jimmyk

My wife (USC) and i are about to go to see the lovely folks at INS San Antonio.
She now has a good job and high income, i have proof that i am not subject to a j-1 2 year restriction and we have the $700 for all the pretty forms.
When we go and they see that i am currently 11 months past the expiration in my passport (oh i lost my I-94 and am filing the I-102 replacement) can i be shipped back to blighty??
Even though i have been told numerous times that an overstay is forgiven once married to a usc, i'm still a little nervous that the nazi in front of me will start laughing hysterically and candid camera will come out and make fun of the stupid englishman who walked straight into prison. Please help set my mind at ease, and long live mexico!
James.

Folinskyinla

James:

The INS are NOT "nazis". After all, the Nazi's had rules they had to follow.

That said, they don't arrest people at the filing windows at time of intial filing. If they do, you came in on a visa and that gets you a hearing before an Immigration Judge and she can grant the green card -- at the expense of a lot more time and expense to the GOVERNMENT. So they have better things to do.

BTW, you may not need the I-102 if there is an entry stamp in your passport and don't you have the IAP-66?

jimmyk

By the way i'm from britain, but i love mexico aswell, thought i'd make that clear.

Matthew Udall

Hi James,
During my recent INS Geek Quest tour of Texas, I happened to drop by the INS San Antonio office (I'm currently out of web storage space, so I have not posted the photo of it and link to a map to it yet). It took me a couple of minutes to identify which building housed the INS (my first assumption as to which building was not correct), so as you pull into the driveway (as you are coming in from being on the freeway), look to the brick highrise building on the left, not the brick highrise building on the right. The entrance is near the back corner (relative to the entrance of the driveway, and I think I remember a cyclone fensed in area near the entrance so that might help). Ah, you will find it.

Good luck with your dealings with INS.

Regards,
Matthew Udall

mjones

On Sat, 09 Nov 2002, jimmyk wrote:

    > the lovely folks at INS San Antonio.
    >$700 for all the pretty forms.
    >can i be shipped back to blighty??
    >a little nervous that the nazi in front of me
    >the stupid englishman who walked straight into prison.
    >long live mexico!

James,
San Antonio has an "attitude detector" incorporated into the screening gate :-)

If you tell them you are there to submit an application, you will likely be told
San Antonio doesn't take walk-in applications, please go away, next please.
But if you say you "need help" with an application you are "going to be filing",
you may get a number, sit down and wait please for an Information Officer.

You can discuss the application and the paperwork with this person, who will
then likely tell you the package looks good, but you have to mail it in.

If, at any point, the IO asks "are you in a hurry", say "no, I've got all day".
If they ask you "do you have some time", tell them "yes, I've got all day".
Those questions mean they are considering wasting more of their valuable time
with you.

This is a Critical Moment in the San Antonio office, and depends COMPLETELY on
your attitude and "friendly factor" because the IO can decide to have you sit
back down and wait for an Adjudications Officer, who are sometimes rotated into
the downstairs office, and who may accept your application.

Quite frankly, I think your attitude sucks, and your chance of pulling this off
is zero.
I do wish you luck, however.
Where are you in the hill country?
Mike
--
who knows this
office very well