My POE experience - Pittsburgh International Airport
May 3rd 2018, 2:10 pm
#1
JJ123
Thread Starter
Joined: Oct 2017
Posts: 107
My POE experience - Pittsburgh International Airport
So I've arrived! I wanted to do a write up similar to what others have done previously, I've found them extremely helpful so hopefully someone finds this one helpful too.
We flew from London Gatwick on Friday 27th April to Pittsburgh International, via Reykjavik with WOW Air. I won't get into the details of the flight as everything went smoothly.
Upon arrival in Pittsburgh (landed at 5:45pm local time), we (my U.S Citizen wife, and our 1 year old dual national twins) were directed towards the Non-US Citizen line at Immigration. The guy dealing with us was pleasant and advised that we would need to go to secondary to have my IV packet (big white envelope) processed. At secondary we were met by another friendly Immigration officer who took us to the area where you would normally have your bags checked. There was nobody else in Secondary, and the airport itself was fairly quiet overall. He ripped open my white envelope and started going through a it, he was looking for something specific but I'm not sure what it was when he found it. He stamped my passport at the page with my IR1 Visa printed, we had some small talk about the Penguins playing in Playoffs and he wished me good luck in my new home. He advised that my Green Card would be sent to me within 6 months or so, but may be longer. I'm not sure how accurate that is given some people's experiences on here. The whole time spent in secondary was no longer than 10 minutes. Couldn't have gone any better to be honest!
So Tuesday I started my new job. Still seems strange, but also very natural at the same time. The guys I work with are great, and have made me feel really welcome. I've already been invited to a BBQ on Sunday that one of them is having, it'll be nice for us to meet other people our age with kids. I'm still pinching myself on the drive to work each morning, and it's nice that it's 28c when leaving work at 5pm, I could definitely get used to that!
I rented a car for the first week until we purchase our own, and the wonderful people at Enterprise gave me a sweet Dodge Charger at no extra cost! I will be sad to hand it back this Saturday. 
We flew from London Gatwick on Friday 27th April to Pittsburgh International, via Reykjavik with WOW Air. I won't get into the details of the flight as everything went smoothly.
Upon arrival in Pittsburgh (landed at 5:45pm local time), we (my U.S Citizen wife, and our 1 year old dual national twins) were directed towards the Non-US Citizen line at Immigration. The guy dealing with us was pleasant and advised that we would need to go to secondary to have my IV packet (big white envelope) processed. At secondary we were met by another friendly Immigration officer who took us to the area where you would normally have your bags checked. There was nobody else in Secondary, and the airport itself was fairly quiet overall. He ripped open my white envelope and started going through a it, he was looking for something specific but I'm not sure what it was when he found it. He stamped my passport at the page with my IR1 Visa printed, we had some small talk about the Penguins playing in Playoffs and he wished me good luck in my new home. He advised that my Green Card would be sent to me within 6 months or so, but may be longer. I'm not sure how accurate that is given some people's experiences on here. The whole time spent in secondary was no longer than 10 minutes. Couldn't have gone any better to be honest!
So Tuesday I started my new job. Still seems strange, but also very natural at the same time. The guys I work with are great, and have made me feel really welcome. I've already been invited to a BBQ on Sunday that one of them is having, it'll be nice for us to meet other people our age with kids. I'm still pinching myself on the drive to work each morning, and it's nice that it's 28c when leaving work at 5pm, I could definitely get used to that!
I rented a car for the first week until we purchase our own, and the wonderful people at Enterprise gave me a sweet Dodge Charger at no extra cost! I will be sad to hand it back this Saturday.
May 3rd 2018, 11:39 pm
#2
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2016
Posts: 64
Re: My POE experience - Pittsburgh International Airport
Congratulations and welcome. I arrived last November and found the whole POE experience very anticlimactic. Not really sure what I was expecting but hey ho. Glad it all went smoothly for you.
Also, it's not 28c, it's 82f. Have to get used to that 😜
Also, it's not 28c, it's 82f. Have to get used to that 😜
