LandOfLincoln

Thought I would add to the catalogue of POE experiences for any about to take the final immigration step.

Landed at JFK at about 10:30PM local time, despite being quite late off the plane (lost a pen and had to go hunting for it under the seat) the CBP hall was not very busy, we must have been the only flight at that time.

I asked one of the people in uniform which line I should stand in as a UK citizen immigrating with an IR-1 visa, travelling with my USC wife, and I was directed to the "visas" line. What a shabby, run-down terminal T7 is! I know they plan to fix some of the departure side but the arrivals experience is equally grim at present!

Waited all of 3 minutes to be called forward by a very bored-looking CBP agent. Said that I was immigrating on an IR-1 with my USC wife and he processed her quickly, barely bothering to make eye contact. I handed over the precious white envelope of doom and he ripped it open, rifled through the papers and said "where's your medical information"? I looked confused and said "That's all the embassy gave me, aside from my chest c-ray which I have here". He grunted, waved it off and went through the stack of paperwork again until he found what he was looking for on the second attempt. He confirmed my future address in Texas (mispronouncing the easy-to-say town name). Again barely making eye contact he scanned my four fingerprints and then stamped the visa and wrote a squiggle which looks like a hybrid of "IR1" and "CR1". I thought that was a bit dodgy so I asked to confirm "that's an IR-1, right?" and he said "yeah. You're done." No welcome to America, no congratulations. Not even a "welcome home" for my USC wife, as she always gets when we land back in Texas (DFW or IAH being our usual ports of entry). But then this is New York, where people seem to take pride in being mean

The CBP officer tossed my white envelope and paperwork on a stack of rather forgotten-about looking papers next to the waste paper bin in his cubicle, so I hoped they would reach their necessary destination for filing/processing!

From joining the immigration queue to being through the other side as a newly minted US permanent resident took all of six minutes. No secondary inspection (though I did see some other people languishing in that shabby looking room to the right of the hall), not a single question asked besides confirming my address. To be honest it felt incredibly anticlimactic and since we were only in New York for a week to see my in-laws before returning to the UK for 3 months to tie up loose ends I still don't feel much different. I did find myself keep looking at the stamped visa in my passport though (with some annoyance that the officer couldn't write "IR-1" clearly, not that it should matter) to remind myself that it was real, having longed to move to America since my early teenage years!

Once home in London, we got a call on 15th December from my sister-in-law who said that a letter had already arrived with my social security card (one of my middle names missing a letter - fantastic). Great to get the number so very quickly (activating the IR-1 and generating the social security number being half the point of our trip), but annoying that I'll now have to deal with the social security office to get it corrected. Hoping the error is not replicated on the green card!

The USCIS website shows my I-551 green card case status was updated on 7th December. I paid the immigrant fee back in October so hopefully the physical green card will be on the way soon, too.

Many thanks to all who have taken the time to respond to my panicked questions, and the countless more of you whose accumulated wisdom helped me as I read your posts and navigated the process! I will remain active on this site as our new life in America gets underway next year.

Now the 3-year wait for citizenship (gutted that I'll just miss the 2020 presidential election!)

Jamackabi

Congratulations! Happy to hear you made it and your experience was uneventful, even if it was anticlimactic!

LandOfLincoln

Many thanks! I hope that your immigration journey continues to progress speedily too!

Rete

I'm thrilled that you found a way to immigrate to the US. BTW as a native New Yorker, we are far from mean. I will take it nicely as you did wink.

KK85

It's quite remarkable how greatly our POE experiences differ when we're all going through such similar (or even identical, on paper) processes. Look how quickly you got through, compared to my migraine-inducing three hours! I've sometimes wondered why some of us get shuffled straight to secondary with nary a question asked, while others have experiences similar to yours. Maybe it's a case of some CBP officers being trained, or not, to handle certain types of visas, or maybe it has something to do with queue times or similar. Maybe somebody here will know!

Regardless, welcome! And hoorah! I'm glad your SSN arrived speedily, spelling errors 'n' all (fingers crossed your visit to the SSA office can be brief and fruitful), and I'll look forward to seeing you on the boards and hearing how you settle once you're back Stateside in the new year.

Have a lovely Christmas!

LandOfLincoln

Thank you all for your very kind replies!

Rete - thank you, and yes, my New Yorker comment was absolutely meant in the spirit of friendly jest! "Mean" was probably the wrong word anyway, I meant to convey that businesslike, no-nonsense brusqueness that (to my mind) is seen as typical of denizens of that city. Funny story: my wife and I (both London-dwellers and well used to urban life) sometimes get a bit impatient with slower tourists who don't move at the pace of the city, yet it took me a good two days to get up to New York speed myself. When the taxi from the airport arrived at our hotel I was still fumbling in my wallet for change when I saw that the person sitting next to me was no longer my wife but some random guy who had taxi-jacked my ride before I had even left the vehicle! Quintessential New York, but you'd get stares if you attempted to do the same with a black cab in London!

