4:45 am reached Arlington VA INS Office ( Parking behind the INS bldg. is 4 $, take 4 one dollar bill and slide into the lock box against your parking lot #) people started coming in around 5:15 onwards.
Wife and kid stayed in the Car till 7:30 am when gates are "supposed" to open while I sat outside the INS bldg. in the cold. ( Take a little camping stool or something)
Take some food and reading material. Those of u with KIDs - take their toys and books also make sure they slept enough the night before.
Once the doors opened around 7:40 am we were the first to let in. Yeah !!! Behind me some 100 people atleast.
Me and wife got to meet a Sardarji INS officer !!! Who was nice but his skills were still cut out for CAB not INS
very slow... but NICE Guy. Submitted ADIT photo and EAD and courtesy copy. He attached the photo n EAD in a little bag on aproval notice and gave us tokens numereo Uno and Two. We had to then wait till 8:50 ....Testing Times ?! Waited 4 so long in the whole stupid GC process one more hour, no problemo till the few officers showed up to the lil glass cubicles. We were finger printed, PP stamped and signed the paper work ...you know the drill !
Out by 9:20 Back at work by 10 am. Hope this helps.
BTW, Did spot some long faced Desi brothers who wanted Aishwarya Rai looks in their would be wife and also JAVA Certification getting their PP stamped alone. SANS Wifey .. But I am sure the AISH Search will continue
... no offense just 4 FUN :-(
My Details: VSC, EB2 India.
PD july-Aug \'98 I guess
RD and ND 01& 05 /11/1999
FP 03/10/2001
RFE 04/11/2001 RFE : Emp Letter for future employability and 3 paystubs.
RFE replied on 04/25/2001
RFE recieved by INS on 05/02/2001
AD 22 MAy AVM said approved both me and wife.
Approval post mark says Vermont 24 May
Approval Received by me and Lawyer 29 May.
http://www.indianembassy.org/consular/passport.pdf - has the PP form in PDF format (instructions in http://www.indianembassy.org/consular/ )
If 10 years are over and you need to fill application for a Passport Application (New), don\'t make the mistake of filling up Passport Renewal Application - it is only for PP that has less than 10 years expiry period the first time around. A local desi Professor also filled the wrong form, so be very careful.. thanks to nice wording by embassy web site Guru.
Passport Renewal documents given in Indian Embassy 05/29/2001 afternoon.
New PP and old PP returned the next day 05/30/2001 evening. They did a good job no goof ups and also stapled the loosely hanging I-94 Good Job Embassy !
Stamping Done on 05/31/2001 ...it is over for me, hey I can take up any "JOB" I want now !!! ( Hello Mc.D., Burger King Kmart, Walmart and local convenience stores..Yes I am available - Given the market condition that is where you can work... So chill guys, GC is not liberation or anything .. just another phase) You will all be stamping soon. The shore is at sight... so Relax. btw, In the true tradition of posting stamping details - Total Time for stamping less than 5 hours, like it matters ;-)
Wife and kid stayed in the Car till 7:30 am when gates are "supposed" to open while I sat outside the INS bldg. in the cold. ( Take a little camping stool or something)
Take some food and reading material. Those of u with KIDs - take their toys and books also make sure they slept enough the night before.
Once the doors opened around 7:40 am we were the first to let in. Yeah !!! Behind me some 100 people atleast.
Me and wife got to meet a Sardarji INS officer !!! Who was nice but his skills were still cut out for CAB not INS
very slow... but NICE Guy. Submitted ADIT photo and EAD and courtesy copy. He attached the photo n EAD in a little bag on aproval notice and gave us tokens numereo Uno and Two. We had to then wait till 8:50 ....Testing Times ?! Waited 4 so long in the whole stupid GC process one more hour, no problemo till the few officers showed up to the lil glass cubicles. We were finger printed, PP stamped and signed the paper work ...you know the drill !Out by 9:20 Back at work by 10 am. Hope this helps.
BTW, Did spot some long faced Desi brothers who wanted Aishwarya Rai looks in their would be wife and also JAVA Certification getting their PP stamped alone. SANS Wifey .. But I am sure the AISH Search will continue
... no offense just 4 FUN :-(
My Details: VSC, EB2 India.
PD july-Aug \'98 I guess
RD and ND 01& 05 /11/1999
FP 03/10/2001
RFE 04/11/2001 RFE : Emp Letter for future employability and 3 paystubs.
RFE replied on 04/25/2001
RFE recieved by INS on 05/02/2001
AD 22 MAy AVM said approved both me and wife.
Approval post mark says Vermont 24 May
Approval Received by me and Lawyer 29 May.
http://www.indianembassy.org/consular/passport.pdf - has the PP form in PDF format (instructions in http://www.indianembassy.org/consular/ )
If 10 years are over and you need to fill application for a Passport Application (New), don\'t make the mistake of filling up Passport Renewal Application - it is only for PP that has less than 10 years expiry period the first time around. A local desi Professor also filled the wrong form, so be very careful.. thanks to nice wording by embassy web site Guru.
Passport Renewal documents given in Indian Embassy 05/29/2001 afternoon.
New PP and old PP returned the next day 05/30/2001 evening. They did a good job no goof ups and also stapled the loosely hanging I-94 Good Job Embassy !
Stamping Done on 05/31/2001 ...it is over for me, hey I can take up any "JOB" I want now !!! ( Hello Mc.D., Burger King Kmart, Walmart and local convenience stores..Yes I am available - Given the market condition that is where you can work... So chill guys, GC is not liberation or anything .. just another phase) You will all be stamping soon. The shore is at sight... so Relax. btw, In the true tradition of posting stamping details - Total Time for stamping less than 5 hours, like it matters ;-)