Sequence of events:
6:30 am: Started from home (I and my wife)
7:00 am: Parked our car in the right side of street (street exactly opp to federal building - Walnut) - paid $6.00 /day
7:10 am: Walked to the back side of the building and got into the waiting room [allowd to get into the room by a poerson after he looked at our approval letters]. Around 15 people are already in queue [may 5 or 6 families.
Note: Approval letter is treated as appointment letter. On Wednesdays, only people with appointment will be allowed through that entrance.
7:30 am: We were given envelopes (1 for me and 1 for my wife) to place our EADs, 2 Photos (per head), I-94 s and AP s (if any - we did not have APs).
7:40 am: The same person allowed us to get into another room after verifying our IDs and approval letters (we showed him our passports as they were handy, but one can show his/her Drivers license also). Then we passed through metal detector gate. (We had to keep all our stuff, literally everything, including approval letters, on a roller that passes through security check - same as in airports).
We got in and stood in a line.
7:50 am: We got our chance and moved to one of the 3 counters. We were asked to sign in 2 places and gave forefinger-righthand print in two places of a form. We surrendered the envelopes there and we were given he new form (wherein we signed and fingerprinted), 2 slips with 2(joined by perforation) waiting numbers on it and another slip mentioning the floor number, room number and lifts to use. We weer asked to wait till 8:00 am and then goto 10th floor 1022 room using the lifts as mentioned in a slip given to us.
8:00 am: After 10 min wait and went to 10th floor and room 1022 (take the lift as mentioned and in the 10th floor it is left-left-last room @ dead-end). Waitied for our chance and we got it at 8:30 am. Me and My wifes numbers were displayed in 2 different counters but we went to a single coutner. The lady-officer was nice and greeted us with smile. Well, she took our passports and filled-in some papers. Finally, She gave us our stamped passports and also another letter-kind-of thing. She told us that we get the original card within 6-12 months and wished us to have happy new year. We reciprocated. This process took only 10 min.
8:45 am: We got into the next door (SS office) and filled in forms to have our new SS cards. The whole process took 15 min and we were in our car by 9:04 am (Just for fun, I checked my time).
Thanks to every one who are maintaining and participating in this board.
Thanks to my company for which I have been working for tha last 3 years (from day 1 of my US experience) and I came to US as a H1B for this company.
No RFEs, Never on bench and overall Very smooth GC processing [Applied for GC in June 2000 under EB2/RIR and the whole process took 1 year 7 months].
Also, I need to appreciate the efficient and systematic work done by our lawyer. Many thanks to him too.
Any questions, I am happy to answer after I return from my work (after 8 pm EST).
That is all folks.
Good luck to every one.
Nani
email: usa_towork@hotmail.com
6:30 am: Started from home (I and my wife)
7:00 am: Parked our car in the right side of street (street exactly opp to federal building - Walnut) - paid $6.00 /day
7:10 am: Walked to the back side of the building and got into the waiting room [allowd to get into the room by a poerson after he looked at our approval letters]. Around 15 people are already in queue [may 5 or 6 families.
Note: Approval letter is treated as appointment letter. On Wednesdays, only people with appointment will be allowed through that entrance.
7:30 am: We were given envelopes (1 for me and 1 for my wife) to place our EADs, 2 Photos (per head), I-94 s and AP s (if any - we did not have APs).
7:40 am: The same person allowed us to get into another room after verifying our IDs and approval letters (we showed him our passports as they were handy, but one can show his/her Drivers license also). Then we passed through metal detector gate. (We had to keep all our stuff, literally everything, including approval letters, on a roller that passes through security check - same as in airports).
We got in and stood in a line.
7:50 am: We got our chance and moved to one of the 3 counters. We were asked to sign in 2 places and gave forefinger-righthand print in two places of a form. We surrendered the envelopes there and we were given he new form (wherein we signed and fingerprinted), 2 slips with 2(joined by perforation) waiting numbers on it and another slip mentioning the floor number, room number and lifts to use. We weer asked to wait till 8:00 am and then goto 10th floor 1022 room using the lifts as mentioned in a slip given to us.
8:00 am: After 10 min wait and went to 10th floor and room 1022 (take the lift as mentioned and in the 10th floor it is left-left-last room @ dead-end). Waitied for our chance and we got it at 8:30 am. Me and My wifes numbers were displayed in 2 different counters but we went to a single coutner. The lady-officer was nice and greeted us with smile. Well, she took our passports and filled-in some papers. Finally, She gave us our stamped passports and also another letter-kind-of thing. She told us that we get the original card within 6-12 months and wished us to have happy new year. We reciprocated. This process took only 10 min.
8:45 am: We got into the next door (SS office) and filled in forms to have our new SS cards. The whole process took 15 min and we were in our car by 9:04 am (Just for fun, I checked my time).
Thanks to every one who are maintaining and participating in this board.
Thanks to my company for which I have been working for tha last 3 years (from day 1 of my US experience) and I came to US as a H1B for this company.
No RFEs, Never on bench and overall Very smooth GC processing [Applied for GC in June 2000 under EB2/RIR and the whole process took 1 year 7 months].
Also, I need to appreciate the efficient and systematic work done by our lawyer. Many thanks to him too.
Any questions, I am happy to answer after I return from my work (after 8 pm EST).
That is all folks.
Good luck to every one.
Nani
email: usa_towork@hotmail.com