pp stamping experience in Charlotte??

J

Jan485

Registered Users (C)
Could anybody share his/her passport stamping experience in Charlotte, NC?

1. When did you get there on what day? I thought they used to open Tues - Sat, but looks like they now open M-F.
2. Is courtesy copy enough for stamping? I know people have been having this discussion for a while and the answer seems to be 'yes'. Just wanted to check if it is ok there.
3. What are the documents that are needed? I heard people taking everything used to file the application... Is that really neccessary?
4. I just got the curtesy copy, planning to go next Tuesday. There are two locations. Which one did you go? The application service center (Woodlawn) where FPs are taken or the sub office (Tyvola Center Dr.)?

5. Anything else?

I know there's not a good chance for people visiting this site after pp stamping, but I do hope somebody would provide some info. Your time is really appreciated!
 
Thanks Anajoti very much!

You are soooooo nice! So many nice people make this forum so special...
 
Charlotte Passport Stamping on April 23, 2004

1. You have to go to Tyvoal Center Drive

2. The only documents I had was the coourtesy and lawyer copy, passport, all EAd & AP ( I was missing one somewhere but no one asked).

3. Process:

Reached the office at 6AM. There were 17 people ahead in the line.
Around 7:05, they called in the peope with appointments and repeated this till 7:30

At 7:30 they let us in. Went through security. No food and drinks allowed inside and the cell phone has to be turned off

Once I talked to the person on front desk, she issued me a 'B' ticket. Other people had A., C, D tickets depending upon what they went there for

She directed me to a big room which was quite comfortable. The tickets were displayed on a big screen and also each window displayed the ticket called. I sat comfortably and read the newspaper which I took with me :)

There were three windows working. I was called around 8:45AM.

The only papers I submitted were the 2 pictures, passport, EAD and the notice of approval. The officer took 2 signatures and finger prints. She told me to wait for a few minutes and she will call by name.

At 9:05AM, I was called. She provided the passport with the stamp and explained that I will probably get the card in a year or more. So if this stamp expires before that, I should revisit the office.

As someone else mentioned in this forum, it takes around 3 hours. When I came out of the office, I observed there was no line. So I could have gone in at 9AM without waiting outside. However, there were lot of people waiting inside, so I am not sure how it will go.

My suggestion would be to go early. Also, advisable to wear a ligt jacket. Overall, a very smooth experience.

Ash
 
Thanks folks for the wonderful postings!

They are all very helpful! Special thanks to patelam8 for replying this thread with a fresh experience! Those were quite a few typing right after having to get up early and spend 3+ hours there - you must live in Charlotte.
Thanks all again! I'll defenitely share my experience with the nice fellow visitors to this forum once my stamping's done.
 
As promised...

We had our pp stamping done yesterday...I was too tired to type anything last night after we got home.

Anyway, here's how it went:

Left home (North Raleigh) @6:00 AM, never stoped but traffic was terrible starting around exit 60 (I-85) and it was about 10 min before 8 am all the way to the office. The good part of the driving that we liked was the new way to get to I-85 from I-40/85 - it used to be in Greensboro until at leat 2 months ago when I had to go to Charlotte to get my iEAD.
It was 9:35am when we got our numbers, estimated wait time was 2.5 hours - not bad, we thought, if we could get out there by, say, 12:30 to 1:00pm...
But there were only 2 officers working on 2 of the 8 windows at the time we got into the big waiting room. Only 1 was working by around 11:00. Just like patelam8 mentoned, we got 'B' numbers but we didn't see a single 'B' number got called until around 1:00 ! Oh actually no number was called between 12-1 and we were NOT informed anything like officers were at lunch and we could have a break - go get something to eat or drink etc. Poor us!
Finally our number was called around 2:00pm! The stamping process was pretty smooth. All we submitted were passports with I-94 stapled, approval notices (Courtesy copies), 2 photos and some of our APs/EADs which the officer didn't seem to care - actually I saw one couple didn't have any of their APs/EADs with them and were told to just destroy those. Each of us gave 2 signatures and right-hand index finger print. We were told to wait about 30 min for security check. We got our stamped pp back by 2:35pm which was exactly 5 hours after we got our numbers! - the lady officer at the front desk gave each of us a number, but both of us approached the window when the first number got called just like what everybody else would do.
We finally had some food on the way back home. It was about 6:30pm when we got home - relieved and tired. The new wait - for the plastic card (which could be over a year nowadays as we were told) - had just begun!

Thanks everybody once again and good luck to all!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top