• Hello Members, This forums is for DV lottery visas only. For other immigration related questions, please go to our forums home page, find the related forum and post it there.

Where or when do you select the point of entry during the process?

S

samershahin

Registered Users (C)
friends, Where or when do you select the point of entry during the process? i have seen some of the guys have selected the point of entry in their signature, is it a free of choice during the Interview? any hint/idea?
 
samershahin said:
friends, Where or when do you select the point of entry during the process? i have seen some of the guys have selected the point of entry in their signature, is it a free of choice during the Interview? any hint/idea?
Click to expand...

Hey,
I think you will be able to enter wherever you want. However it would be safer to enter in big cities (meaning big airports).
Regards
 
gelb said:
Hey,
I think you will be able to enter wherever you want. However it would be safer to enter in big cities (meaning big airports).
Regards
Click to expand...

Can you explain why you think it's "safer" in big airports? (I'm not really aware of any smaller ones that would be an international POE anyway but just curious about this comment.)

To OP, entirely up to you to decide. We hadn't even decided on ours till a few weeks after the interview. The POE is just the first airport (or other border crossing if you're coming from Canada or Mexico) you go through on entry into the US.
 
samershahin said:
friends, Where or when do you select the point of entry during the process? i have seen some of the guys have selected the point of entry in their signature, is it a free of choice during the Interview? any hint/idea?
Click to expand...

There is no hard and fast rule as to what your port of entry will be and neither do you have to pick it at the interview but if you're asked what port of entry you'll go through then you can simply just say so.

For example, I will be living in Macungie (a small township near the city of Allentown in Pennsylvania) however the "international airport" there (Lehigh Valley International Airport) isn't really an international airport literally because its 99.99% (and 0.5% birds and 0.5% helicopters lol) domestic flights so I'd either enter through JFK and drive three hours to Macungie, or in this instance for the DV Lottery, I am entering through Washington Dulles and then driving three hours the other way to Macungie.

gelb is right that it is preferable (not safer I might add; what constitutes "safe?") to enter through a major airport/hub/city - well how would one define big airports one might ask? Charlotte Airport is massive as are San Diego, Orlando, Las Vegas, LA etc. It comes down to where there is international traffic i.e. foreign based carriers flying in.

Remember some airports don't necessarily have immigration officers to open your sealed envelope and give you an entry stamp (like Lehigh Valley Airport which I mentioned above is one small building where you just hop off the plane and get out of the airport) and airports like Sanford International Airport in Florida is also a tiny airport, so "pick" properly your port of entry.

Speaking from experience and from what I have heard of others experiences (again I am open to being corrected by other members) - the norm is to land at a major port of entry (e.g. JFK, LA, Atlanta, Orlando, San Francisco, Dallas Fort Worth, Las Vegas etc.) then once you clear immigration (with your DV envelope being opened up and your passport stamped), you exit the building (don't forget your luggage lol), cross over to the check-in building for the respective domestic airline you're flying and check-in again.

For example - I was heading to Atlanta and flew into JFK (flying with Emirates from Dubai) as my first port of entry then and went through the normal immigration procedures and picked up my bags, exited the building and crossed over to the check-in building for my domestic flight to Atlanta through Delta Airlines (pain in the neck exercise but that's just how it was).

If you're planning to go via transit to your final destination (man that movie was freaky lol) e.g. land at JFK and fly domestically to let us say to John Wayne Airport (OC, California - which doesn't service international flights) then JFK would be your port of entry.


Forum members, please correct me if I am mistaken on the above in any way.




Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
 
Momo, I don't disagree with your post, except that any airport which has international flights landing (i.e. is a point of entry into the US) must have immigration officers, so I don't quite understand the point you're making there. Are you trying to say some immigration officers don't know how to deal with immigrants? (Being as any immigrant has a pack, not just DV winners) - I find that hard to believe.
 
Your POE is whatever one is most convenient for you. If there are a few choices, most people pick the one where they can get the cheapest flight to.
 
Thanks Dears, so the POE, is a matter of personal opinion idont have to select that before interview or during the interview if the CO asks about that?
 
SusieQQQ said:
Momo, I don't disagree with your post, except that any airport which has international flights landing (i.e. is a point of entry into the US) must have immigration officers, so I don't quite understand the point you're making there. Are you trying to say some immigration officers don't know how to deal with immigrants? (Being as any immigrant has a pack, not just DV winners) - I find that hard to believe.
Click to expand...

Perhaps I should rephrase what I wrote.

What I meant to say (from what I saw when moving around in the USA) was that some of the smaller airports (which don't receive international carriers) in the USA don't have Customs & Border Control/immigration officers/passport control as opposed to the larger ones (which do receive international carriers).

They're practically just like small bus stops (if you've been to London think Harrow-On-The-Hill Bus Station vis-a-vis a small bus stop on the side of some road if you get what I mean).

I wasn't saying that immigration officers don't know how to deal with immigrants DV based or otherwise.

