Passport Stamping Experiences

R

randomness

Registered Users (C)
I figure people could post their experiences in this thread rather than
start a fresh discussion for every PP stamping experience.

Here is my experience.

I was debating between going to SFO ( even though my notice said SJ ). In
the end decided to go to SJ at 8:30am, and if I didn\'t get a number try
SFO. If SFO did not work out, then I would go at 4am to SJ on Monday.

Anyway I stood in line from 8:30. At 9:30 the guard came round and took
the passport of the last person in line as a marker. Said that there
wouldn\'t be any numbers issued after that person.

I got in around 11:30 or so. Got my number around 12 noon. At 12:30
I asked if I could leave and come back ( since my ticket said estimated
wait 6hours 11 min! They said sure, just show the ticket. They
were processing A 40 at the time and mine was A 96. They only had
two windows open, and none of them were for the A queue.

Went home, picked up a book, called a friend, got lunch, had coffee and
then came back at around 2:40. Forgot to take into account that traffic
in the afternoon is much worse, plus there is construction going on
on Cutner Ave.

They were at A 84 but now there were 5 windows open and they were only
processing the A queue. My number got called around 2:55. Got out of
there by 3pm with a big grin on my face. Still cant wipe the grin off
my face.

I talked to one of the guards and the IIO. The guard said that about
2000 - 2500 people come through there in a day. The IIO said that each
IIO handles around 100 cases a day and there are 10 IIOs working.

I asked the IIO whether I could get a year stamp. She said no, they
are mailing out cards in around 3 months. In fact they are thinking
of reducing the stamp validity to 3 months. Lets just cross our fingers
and hope that we get the card soon.

The person in front of me got her GC approved in 2000, however they
messed up the address change and mailed the card to a nonon existent
address in Nov. She had previously come in person to verify her
address and her lawyer had faxed in a change of address form.
The IIO said she did not have the code to change the address, but gave
her the address change form and advised her to fax it every two weeks
till she gets her card!

BTW the queue varies every day, even the IIO said that it seemed to be
a fairly light day. The stamp is such an anticlimax. It looks like
something people could get made at Kinko\'s. I guess the entry in the
computer is what\'s important, but still at least they could generate
something like the new H1 visas. Oh well, its the INS.

Best of luck to everybody.
 
PP stamped at Santa Ana INS

It was fairly easy getting the PP stamped at Santa Ana.
I was given LA downtown INS but went to SA, less crowded!! no need to go early and stand in line!!!
got in at 9AM, & got out by 10AM
took i-94(all), EAD card, AP, 2 photos, of course PP.

Good Luck.
 
Stamping at San Francisco

Hello All ,
I finished my stamping at SF on March 11th.
Stamping was a smooth. Reached SF at 7:30 AM Parked at China Town Parking Garage on Kerney and Washington ($5 for 4 hours) Walked down 2 blocks on Washington . Entered INS from 630 Sansome St door (This is very important , DO NOT stand in line for Washing ton St door. 630 Sansome st is the right door for Appointment and Stamping cases as it\'s mentioned on the 485 Approval notice also.) At the door the security officer asked if we have an appointment, I showed him my 485 approval letter. He saw it\'s for room 200B ,he allowed us in. After security check went to 2nd floor ,room 200B put in our approval notices in the slot on the 200B door (7:45 AM) And waited for around 45 mins. At 8:30 they called our name on counter 18 . Took our Passport,photo\'s (Write your name and A# on the back of each photograph with pencil) ,EAD and AP. Asked us to wait for few mins , Then called us again on counter 19 took our fingerprints and signature. At around 9:00 AM called us again on counter 18 to collect our stamped passports.
The lady told us that we will get the plastic card in mail in 6-8 months. Came out of INS office at 9:05 AM.
They do not take cases from San Jose in SF . They sent back one desi couple for this reason in front of us.
Also do not park anywhere other than ChinaTown parking garage as all other nearby places are very very expensive. ChinaTown garage is just 2 blocks away opposite to the Holiday inn on Kerney and Washington.
Thanks for this advice from somebody on this board only.
 
Another Santa Ana PP stamping experience

Our approval notices indicated that we should go to the Los Angeles office for stamping. We decided to go to the Santa Ana office anyway based on other people\'s posting regarding not having a problem when they did the same (as Santa Ana is a whole lot closer to where we live than LA).

We reached the SA office at 8:40 AM on Monday. There is free parking for visitors opposite the Federal Bldg (where the INS office is located). There were about 20 people in the line outside the building. We were inside the building in 10 minutes. First stop - third floor, to get the tokens/tickets. Here we experienced our longest wait in the whole process which was about 25 to 30 minutes as there were about 12 or 13 people before us and only 2 IIOs to take care of everyone. When our turn came, we showed the IIO our documents and he handed us two tokens (for wife and I).