KK85 - Yes, isn't it strange how two experiences of the same bureaucracy in the same location can be so different. I was wondering all manner of things, like whether the fact I had entered my visa number when booking my BA flight had given CBP some kind of heads-up on my arrival so that I didn't have to go to secondary inspection. I too would be very interested to hear from anybody with inside knowledge how these things work, but I'm very grateful that my experience was smooth and sorry that yours was such a lengthy trial! Still, at least we all ended up with the same positive result

More follow-up information on the paperwork: I got an email from USCIS yesterday morning saying "USCIS has taken action on your application, petition or request and updated your account. Please access your account to view the update."

I logged in and saw that the "last updated" date on my case had changed from 7 December (two days after my POE) to 19 December, but at that time there was no record in the "Documents" section of any correspondence which had been sent to me, and the status still said "In Process".

Under "Documents" it says "These are copies of the USCIS letters that we mail to you. If you do not see one of your letters below, check back in a few days." There is currently no letter visible but I'm wondering if this means the Green Card has now been printed and is about to be dispatched. I'm not sure what other interim update to my status there would be, since I already have the SSN. Does anybody who has been through the process and tracked their I-551 status on the USCIS website have any insights? I'm sure I will find out in the fullness of time, but in the meantime I am curious!

Rete

USCIS does not deal with SSN's

Twinkle0927

I spent 2.5 hours in secondary when I arrived with my IR-1 exactly one year ago today. I had a very friendly employee on the desk in the main hall who explained that they don't always send new immigrants to secondary, only when the lines and wait times in the main hall reach a certain level. December 19 last year at Las Vegas airport - I think the whole world was there. Even after my 2.5 hours in secondary there were people from my flight in the visitor queue that were only just being processed.

Visa numbers are always entered into the PNR pre-flight. It's a requirement that commercial airlines provide this info for flights to the US - either the visa number or an exemption category code (USC, LPR, VWP, etc) must be entered before a boarding pass can be generated.

KK85

This is interesting and makes lots of sense. I was in the queue to see a CBP officer for 1.5 hours, and then sat in secondary for another 1.5. While queuing to see the CBP, a staff announcement came on to say that those who had been there for overtime (I can't be certain whether the word 'mandatory' preceded it, but I feel like it did) could now leave, so I imagine that contributed to the wait times and perhaps my being sent to secondary, too.

rpjs

When I immigrated through JFK T7 seven long years ago, I got sent to a dedicated "New Immigrants" secondary processing area. There a CBP agent filled out a form onto which I had to give a single fingerprint (with ink!) and my signature. From the brief glance I got of the form, I got the impression that this was something to do with actually getting my Green Card produced.

Now that there is a separate step (and fee) to do that between getting the visa and immigrating, I guess that specific need for a secondary inspection for IV holders has gone away. Yet we still hear of people at other POEs but JFK having to go through secondary on their IVs.

ETA: also IME I would say that New Yorkers are friendlier than Londoners on the whole.

viitav

LOL! I think New Yorkers are a LOT nicer then us Londoners.. Especially after living and working here for two months I can certainly confirm.

I paid my greencard fee two weeks ago and my card arrived maybe 2 days ago - super speedy!

I too arrived to JFK and it was a very unexciting experience lol.. But WELCOME!

Pete_Maz

I took about an hour to get through secondary at McCarron in Las Vegas last September. I just had to wait my turn to be seen and the immigration officer was perfectly polite to me (unlike several dozen Mexicans who he was pretty rude to!). I guess it's his job to suss out the legitimate from the non-legit travellers!

Sean81

I paid the green card fee the night before my POE into JFK. I arrived on November 17th and my green card arrived in the mail on December 14th. My SS card had arrived on the 29th of November, so it was all pretty speedy for me, thankfully.

Good luck.

KK85

I know YMMV applies here, but I'm starting to feel all the more convinced that there's going to be some kind of error/delay in the sending/receipt of my green card. They lost my paperwork in secondary, then were quite uncertain and noncommittal when it came to answering my questions about what name the card would be issued in, and told me I'd paid the fee already when I hadn't... I just have a feeling in my bones that something's gone wrong. I paid the fee one week after arriving (so four weeks ago) and everyone else seems to be receiving their green cards quite quickly.

The USCIS website won't let me log in to my account due to 'inactivity' (it has said as much and asked me to re-set my password every single time I've logged in, for months), so I've not checked for any change in status yet. But we'll see - I'll give it six months before I start worrying.

md95065

Either get the spelling of your name fixed on your Social Security card or change your name to be the misspelled version. If you don't it will be a recurring pain every time someone tries to verify your identity.