Correct me if I am mistaken in my understanding but isn't the physical port of entry the place where we as DV entrants physically go through and have their passport stamped to be allowed to enter the US? Or is the port of entry simply defined as the airport we first enter?




Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
 
Momo1980 said:
Perhaps I should rephrase what I wrote.

What I meant to say (from what I saw when moving around in the USA) was that some of the smaller airports (which don't receive international carriers) in the USA don't have Customs & Border Control/immigration officers/passport control as opposed to the larger ones (which do receive international carriers).

They're practically just like small bus stops (if you've been to London think Harrow-On-The-Hill Bus Station vis-a-vis a small bus stop on the side of some road if you get what I mean).

I wasn't saying that immigration officers don't know how to deal with immigrants DV based or otherwise.

Correct me if I am mistaken in my understanding but isn't the physical port of entry the place where we as DV entrants physically go through and have their passport stamped to be allowed to enter the US? Or is the port of entry simply defined as the airport we first enter?
Click to expand...

Port of entry is simply the airport through which you enter first. So if you are flying to Nowheresville International Airport (which is an international airport in name only because it never gets international flights) but getting a connecting flight from say JFK where you land first, your POE is JFK - you will go through immigration at JFK and they do all the stuff. (This is true for any visitor, not just immigrants of course.)

So people who are getting connecting flights onward from where they first land need to be sure they leave enough time, probably at least four hours, to clear immigration and make the connection. Longest immigration queue I've been in the US has been over 2 hours (JFK just before Christmas...) but I understand once you get to the front of the queue it can easily take another hour for them to process you if you have an immigrant pack.
 
SusieQQQ said:
Port of entry is simply the airport through which you enter first. So if you are flying to Nowheresville International Airport (which is an international airport in name only because it never gets international flights) but getting a connecting flight from say JFK where you land first, your POE is JFK - you will go through immigration at JFK and they do all the stuff. (This is true for any visitor, not just immigrants of course.)

So people who are getting connecting flights onward from where they first land need to be sure they leave enough time, probably at least four hours, to clear immigration and make the connection. Longest immigration queue I've been in the US has been over 2 hours (JFK just before Christmas...) but I understand once you get to the front of the queue it can easily take another hour for them to process you if you have an immigrant pack.
Click to expand...

Thats what I meant SusieQQQ in that where we first enter and get our passports stamped and envelopes opened by US Customs & Border Protection is the physical port of entry.

In relation to the connecting flights that's what I was trying to get at in that once people land at the port of entry and leave the building, they then have to then check-in again for connecting flights to whatever smaller airport they are heading to (although I forgot to mention the time factor allowance as you mention it).

Fortunately I've never been at JFK for more than one hour including queue and baggage collection. Prior to JFK I used to fly into Newark because it saved so much time in driving but this was before KLM jacked up their rates.

If landing at Newark, it was straight onto Interstate 78W and into Pennsylvania within an hour and a half at most. With JFK, I'd have to go all the way around Belt Parkway (which I HATE driving through), Verrazano and into New Jersey and then into Pennsylvania which is a three hour drive. Only plus point was the view of the Manhattan skyline :)

This will be my first flight into Washington Dulles and I land on a Sunday so I hope it'll not be too crowded.


Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
 
My dad lives in Queens so JFK is way more convenient than Newark! We did fly out of Newark once and it was a real pain to get there. Also maybe just the time/time of year we were but the security queues to leave took about an hour...!

Have flown out of Dulles but not into it so no idea re the queues in. The airport as a whole seemed pretty efficient though.
 
SusieQQQ said:
My dad lives in Queens so JFK is way more convenient than Newark! We did fly out of Newark once and it was a real pain to get there. Also maybe just the time/time of year we were but the security queues to leave took about an hour...!

Have flown out of Dulles but not into it so no idea re the queues in. The airport as a whole seemed pretty efficient though.
Click to expand...

My mother and I are landing at Washington Dulles on Sunday morning and schools should have already started so I hope it won't be too crazy and things will go smoothly.

First things first, I hope to get through on August 7th at the embassy...its like time was an eternity when I got selected last year and now the three weeks leading up to the interview seem like an eternity.

I also suppose that having prepared everything so early has left me with nothing to do but work and try to pass the time as it is also Ramadan...


Case No - DV2013AF0007XXXX (applied the first time and got it the first time - lucky me!)
Entry Checked - 1st May 2012
Forms Sent To KCC - 10th May 2012
Received By KCC - 12th May 2012
Confirmation From KCC - 25th May 2012 after I sent them an email
2nd NL - 14th June 2013
Police Clearance (TZ) - 13th June 2013
Police Clearance (UK) - 21st June 2013
Medicals - Completed 24th June 2013
Interview - Wednesday, August 7th 2013 @ 8am - US Embassy Tanzania
Visa Pick up - Hopefully August 11th 2013
Departure Date - August 17th 2013
Port of Entry - Washington Dulles
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top