KissingtheBrit

Nothing too exciting, but thought I would post our experiences yesterday in case any other Minny people want to read it.

They were closed Monday and my husband starts his new job today, so we had to go yesterday. We got there at 3:45 a.m. and there was already a queue, but nothing too major.

As AmyLass mentioned in her post, someone had started the "list" - an unofficial bookmarker so that if you leave the queue you can get back in. We put our names on it, but knew that it was not official and decided not to leave the queue anyway.

At 5:00 a.m. some guy who appointed himself leader of the masses decided to try and get us all in order so he stood around and shouted orders at anyone that would listen. It didn't work and everyone was just milling about and there was not much of a semblance of a queue at all.

At 6:00 a.m. a guard came out and shouted at everyone that if we didn't get in a single file line he wasn't going to open the door. Apparently no one knows what single file means, because no one moved and therefore, the door did not open.

At 6:30 a.m. the guard came to open the door and suddenly everyone from the back of the queue came running up and tried to push ahead. So much for their list! A bunch of people also ran from their cars and tried to jump in. For the most part those of us that had actually waited for a lengthy amount of time stood our ground and the queue-jumpers were relegated to the back. There was a lot of pushing and shoving and yelling.

Finally at 7:00 we were inside and we then stood and waited for a half hour for them to officially open. At 7:30 they started calling numbers. We waited for three hours to get called to go stand in another queue and during that time they handed out a few chairs to any elderly people or pregnant ladies. That prompted people to pretend they were pregnant when they obviously weren't so they could get a chair.

We watched many people come by with interview letters (wishing we were them) and one person with luggage come for deportation (glad we're not him).

From about 10:00 to 11:30 we waited in another queue to see an officer and at that point we turned over the application to renew Dave's EAD. We also asked about the status of our pending AOS application and the lady did some typing, asked us if we were still at the same address and then told us that interviews are taking a year and a half. So...maybe about six more months.

We waited another 45 minutes for Dave to get his picture taken and his finger printed again. Fifteen minutes after that, he had his card. All said, we were there for just shy of 9 hours.

Angela

Margaret

Wow....what an experience. All I can say is that I'm glad I deal with
a small BCIS office. Doors open at 8 am - no lineups. Maybe 2 or 3
people waiting for the door to open and that is it. The security
guard is a really nice guy with sense of humour and the BCIS officers
are friendly and polite. Something to be said for living in a small
populated state, I guess.




KissingtheBrit <member@british_expats.com> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > Nothing too exciting, but thought I would post our experiences yesterday
    > in case any other Minny people want to read it.
    >
    >
    >
    > They were closed Monday and my husband starts his new job today, so we
    > had to go yesterday. We got there at 3:45 a.m. and there was already a
    > queue, but nothing too major.
    >
    >
    >
    > As AmyLass mentioned in her post, someone had started the "list" - an
    > unofficial bookmarker so that if you leave the queue you can get back
    > in. We put our names on it, but knew that it was not official and
    > decided not to leave the queue anyway.
    >
    >
    >
    > At 5:00 a.m. some guy who appointed himself leader of the masses decided
    > to try and get us all in order so he stood around and shouted orders at
    > anyone that would listen. It didn't work and everyone was just milling
    > about and there was not much of a semblance of a queue at all.
    >
    >
    >
    > At 6:00 a.m. a guard came out and shouted at everyone that if we didn't
    > get in a single file line he wasn't going to open the door. Apparently
    > no one knows what single file means, because no one moved and therefore,
    > the door did not open.
    >
    >
    >
    > At 6:30 a.m. the guard came to open the door and suddenly everyone
    > from the back of the queue came running up and tried to push ahead.
    > So much for their list! A bunch of people also ran from their cars
    > and tried to jump in. For the most part those of us that had actually
    > waited for a lengthy amount of time stood our ground and the queue-
    > jumpers were relegated to the back. There was a lot of pushing and
    > shoving and yelling.
    >
    >
    >
    > Finally at 7:00 we were inside and we then stood and waited for a half
    > hour for them to officially open. At 7:30 they started calling numbers.
    > We waited for three hours to get called to go stand in another queue and
    > during that time they handed out a few chairs to any elderly people or
    > pregnant ladies. That prompted people to pretend they were pregnant
    > when they obviously weren't so they could get a chair.
    >
    >
    >
    > We watched many people come by with interview letters (wishing we
    > were them) and one person with luggage come for deportation (glad
    > we're not him).
    >
    >
    >
    > From about 10:00 to 11:30 we waited in another queue to see an officer
    > and at that point we turned over the application to renew Dave's EAD.
    > We also asked about the status of our pending AOS application and the
    > lady did some typing, asked us if we were still at the same address and
    > then told us that interviews are taking a year and a half. So...maybe
    > about six more months.
    >
    >
    >
    > We waited another 45 minutes for Dave to get his picture taken and his
    > finger printed again. Fifteen minutes after that, he had his card. All
    > said, we were there for just shy of 9 hours.
    >
    >
    >
    > Angela

KissingtheBrit

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Margaret
Wow....what an experience. All I can say is that I'm glad I deal with
a small BCIS office. Doors open at 8 am - no lineups. Maybe 2 or 3
people waiting for the door to open and that is it. The security
guard is a really nice guy with sense of humour and the BCIS officers
are friendly and polite. Something to be said for living in a small
populated state, I guess.



Oooh, where do you live? I want to move!!

Ang

PEACHSTER

Thanks for posting that Angela. When my husband filed for AOS on the 4th of August he got a sheet about the AOS interview & it said it be May of next year before we would hear anything about an interview. I guess there gettin backed up.

BTW I think it's just too funny that we both live in MN, married immigrants & our name is Angela. LOL

KissingtheBrit

I had noticed that too!

Margaret

I am in Idaho. Even though no jobs here which sucks, it is a really
lovely state. A real sportsman's paradise.

lpdiver

Hey....Sportsman's paradise is Louisiana's state motto!!!!!

Hehehe...guess where I am from?