Kristin

My fiance used his K-1 yesterday at the Port Huron/Sarnia POE (the Blue
Water Bridge). The short story is that he got his work authorization
(they wrote it on the back of his I-94, along with his A#). He is
authorized for work through January 19. He also got all of his
belongings admitted no problem.

The long story: we pulled into the border at 2:30 and told the agent
at the gate that we had a K-1 visa, and she asked a few questions, and
said, okay, go ahead. She was just going to admit him! LOL. I said "he
needs to process his paperwork, and she's like "Oh! Well, you need
secondary inspection." DUH.

We knew that we wanted them to write his A# in the passport because for
some reason Montreal hadn't. We got a really knowledgeable agent (as
opposed to another guy who was completely clueless who helped the people
next to us). So as she was looking through his paperwork, I said, "He
has an A#" and she started to look for it. It was written on the
approval from Montreal, plus Serge had a copy of the original I-797
approval, so she looked at that, and wrote it on the I-94.

Then she took his paperwork back to her computer, and we waited. While
waiting, a woman with two kids came in for inspection. She got the
clueless guy. :-( She was a fiance, too, but didn't really understand
anything about what was going on. She was not using the K-1, hadn't
gotten the approval from Nebraska, even though she filed in July, and
was driving her fiance's car. Another agent walked up and said she'd
been there before and that he thought she was basically living here, but
the agent pretty much ignored him. He stated several times that she
should have been approved by now, like he didn't believe she hadn't
been, or something. She said they had called the INS but couldn't even
find out what was going on, which all of us know is now standard
operating procedure for Nebraska. I felt really bad for her. He said he
couldn't tell her the status of her petition either. After about five
minutes, they let her through.

The agent working on our K-1 came back and asked for $6 US for the I-94.
and gave us a receipt. She also printed the receipt on the I-94 and said
we were all set. I said "did you give him work authorization?" and she
flipped over the I-94 and there it was, hand-written on the back of his
I-94, along with his A#. She said "get to work, young man!" and laughed
and he said, "but I want to be a mooch!" And we all laughed.

She sent us over to Customs, which is the right hand side of the counter
(INS is the left hand side). The agent there asked a few questions and
stamped my fiance's carefully crafted lists of what he was bringing
(just the stuff he didn't have the movers bring, and a bunch of things
for the wedding). We were out of there in about 10 minutes. I will
ALWAYS love the Blue Water Bridge and I highly recommend it as a border
crossing.

One other thing - we had most of his stuff (furniture, etc.) shipped via
Corrigan moving. They were not able to send it over the border on
Friday without a copy of his I-94, so it spent the weekend in Windsor
instead of in Detroit. Last night we faxed them a copy of the I-94 and
his passport, so if all goes well today at the border, his stuff will be
here this afternoon.

Our timeline:
February 6, 2002: I-129F petition mailed to Nebraska
February 21, 2002 - First NOA
April 5, 2002: RFE
April 19, 2002: NSC receives requested info, per automated system
May 3, 2002: Second NOA, per automated system
May 23, 2002: Packet 3 received from Montreal
June 25, 2002: Checklist returned to Montreal
July 9, 2002: Interview date received
July 26, 2002: Successful interview in Montreal
October 20, 202: Entered on K-1 via Port Huron; work authorization
received

Rete

Congratulations. Your experience was standard for Can/Am crossings ;-) I have a few comments to your post for future readers:

1. Montreal does NOT write the A# in the passport. The Agent at the POE does that so it is good to remember to remind them to do so.

2. Shipping companies CANNOT cross the border with your goods without your I-94 to show to customs. The I-94 is what gives the right to import goods without duty.

3. A handwritten EAD is great but not necessary workable. Anyone can write it on the I-94 so unless the agent initials it and/or uses the official work authorization stamp, anticipate a problem with either the SSA or with a prospective employer.

And could you post the POE result on the official POE site for us?

http://www.k1poelist.com/

Thanks so much

Rete

Saifullah Khan Ghori

Rete,
I just checked my K-1 visa. In the annotations section it has the following:-
(1) Saba's full name
(2) The EAC-02-241-xxxxx number that VSC had assigned our I-129F
(3) The 4 month expiry date of the approved petition
(4) My A-xx-xxx-xxx number which was given on the petition approval

So I guess Montreal has recently started writing the A#.

Saba and Saif.

Rete wrote in message news:...
    > Congratulations. Your experience was standard for Can/Am crossings ;-)
    > I have a few comments to your post for future readers:
    > 1. Montreal does NOT write the A# in the passport. The Agent at the
    > POE does that so it is good to remember to remind them to do so.
    > 2. Shipping companies CANNOT cross the border with your goods without
    > your I-94 to show to customs. The I-94 is what gives the right to
    > import goods without duty.
    > 3. A handwritten EAD is great but not necessary workable. Anyone can
    > write it on the I-94 so unless the agent initials it and/or uses the
    > official work authorization stamp, anticipate a problem with either
    > the SSA or with a prospective employer.
    > And could you post the POE result on the official POE site for us?
    > http://www.k1poelist.com/
    > Thanks so much
    > Rete
    > --