I thought of sharing my finger printing experience at SFO ASC with you folks.
Our FPs were scheduled on 2/28/01. We have received FP notices 2 weeks before.As soon as we
have received the notices, we wanted to give the FPs. So the next day we went to SFO ASC. We went
by 280 north and took king st exit as suggested by the directions on the INS website.
But the guy at front desk refused to take FPs before the scheduled date and asked us to come on
scheduled day. On the scheduled day,we started from our house in Belmont , CA at 7.30 AM and reached SFO by 8.30 AM. We were scheduled at 9 AM. Luckily , we were able to get a near by metered parking slot at that time.
When we walked into ASC, to our surprise, we saw lot of people( more than 200 ) waiting in the queue. Since room was kind of packed by people , we have some trouble getting in to it. Even though the interiors were pleasant, people were kind of pushing each other which made us little inconvenient. There are two desks and a number display system. The first desk is for you to present your FP notice.The guy asked for picture ID( for me Driver License & passport for my wife) and checked our hands to make sure we do not have any cuts. He then gave each of us a form to fill-in and a token numbers. We filled in the form and waited for a clerk at second desk to call us. Meanwhile, I went to my car to re fill the coins. After 20 min, clerk at the second counter called us and checked if the filled forms were fine. she then took the tokens given by the guy at first desk , stamped on the filled forms and gave us different tokens having the same numbers. We then have waited for the display system to display our token number. Meanwhile, I went out again to fill-in the coins for my car parking.
After 20 min, Our number were displayed on the display system , we were taken to a professional digital finger printing station( different stations for me & for my wife) and the technicians there took our FP notices & filled-in forms and entered our details on the FP station itself. They then gave us a cream to rub on both hands and asked us to wait until it dries. One thing to be careful : While the technician enters your details into the system , make sure he enters everything properly. In my case, he entered wrong A # and corrected when I alerted him. After that, we were asked to put four fingers( thumb excluded) together of each hands on a scanning m/c and scanned the FPs. And later they took individual prints of each finger of both hands. As soon as they did , they gave us a yellow form to fill-in. This yellow form is optional feedback form having questions about their service. I filled in the form and submitted to the technician. Then that technician vanished and his supervisor has come to the station and checked the FPs. After verification, he found the my finger prints were in good quality . However, for my wife, since she has some micro cuts on her left thumb, her technician has difficult time to get her fingerprints. When her supervisor came checked her finger prints, he said the thumb FP is not in good quality so again supervisor took her thumb FP . Once we were done with that,we were out by 10.30 AM
When we were coming out , we found that there was a big queue outside the building waiting in the hot sun.( more than 100 new people in addition to the people inside). This is contrary to the opinion I had re: SFO ASC where there would be hardly any people. Seems to be INS is issuing lot of FP notices these days.
The very next day, I called FBI about our finger prints.The FBI rep said that FPs were in good quality and were processed and sent to INS on the same day( very impressed).
Overall my FP experience has been good.
Our FPs were scheduled on 2/28/01. We have received FP notices 2 weeks before.As soon as we
have received the notices, we wanted to give the FPs. So the next day we went to SFO ASC. We went
by 280 north and took king st exit as suggested by the directions on the INS website.
But the guy at front desk refused to take FPs before the scheduled date and asked us to come on
scheduled day. On the scheduled day,we started from our house in Belmont , CA at 7.30 AM and reached SFO by 8.30 AM. We were scheduled at 9 AM. Luckily , we were able to get a near by metered parking slot at that time.
When we walked into ASC, to our surprise, we saw lot of people( more than 200 ) waiting in the queue. Since room was kind of packed by people , we have some trouble getting in to it. Even though the interiors were pleasant, people were kind of pushing each other which made us little inconvenient. There are two desks and a number display system. The first desk is for you to present your FP notice.The guy asked for picture ID( for me Driver License & passport for my wife) and checked our hands to make sure we do not have any cuts. He then gave each of us a form to fill-in and a token numbers. We filled in the form and waited for a clerk at second desk to call us. Meanwhile, I went to my car to re fill the coins. After 20 min, clerk at the second counter called us and checked if the filled forms were fine. she then took the tokens given by the guy at first desk , stamped on the filled forms and gave us different tokens having the same numbers. We then have waited for the display system to display our token number. Meanwhile, I went out again to fill-in the coins for my car parking.
After 20 min, Our number were displayed on the display system , we were taken to a professional digital finger printing station( different stations for me & for my wife) and the technicians there took our FP notices & filled-in forms and entered our details on the FP station itself. They then gave us a cream to rub on both hands and asked us to wait until it dries. One thing to be careful : While the technician enters your details into the system , make sure he enters everything properly. In my case, he entered wrong A # and corrected when I alerted him. After that, we were asked to put four fingers( thumb excluded) together of each hands on a scanning m/c and scanned the FPs. And later they took individual prints of each finger of both hands. As soon as they did , they gave us a yellow form to fill-in. This yellow form is optional feedback form having questions about their service. I filled in the form and submitted to the technician. Then that technician vanished and his supervisor has come to the station and checked the FPs. After verification, he found the my finger prints were in good quality . However, for my wife, since she has some micro cuts on her left thumb, her technician has difficult time to get her fingerprints. When her supervisor came checked her finger prints, he said the thumb FP is not in good quality so again supervisor took her thumb FP . Once we were done with that,we were out by 10.30 AM
When we were coming out , we found that there was a big queue outside the building waiting in the hot sun.( more than 100 new people in addition to the people inside). This is contrary to the opinion I had re: SFO ASC where there would be hardly any people. Seems to be INS is issuing lot of FP notices these days.
The very next day, I called FBI about our finger prints.The FBI rep said that FPs were in good quality and were processed and sent to INS on the same day( very impressed).
Overall my FP experience has been good.
