Made it! Fun with POE!
Feb 10th 2004, 6:13 am
#1
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2002
Location: The right side of the pond
Posts: 259
Made it! Fun with POE!
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Feb 10th 2004, 6:23 am
#2
C.G.D.S
Joined: Nov 2003
Location: Ireland--->London--->Spain--->Rockport, MA
Posts: 3,353
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
About flaming time you surfaced again! Well done on the POE. You do like to lug around lots of papers don't you. 
I hope you're settling in ok, that the hand is getting better and that SG is looking after you.
Loads of love
I hope you're settling in ok, that the hand is getting better and that SG is looking after you.
Loads of love
Feb 10th 2004, 6:43 am
#3
MODERATOR
Joined: Apr 2003
Location: Phoenix, Arizona
Posts: 58,687
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Congratulations!!! :-)
Feb 10th 2004, 6:44 am
#4
Valley of the Sun
Joined: Sep 2003
Location: Phoenix
Posts: 628
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
good for you two.. thanks for sharing..
Feb 10th 2004, 6:45 am
#5
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2003
Location: MA
Posts: 773
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
WOOHOO!!! Congratulations Mr P and SG.
Great news you made it safe and sound. I got my POE experience 2 weeks on MOnday. I cant' believe its almost here.
Have a great and fulfilling life together.
Love
Gisela xx
Great news you made it safe and sound. I got my POE experience 2 weeks on MOnday. I cant' believe its almost here.
Have a great and fulfilling life together.
Love
Gisela xx
Feb 10th 2004, 6:52 am
#6
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Oct 2003
Location: Me - Illinois, USA / Husband - Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Posts: 326
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Congratulations!! I'm glad you made it o.k. 
Feb 10th 2004, 6:55 am
#7
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 68,280
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Well done Mr Pink... Separate rooms until you are actually married please...
Feb 10th 2004, 7:01 am
#8
Mummy and baby 1982
Joined: May 2003
Location: North West Chicago Suburbs
Posts: 1,067
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Hello
Welcome to America Mr Pink. Good luck to you both and your new life together.
Maggie
Welcome to America Mr Pink. Good luck to you both and your new life together.
Maggie
Originally posted by mrpink
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Feb 10th 2004, 7:08 am
#9
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 1,816
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
I feel cheated! I never even got asked that many questions!!!!! 
Hehehehe!!!! Glad to see you had a safe journey. Now enjoy!!!!!!!! You both more than deserve it!!!!
Kate. xxxxx
Hehehehe!!!! Glad to see you had a safe journey. Now enjoy!!!!!!!! You both more than deserve it!!!! Kate. xxxxx
Feb 10th 2004, 7:18 am
#10
Living in Milwaukee, USA!
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Milwaukee, WI (formally England/Australia)
Posts: 899
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Best of luck Mr Pink with your new life in the USA!
You must be very happy, relieved and excited all at the same time
Congrats!
You must be very happy, relieved and excited all at the same time
Congrats!
Feb 10th 2004, 7:52 am
#11
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Nov 2002
Location: Harbor Springs, Michigan *again*
Posts: 2,340
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Great to hear you made it here ok ... congrats !!
Jan
Jan
Feb 10th 2004, 8:01 am
#12
Member
Joined: Apr 2001
Posts: 14,049
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
mrp,
Thank God you're here - maybe SG will be a bit easier to take now. ;-)
Welcome.
Best regards, JEff
Thank God you're here - maybe SG will be a bit easier to take now. ;-)
Welcome.
Best regards, JEff
Originally posted by mrpink
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Feb 10th 2004, 8:18 am
#13
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Tulsa, OK (originally from France)
Posts: 37
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Congratulations to you two!!! Everybody here is more than happy for you, after all you went through. Thanks for sharing all your experiences. Now relax for a while and enjoy your time together. Oh, and we want to hear about the wedding too!
Well done
M.
Everybody here is more than happy for you, after all you went through. Thanks for sharing all your experiences. Now relax for a while and enjoy your time together. Oh, and we want to hear about the wedding too!Well done
M.
Feb 10th 2004, 8:20 am
#14
jingling
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 18,123
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Congrats Mr. Pink on your arrival! I can just see you an SG smiling from ear to ear.
