Early FP done @ San Jose
Well, our (me and my wife) scheduled location is Oakland. Went there last saturday by
11 am (by BART) and found a hall full of people. The officer at the gate said that we
cannot do FP before the scheduled date and that if we cannot do it on the scheduled date
we should call INS and re-schedule, blah, blah.
But then we were so glad that we had Plan-B. Immediately Went to SFO center (again by BART)
and found it to be closed. Returned home empty handed ;-( Alas, we should have noted that
the SFO ASC center is in Broadway and is different from INS center in Washington.
Any way, we went to San Jose ASC center (740 Story Road) yesterday and got FP done. Found
that from Fremont, taking 680
is much better than 880+101. Take King Ave Exit in
680 and turn left in the exit. Go in King and turn right on Story. Look for a Taco Bell
on your left. The San Jose center is in a shopping complex (accross from Super K-mart)
where the Taco Bell is.
We reached there by 12:30 pm and left by 1 pm. There were only a couple of people in the
center. I doubt if the officer at the gate even checked our FP scheduled date. He just let
us in without a word. Gave us an yellow form to fill up after seeing our driver\'s license.
After the form is filled up we were each given a token number.
We both went to the (respective restrooms and washed our hands thoroughly. Just when I
came out my token was called. It was to a desi lady. She gave some lotion and asked me to
rub it over my palm and fingers. When it was a bit dry, she took impressions of all my
fingers. Then my wife came out of restroom and the desi lady asked her to wait next to her
machine and later did FP to my wife too. A supervisor was called to verify my FP recordings.
As soon as the supervisor Okayed the prints, it is sent to INS online, as I am told.
We were given a feedback ratings card to fill up. Our FP notices were taken away and were
told that the yellow form that we filled up at the beginning is our receipt. Since we
have already taken a Xerox copy of the FP notice, we did not have anything to worry about.
Just dropped the ratings card in the box meant for it and walked out.
The San Jose ASC center has 7 FP machines. All of them seems to be new. Everyone there
looked like an immigrant to me. Is that the reason for such a great service ?!
Would recommend anyone reading the experiences posed in the site (created and
maintained by Ciba) http://www.geocities.com/ciba_2/I485/WebCSC.htm under
"FBI FP check and Finger Print Experiences".
It is so good that we have finished our part. (Personally, I think we are doing a favour to INS
by doing FPs ahead of our schedule when there is not much of a crowd even it happens to be a different
center than the one we are scheduled for.) Guessing that it would take 10 days for FP info to be
updated to INS main systems after FBI checking and 2-4 months for the GC approval
(Can someone please tell how long it takes for approval these days ?). Then have to do PP
stamping and wait for the plastic. Huh, what a slloowww and exciting process ?
-- united win.