EAD at San Antonio
Just thought I'd post a quick report on my EAD experience at San Antonio
today. I'll skip the bit about getting up at 5am to get there, except to note that when you're awake at this time, the world seems very weird... San Antonio's INS office is easy to find - just off the I-35 - but a pain to get to. This is pretty typical of San Antonio as a whole, though, where, I've determined, it is impossible for a road to be built straight or a junction's lanes to correspond. (Fourwinds Drive, where the INS office is located, is a fine example of both of these, incidentally). The sign on the junction on which the office is located has a sign saying "Immigration and Naturlization Service." Someone needs to sort out their spelling. There's a Diamond Shamrock behind the INS office if you need snackies and/or caffeine. There's also a tiny building on the opposite side of the junction selling "Passport and Immigration Photos". It has flashing lights on top of it that blink all day, and is very cheesy. There's a huge LED display board at the turn-off where the office is situated, one of those scrolling advertisement thingies. Astonishingly, it appears to give the phone number which the office is so loath to have on their webpage, which is (210) 650-9030. I haven't had reason to actually call this yet, obviously, but someone with more need than I might want to try it. They started letting us into the building at 7.35am, which was rather nice of them. EADs are handled in the room directly to the left of the entrance. If you have an EAD appointment and the door is open, you don't need to queue up at the room's door after the room has been opened (you have to go through security first, of course) - just go straight through to the far end and put your EAD letter into the tray. Processing is relatively painless - we were by no means the first there but we got done in an hour and a half or so. They have a US flag hung on the window to show where you need to look for them to get the ideal angle for an ADIT... They automatically give you directions to the fingerprinting place, which is just around the corner, and tell you to go there. They even give you a map and verbal directions. It's actually within walking distance, to be honest. The fingerprinting place is a pretty soulless site right in the middle of a small strip mall, but the people there are pretty friendly and efficient. I don't think we were there more than 20-30 minutes. That's about it, I think. -- Targaff |
Hi Targaff
Thank you so much for posting your EAD experience, as I too will be using that office. The phone number will sure come in handy thank you, may I ask how long it took you to get the EAD appointment, as we will be sending in our AOS paper work at the end of May. Once again thank you, all the best Kit |
Targaff,
Thanks for the report. Where do you live? I will agree about Fourwinds, getting in and out of there can be sorta confusing, but at least you never lose sight of the building. There are quite a few streets in San Antonio, that are not only straight, but serve as great cross-town alternates to the freeways. On weekends, we nearly never get on the expressways, cause we don't have to. Traffic in SA is still nowhere near the hassle of say, Houston, or (ugh) Austin. I have been here for most of 25 years now. We went to that fingerprinting place on a Saturday (!) after it opened a few years ago, I thought the off-site service centers were the greatest advance in the history of INS. The cheesy photo place is American enterprise at its most basic. Someone makes a house payment and feeds kids off that place. What surprises me is that no one has opened a taco stand next to it :-) Mike -- http://www.txdirect.net/users/mike38/faq_index.htm http://www.txdirect.net/users/mike38/k1faq.htm _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ "Targaff" wrote > Just thought I'd post a quick report on my EAD experience at San Antonio > today. > I'll skip the bit about getting up at 5am to get there, except to note > that when you're awake at this time, the world seems very weird... > San Antonio's INS office is easy to find - just off the I-35 - but a pain > to get to. This is pretty typical of San Antonio as a whole, though, > where, I've determined, it is impossible for a road to be built straight > or a junction's lanes to correspond. (Fourwinds Drive, where the INS > office is located, is a fine example of both of these, incidentally > There's a Diamond Shamrock behind the INS office if you need snackies > and/or caffeine. There's also a tiny building on the opposite side of the > junction selling "Passport and Immigration Photos". It has flashing > lights on top of it that blink all day, and is very cheesy. > They automatically give you directions to the fingerprinting place, which > is just around the corner, and tell you to go there. They even give you a > map and verbal directions. It's actually within walking distance, to be > honest. The fingerprinting place is a pretty soulless site right in the > middle of a small strip mall, but the people there are pretty friendly > and efficient. I don't think we were there more than 20-30 minutes. _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ |
We also applied for AOS and EAD at San Antonio. We applied in mid-February, and still haven't gotten so much as a receipt.
Drew. |
kitty-uk wrote in news:762161.1051876527
@britishexpats.com: > may I ask how long it took you to get the EAD appointment, as we will be > sending in our AOS paper work at the end of May. I posted a brief timeline earlier in the month, I think, but we submitted the paperwork on March 22nd and received an EAD appointment letter dated April 17th on April 19th, for an appointment May 1st. This seems extraordinarily quick, however - see other posts regarding SA. -- Targaff |
"mike_jones" wrote in
news:[email protected]: > Thanks for the report. Where do you live? I'm in Austin. You're right about the traffic here, but I only really use public transport anyhow so I don't really experience it. Wish people would drive better here, though... I'm sick of tailgaters. I've even seen people drive off of the freeway over a divider to get onto the access road in order to avoid a traffic jam. > Traffic in SA is still nowhere near the hassle of say, Houston, or > (ugh) Austin. I have been here for most of 25 years now. I wonder if maybe you can answer a question for me? Have you any idea why Windsor Park Mall is so... dead? We walked around it before heading back, didn't stay there more than 10 minutes because it was soulless, and half the shop sites were empty. The best thing there was the ice cream vendor... -- Targaff |
DrewS wrote in news:762330.1051885754
@britishexpats.com: > We also applied for AOS and EAD at San Antonio. We applied in > mid-February, and still haven't gotten so much as a receipt. Were you K1 or K3? I'm surprised, to be honest, San Antonio seems pretty good by all accounts. Maybe you could give them a call? Also if you can, see if the money you sent was cashed... Good luck! -- Targaff |
Windsor Park Mall is old (25 years?), some local neighborhoods nearby have
experienced downturns resulting in some personal crime at the mall, the city has exploded to the north and west, and the vendors have moved to other malls. Some of these vendors only have one or two stores, and they want to be where sales are better. North Star Mall is a good one, at Loop 410 and San Pedro (about 6 miles east of INS) and if you get downtown, the River Center Mall is okay too. I really like downtown San Antonio, its cool. Actually, the best shopping centers we have now are the open ones, not the malls, but over time, I have found individual stores around town that sell the things I want at good quality and fair price and not *everything* made in China, either. But that comes from living here a long time. Mike _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ "Targaff" wrote >Have you any idea why > Windsor Park Mall is so... dead? We walked around it before heading back, > didn't stay there more than 10 minutes because it was soulless, and half > the shop sites were empty. The best thing there was the ice cream vendor... _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ |
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