Second stop - Fifth floor. Once we entered the INS office on the 5th floor, we had to present our license (or any other form of ID) to the guard at the entrance. As soon as that was done I looked at the LED sign to see which number they were announcing and ours was right there, so we did not have to wait even for a few minutes and headed straight for the window indicated on the LED sign.

The IIO at the window looked at our documents (Approval Notices - courtesy copy only, Passport, AP - one copy only, EAD and only one I-94 (I did not give our white Arrival-Dep. record, just the I94 which was attached to my last H-1 visa). He took everything, then FP\'d us on both sides of some kind of signature document (which I guess they use for the actual card generation). The IIO also made a mistake while noting down my A# (since he had to note it down on both sides of this document). I asked him to show me the document and when he asked me why, I told him that I just wanted to look at something. I pointed out the mistake to him, which he promptly corrected (I would advise that you\'ll keep an eye on the IIO when he/she is entering your info on that signature card). Anyway, he took our signatures on both sides of this document as well. I asked him why he was not attaching my I-94 to the rest of my documents and he said that he was going to shred it. I then asked him whether he needed my white Arr/Dep record and he said, if you have it then give it to me, to which I responded that it was at home and he said that was no problem. He stamped our passports with the red stamp, signed it, put our A#s on it and the expiration date of one year from the date of stamping. After such a long wait for the GC, the stamp seems like a real anticlimax, especially the quality of the stamp. One would think that they would at least have made it a little fancier (maybe a photo or something), but I guess it is the A# on it which is important.

When I asked him about when we could expect the actual card, he said that it would take about six months. I finally asked him if there were any other documents he needed from us (beyond what we had given to him), to which he asked if there were any I needed to give to him and I said I don\'t think so and he said then you\'re all set!!!! and that was the end of it. Just to be doubly sure, when I asked him if we could travel based on the stamp, he said "Yes, you are permanent residents now". I guess that\'s when it really hit home that our long and arduous GC journey was really over.

We were out of the building at 9:45 am, so the whole process took about an hour. Very smooth and no hassles at all. Good luck to the rest of you who are waiting for your approvals. I will look forward to reading some of your jubilant messages on this board when you get them. This board has definitely been a great place to visit during our anxious waiting days.

Best of luck again and thanks to all!!!
 
No Title

Thanks guys for posting your experiences in one place.

Added this thread to next to Passport Stamping experiences in "Experiences" link of Summary pages.

-PCee
 
Original or Courtesy?

Did you do it with courtesy copy or original? Will they accept Courtesy copy?
 
Stamping at Santa Ana By jagan

All,
I got approval notice on wednesday and stamped my passport yesterday in santa ana although my approval said go to LA.

The experience is same as Anburan. It took only 20 minutes for the whole process. No questions asked.

I am posting Anburan experience here for information.

Good Luck everyone.

jagan

Stamping Experience Of Anburan:

Today I went for my stamping experience @ Santa Ana. I took with me

1. 2 Photos
2. I-94
3. All my expired and current one
4. APs (even though it was not mentioned)
5. EADS ( \'\')
6. Courtesy Copy.

I did not go there early. I reached INS office at 9:30 AM. Parking is across
the building and it is free.

In front of the building there are three lines. One for INS, one for IRS and
one for Social Security. Pl check with the guard which lines goes where.

As usual Security Check and went to the third floor. No one in the floor,
except a guard and counter staff. Got my token and went to 5th floor.

there were about 200 people waiting, but the display was showing one number
before me is being serviced. Within a minute, I was called and wentto the
counter. Gave her my passport, courtesy copy and Photos. She asked me my AP
and EADs. Since I want to retain it (if US changes the law and if I become
President, I want to donate the EAD and AP to the libarary.. heheheh), I
told here that I did not bring it here. She said if cannot attach the AP,
there might be queries before the issue of the card. Hence I told her "you
can give me the stamp and I will go and check my files in the car and if I
have it, I will bring it". She said ok, and stamped and FPed me and gave me
a slip so that I can come back.

Since I had all my stuff in my coat, I just went out of the floor and took
one AP (retained other AP and EAD card) and gave it back to her. She
attached my AP to my courtesy copy and said thats all.

The whole process took me from parking to exiting 12 minutes.

I do not know whether anyone gave back the EAD and both the AP notices...

Hope to get the card..

--amburan.

ADDRESS

34 Civic Center Plaza
Federal Building
Santa Ana, CA. 92701
Office hours: 7:00 AM to 4:00 PM, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. On
Thursday, the office is open from 7:00AM to 12:00 Noon.
Search for field offices INS URL and you will get any office you are
interested in.
 
my passport is stamped ????

