garamkutta
Registered Users (C)
Hi friends,
At last all of us (myself,my wife and son) got their passports stamped at Philadelphia on Monday 25th June. Everything went very smooth except that we reached late at INS. We reached at 11 AM and there were at least 25-30 people waiting before us for stamping. We had to wait about a couple of hours for our turn. The whole process took less than 15 minutes for all three of us. The officer was good and checked the documents ( 485 approval notice, I 94 ,advance parole and work permit) and took impression of right hand index finger at two places and asked to sign at two places on a form. She stamped the passports and told that plastic cards would arrive in 6-9 months.
IMPORTANT : I learnt an important lesson in the process. There are very few photographers who exactly know how to take a picture for green card.
All three of us had pictures taken from a photographer who claimed that he knew this and apparently took pictures exactly according to the specs given in the notice, but at INS they accepted only my wife\'s picture. My son had to redo his for the reason that picture is too big. I had to redo it for the reason I had never heard : GLASSES ARE NOT ALLOWED IN GC PICTURES.
We got our new pictures done immediately from the photographer outside the INS. He gives it within 10 minutes and pretty cheap ($10 for 2 copies). In the whole process I wasted $30 paid to the first photographer.
My suggestion to everybody : Don\'t rely on any other photographer. The guy outside INS is the best and the cheapest. He knows exactly how to do this. It is another story that the pictures turn out to be horrible and I look like a smuggler. It is important that INS loves pictures taken by him ( Does he have an inside connection ? God knows and INS).
Anyway, my process is over. I shall report again when I get the plastic. Till that time best luck to everybody waiting and thanks to Mr.Rajiv Khanna and numerous contributors of this forum. They have really made this forum a pleasure.
Bye,
GARAMKUTTA
At last all of us (myself,my wife and son) got their passports stamped at Philadelphia on Monday 25th June. Everything went very smooth except that we reached late at INS. We reached at 11 AM and there were at least 25-30 people waiting before us for stamping. We had to wait about a couple of hours for our turn. The whole process took less than 15 minutes for all three of us. The officer was good and checked the documents ( 485 approval notice, I 94 ,advance parole and work permit) and took impression of right hand index finger at two places and asked to sign at two places on a form. She stamped the passports and told that plastic cards would arrive in 6-9 months.
IMPORTANT : I learnt an important lesson in the process. There are very few photographers who exactly know how to take a picture for green card.
All three of us had pictures taken from a photographer who claimed that he knew this and apparently took pictures exactly according to the specs given in the notice, but at INS they accepted only my wife\'s picture. My son had to redo his for the reason that picture is too big. I had to redo it for the reason I had never heard : GLASSES ARE NOT ALLOWED IN GC PICTURES.
We got our new pictures done immediately from the photographer outside the INS. He gives it within 10 minutes and pretty cheap ($10 for 2 copies). In the whole process I wasted $30 paid to the first photographer.
My suggestion to everybody : Don\'t rely on any other photographer. The guy outside INS is the best and the cheapest. He knows exactly how to do this. It is another story that the pictures turn out to be horrible and I look like a smuggler. It is important that INS loves pictures taken by him ( Does he have an inside connection ? God knows and INS).
Anyway, my process is over. I shall report again when I get the plastic. Till that time best luck to everybody waiting and thanks to Mr.Rajiv Khanna and numerous contributors of this forum. They have really made this forum a pleasure.
Bye,
GARAMKUTTA