gcwaiting007
Registered Users (C)
It was a cool process. On wednesday, took BART from Oakland. Reached there by 10 am. The INS office is at 630 Sansome St. (closer to Washington St.)
On the ground floor the security guard checked the approval and photo Ids and let us in. There were about 10-12 people ahead of us. In spite of travelling a lot, still was not prepared for the metal detector at the ground floor. (Normally I used to remove all metallic objects on person and put them in my bag or jacket). Anyway, had to go through the metal detection and personal belongings inspection process. Was directed to the second floor.
Dropped the 485 approval notices in the door slot of 200B. Just waited. After about 40-45 minutes, heard the mangled versions of our names being called and by instinct knew had to be us. The Afro-American lady was sweet though not very efficient. She started writing my A# on my wife's photos and grouped my wife's approval notice with my fingerprint sheet, etc. etc. But finally, things were straightened out and she said very sweetly that she will start processing them.
Another long wait of about 20 minutes (though it was a much relieved wait. The only tension was when my 2-year old started getting restless and started running around the chairs).
Finally, our names were called out by another officer, an afro-american gentleman this time(and the name mangling was more severe). This guy gives you the impression that he is doing a favor in returning our passports. But did not have any issues. He said that "if you guys are lucky, you will get the cards in 6-12 months". Checked for the A# in both the passports. They were correct. I thought even the WAC# were correct.
When we reached home, my wife patiently read all the hand-written numbers and found that a digit was missing in the wac#
So instead of XXXXX it was only XXXX. I felt so foolish because I had checked these things there and did not notice that a digit is missing. Also, my wife is so worried about it. Probably it is not much, especially since the A# is correct. But then Murphy's law always applies, right?
So guys, check the numbers carefully. Best thing is to read them aloud in the immigration office itself.
Anyway, overall it was pretty simple.
On the ground floor the security guard checked the approval and photo Ids and let us in. There were about 10-12 people ahead of us. In spite of travelling a lot, still was not prepared for the metal detector at the ground floor. (Normally I used to remove all metallic objects on person and put them in my bag or jacket). Anyway, had to go through the metal detection and personal belongings inspection process. Was directed to the second floor.
Dropped the 485 approval notices in the door slot of 200B. Just waited. After about 40-45 minutes, heard the mangled versions of our names being called and by instinct knew had to be us. The Afro-American lady was sweet though not very efficient. She started writing my A# on my wife's photos and grouped my wife's approval notice with my fingerprint sheet, etc. etc. But finally, things were straightened out and she said very sweetly that she will start processing them.
Another long wait of about 20 minutes (though it was a much relieved wait. The only tension was when my 2-year old started getting restless and started running around the chairs).
Finally, our names were called out by another officer, an afro-american gentleman this time(and the name mangling was more severe). This guy gives you the impression that he is doing a favor in returning our passports. But did not have any issues. He said that "if you guys are lucky, you will get the cards in 6-12 months". Checked for the A# in both the passports. They were correct. I thought even the WAC# were correct.
When we reached home, my wife patiently read all the hand-written numbers and found that a digit was missing in the wac#
So instead of XXXXX it was only XXXX. I felt so foolish because I had checked these things there and did not notice that a digit is missing. Also, my wife is so worried about it. Probably it is not much, especially since the A# is correct. But then Murphy's law always applies, right?
So guys, check the numbers carefully. Best thing is to read them aloud in the immigration office itself.
Anyway, overall it was pretty simple.