Juliet
Juliet
Feb 10th 2004, 8:34 am
#15
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2003
Location: Oregon/UK
Posts: 266
Re: Made it! Fun with POE!
Originally posted by mrpink
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Well, I guess that went ok then!
I promised that I would faithfully report my POE experience as soon as I got the chance, and now that the chance is upon me there's really not much to report. It was all very simple, very quick, not at all daunting, not much of anything actually!
So, from the beginning.
I'd loaded two suitcases to bursting point, and I was a bit concerned about how much they were going to weigh. My Dad loaded the cases onto the conveyor belt at the airport check-in desk, and the lady behind the counter told me that one of them was over the limit but she was going to let me off... Thank you! She put a big orange "HEAVY" tag round the handles of both of them though, which at least helped me identify the things at the other end.
After I had said my goodbyes to my family I went through Security at Departure, and to be honest I was a little disappointed that the metal plate in my hand didn't set the alarms off. Titanium, I'm told - very strong, very boring. Oh well. The excitement came almost immediately afterwards when the handle on my carry-on bag broke with what seemed like a mile before I got to the gate. Another overloaded bag, *sigh*
The flight itself was fairly typical, although the screaming baby several rows behind me was offset by all the conveniance and space of three empty seats beside me, so I suppose that sort of balances it all out.
The plane landed three minutes early, and the baby at the back started a fresh round of screaming to celebrate. It took a little while longer than usual to disembark, due to a medical drama unfolding in the first-class section. Never did find what that was about.
I'm not at all nervous about flying but I must admit to some slight jitters about facing passport control. What's it going to be like, this secondary inspection thing? Will they take me into a windowless office and sit me behind a desk? Will I be kept waiting for an hour while Agent Smith intimidates me? Nah, nothing so dramatic!
It took almost an hour to get through the line of people waiting at passport control, and the screaming baby was no comfort there. Finally I was summoned to the desk far over to the right... This was it, the dreaded POE moment!
I stepped up to the counter as directed, and before me was a round faced young man with ginger hair, whose opening words ("Jeez, will somebody shut that kid up?") confirmed that this was *not* Agent Smith. I gave him my passport.
"So you're on a K1?"
'yes'
"Ok, where your K1 stuff at?"
He couldn't be any less intimidating if he tried. I gave him my brown envelope, which fell to the desk with a whump!
"Oh man, look at the size of that thing! What've you got in there?"
I told him that we'd made a point of being thorough and he just shook his head. Finally he got the thing open and groaned again, and held it up so his colleague on the next desk could see. This guy was big on the "oh man" line too, and asked if I'd got a complete criminal record in there too. Oh how we laughed.
Agent not-smith then pointed out the fingerprinting scanner, and told me he needed a left index finger first, then the right index finger, and finally a photograph. The left finger was fine, but as my right hand has been out of action for so long the skin was too dry to leave any kind of mark. I tried pressing harder, and he said "Just do the left thumb then, it's really not important." The photo was taken by a webcam-like thing on the end of a flexible arm, and no sooner had he pointed to it than he'd pressed the button. I've a feeling that my photo is going to show me with my mouth hanging open, halfway through saying "huh?" He asked if I was aware of the 90-day rule for a K1 visa and I told him yes. He asked where we were going to live and where we were going to be married, and those were the only questions asked.
He turned his attention back to the vast lump of paperwork in front of him and started looking through it. He found what he needed pretty quickly, and stamped and signed a couple of bits, whilst saying things like "ok... uh huh... and this is you here... Oh that's great, I can work with this one!"
Finally he just beamed, and held the petition up to show his friend once more. "Look, this one's even got tabs on the bottom of the pages!!"
'so it's all ok then?'
"yep, it's great"
'my fiancee's on the other side of those gates, she's going to be thrilled to hear you say that. So, really ok?'
"yep, best I've seen"
And with that slightly surreal experience it was all over. There was no scary interview room, no difficult questions, the whole thing took no more than ten minutes.
He waved me on, toward baggage reclaim, and thus ended the big scary POE experience. My SG and I were reunited within ten minutes or so from this point, and I've been grinning ever since!
Cheers,
Mr Pink
~and SecretGarden
~~Back where we belong!
Congratulations!! So glad everything was reasonably painless for you at the POE. I hope that your big day is as wonderful and perfect as you truely deserve.
