I have seen subjects of earlier posts saying - "Successfull stamping at .....". I'm not sure successfull is the right word unless it is post an interview. From my experience, stamping was a routine procedure for an already approved case.
Other INS centers might be not as busy, but anyone going to the NYC office needs to get there fairly early. This does not mean you get there at 4-5 am. We got there at about 6:45am and were about sixth in line. By 7:30am when the doors openned, there were about 175-200 people behind us. Although, they were not all for stamping. Some had other interview calls, other official work. Once inside the building, the line does not matter as everyone has to go to different rooms.
On the notice, it said go to room 1-120. This is incorrect. You need to go to room 300 on the third floor. Someone else had mentioned this already in an earlier post, but I guess I was skeptical as I usually am. The rest was a piece of cake. Handed over the approval notice to a nice lady. We were second in line at room 300. People ahead of us in the outside line got lost and came in fifth / sixth. 10 minutes later, called us to a window, asked for passport, I-94, EAD and photo's. Took our index finger print on form I-89 along with our signature and then asked us to wait. This wait was for more than an hour. I guess this is when they did the security check. After that, called our names out (barely audible and mis-pronounced as usual
), asked us if we were still staying at the same address, completed details on form I-89 and stamped the passsport with a validity of one year. Said we can use that to travel, work, everything that you could do with the physical card.
That's it. We were free by 9:30am. Went straight to Jai Ya Thai, a favorite thai restaurant to celebrate. Ironically, although I expected to see quite a few Indians for stamping (from quotes of others, especially from the Newark location), there were only two families. The room had people for stamping from other areas as well including family based, asylum approved etc.
Just thought I'd pen my experience for the benefit of others.
Other INS centers might be not as busy, but anyone going to the NYC office needs to get there fairly early. This does not mean you get there at 4-5 am. We got there at about 6:45am and were about sixth in line. By 7:30am when the doors openned, there were about 175-200 people behind us. Although, they were not all for stamping. Some had other interview calls, other official work. Once inside the building, the line does not matter as everyone has to go to different rooms.
On the notice, it said go to room 1-120. This is incorrect. You need to go to room 300 on the third floor. Someone else had mentioned this already in an earlier post, but I guess I was skeptical as I usually am. The rest was a piece of cake. Handed over the approval notice to a nice lady. We were second in line at room 300. People ahead of us in the outside line got lost and came in fifth / sixth. 10 minutes later, called us to a window, asked for passport, I-94, EAD and photo's. Took our index finger print on form I-89 along with our signature and then asked us to wait. This wait was for more than an hour. I guess this is when they did the security check. After that, called our names out (barely audible and mis-pronounced as usual
), asked us if we were still staying at the same address, completed details on form I-89 and stamped the passsport with a validity of one year. Said we can use that to travel, work, everything that you could do with the physical card. That's it. We were free by 9:30am. Went straight to Jai Ya Thai, a favorite thai restaurant to celebrate. Ironically, although I expected to see quite a few Indians for stamping (from quotes of others, especially from the Newark location), there were only two families. The room had people for stamping from other areas as well including family based, asylum approved etc.
Just thought I'd pen my experience for the benefit of others.
Last edited by a moderator: