could go in (get a token). I thought I should gamble and asked my wife to go while I wait outside. She was the derivative and I wanted to take a chance of getting my stamping done too the same day. The process was pretty quick - probably because we had the first series of appointments at 6:30 AM. She was done in less than 10 minutes and she spoke tot he nice lady at the counter about what happened to our infopass appointments and if I could get my passport stamped too the same day. The lady obliged and advised me to go and get F-number token - whatever it was - and I had to wait in non-appointment line; soon after half-hour wait I was allowed to talk to the guy at the counter outside (who issues the tokens) and he asked me a description of the lady at the counter where my wife got her passport stamped and the counter number. I gave him that information and he went inside to check with that lady ... and then issued me a token F-number. he even advised me that it could take all day long since there was no scheduled appointment for myself for that day. I went inside after all that security stuff - remove all those metal things, belts, etc

I glanced around and found my token number flashing somewhere and it changed soon ... yes as someone said, you cannot afford to miss it So I assumed it must have been the same counter and went there. The nice lady was not there and meanwhile I noticed my token number flashed again at the same counter where I was. Soon the nice lady noticed me standing there and immediately took my passport and all the documents. She asked me to wait and after a few minutes she came back and handed me the passport with a good explanation of what she was doing in those couple of minutes - like canceling all my EAD, AP, visa, etc. She explained that it will take 6-12 months; the stamping is valid for one year; if plastic card not received by then come back with another appointment to get it stamped again for another year and check the status, etc

I was out in less than 10 minutes and it was a lot less painful than all that 485 wait

~nvi

 

[sunnytags]

What Option to choose in InfoPass to get your passport stamped ?

Can somebody tell me what option to choose to get you passport stamped and to apply for the plastic card ? Thanks for your help.