I had my passport stamped in the new york city office on feb 15th 2002. I got in the mail today what i think is a clerical error asking me to come on april 12th and bring my passport and copies of my documents. This form is called a G-56. It says to ask for an adjustment of status officer with a specific name mentioned. Does anyone know what this is for? or is this a clerical error. I was approved and recieved a letter on december 31, 2001.

Please help?? very stressed out by clerical errors, not the first error made in my case.
 
Baldev Raj malhotra : Passport Stamped in LA INS : took 5 hours

Passport Stamped in LA INS : took 5 hours
Baldev Raj malhotra - 05:39pm May 17, 2002 EST

My wife and I have got our passports stamped yesterday (Thursday May 16,2002) at the LA INS office.

-We parked the car at the Temple Street Parking lot. $6.60 for whole day.

-We went straight to rm 2050 (thanks to other posts) thru the main entrance and got there by 9:30am. Just show the driver\'s license and they will let you in. After we gave the original copies of the approval to the security guard at the door of rm 2050, we waited for almost 5 hours before our names are called. Then the stamping, finger printing took about 15 minutes.

-our original copies of the approval notice were taken by the officer, they gave us back the copies.

-the officer asked us for the ADIT style photographs. We had got them done earlier. The officer was happy to see that these were per specifications. (perhaps because earlier two families did not have photographs or these were not per specifications)

-the delay was mainly due to a large number of applicants who had turned up that day. The officer mentioned that the previous day (Wednesday), there were half the number of applicants.

-it looks like there were only 2 officers working on pp stamping in that room. There must have been at least 50 people waiting. Some of them that came in late (at around 10 to 11am).

-be sure to ask the security guard which window is doing the pp stamp because there may be other officers doing something else (AP or I-130). The room is big and it is hard to hear what names are called if you are not sitting close to the officer who is calling the names for pp stamping.

-pictures can be taken on the third floor if you need to do it in the last minute.

In hind sight it may be better to go to Santa Ana INS, because most of the posts have stated that the applicants took a total of only 30 minutes to get their passports stamped.

altima "Passport Stamped in LA INS : took 5 hours" 5/17/02 7:29pm
 
Phoenix stamping experience (Thread)

mlmg "Phoenix stamping experience" 5/16/02 3:49pm
 
passport STamping at SFO (Pls post here) -Thread

Ram Mummidi "passport STamping at SFO (Pls post here)" 5/16/02 12:56pm
 
Another thread with SFO stamping experiences...

morpheous "Any recent PP stamping experience @ SFO please post your details here!!!" 6/24/02 7:58pm
-PCee
 
sarmad: My Sacramento FP experience

My Sacramento FP experience
sarmad - 02:00pm Mar 24, 2002 EST

- FP scheduled for Sat, Mar 23, at 2pm at the Sacramento INS ASC.
- got to the ASC (731 K St) around 1:10pm and parked on the street.
- there\'s plenty of street parking around the area or you can always park at the downtown plaza garage.
- there\'s a security officer right inside the entrance who\'ll check your original fingerprint notice and a photo ID. he gives you an informational form to fill out. on that, you fill out your basic information including A# and reason for fingerprints (I-485 for me).
- after you\'ve filled that out, you give the form, your fingerprint notice, and photo ID to another person sitting right down from the security officer (it\'s all just one small room so you can\'t really get lost).
- she\'ll clip your info sheet, FP notice, photo ID, and a ticket number together and give everything back to you. all you have to do now is wait for your ticket number to be called. when she saw that i was using my california driver\'s license as a photo ID, she asked me for my EAD and i told her i hadn\'t received it yet. she was okay with that... although i guess your EAD is the photo ID of choice for INS. but as i said, driver\'s license is no problem (it even says so on the FP notice).
- there\'re four FP machines in one corner of the room and you can see the whole process as you wait. when it\'s your turn, they give you hand sanitizers and then take your FP (4 left fingers, 4 right fingers, left thumb, right thumb, then all individual fingers). the machine actually detects ridge breaks and other technical problems right there which was kinda cool.
- the FP person kept the original FP notice and filled out the bottom part of the informational sheet (with date, employee number, etc). she gives that to you to keep. she also gives you a comment card to fill out which you can drop in a box on the way out.
- i was out of the ASC by 1:45pm. all in all, a very pleasant experience.

while i didn\'t do an early FP, there weren\'t that many people at the Sacramento ASC. so i\'m fairly sure an early FP is not a problem if you just show up there.

hope that helps!

sonofindia "My Sacramento FP experience" 4/2/02 5:15pm
 
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