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Fingerprinting experience: Milwaukee

Fingerprinting experience: Milwaukee

Old Sep 18th 2001, 9:36 pm
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British in Wisconsin
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Location: From Merseyside, now living in Wisconsin.
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I just wrote this up for our website and thought I'd post it here too incase anyone is interested:

On Monday September 17th 2001, Ben & I went to our local INS field office in Milwaukee so I could be fingerprinted. This is my experience - be aware that your local office may operate differently in some ways.

My appointment letter specified 10am but we arrived at around 9.15am. If you arrive early then we suggest you join the queue for security. It took us maybe 30 minutes to get into the building. There were actually two queues - one that allowed people with interview letters to get straight through security - I'm presuming we'll get to go through in this line when we have our AOS interview. However, fingerprint appointments had to go through the long line. At this point it wasn't necessary to show my appointment letter and Ben was able to come into the building with me. All belongings had to be removed from pockets and hands; even sweaters and coats were sent through the x-ray machine. In the letter I was sent, it encourages you not to bring a bag along with you - ladies' purses are an exception. I saw many purses being searched and put through the x-ray machine again and again, because there were metal objects in there. Everybody has to then walk through a metal detector. The zips on my boots set it off and so a security guard waved a metal detector over me.

The fingerprinting office was on the ground floor as indicated in my appointment letter. I went up to the open door and handed a man my appointment letter. He gave me a white form to fill out which seemed identical to the reverse side of the appointment letter: biographic & identity information. On this form he wrote a number, which indicated my place in the queue. It didn't seem to matter that my letter said 10am - it was a first come, first served system. I was also given a small survey to complete, which asked about my impression of the staff, how far we'd come and how long was our visit that day. Whilst I waited there were TV screens with information about INS forms and procedures playing. From this I learnt that the Milwaukee office is now adjudicating I-485 applications submitted in April '01 - at least I hope it was '01 and not '00.

After about half an hour my number was called and I entered the fingerprinting room. I showed my state issued ID card - I also brought my passport as ID. I then handed in my newly completed white form and the lady filled out the date and her identification number at the bottom. I was given this form back at the end of the procedure as a receipt. I was expecting to have my prints taken with paper and ink but the Milwaukee office uses a computerised machine. The first thing I was asked was if I had any cuts on my finger tips. I didn't, but the person next to me did. She was told that she should come back when her cut had healed. If she was fingerprinted today then the FBI would reject her prints and she wouldn't be able to get another appointment for a few months. However, she could save some time by not submitting her prints today and coming back in a few weeks. Ben saw that she was given a letter which would admit her first in line whenever she came back. So be careful in the week before your appointment.

I expected to have to wash my hands, but instead some clear gel was put on my fingertips. Whilst the lady submitted my name, alien number & other info into the computer, I rubbed the gel into my hands until it dried. My four left hand fingers were placed onto a glass plate that looked like a scanner. They showed up immediately on the screen in front of us. When the lady was happy with the positioning she pressed a button that recorded the image. Then my thumb was done on a separate plate of glass. Then my right hand. Next, each of my finger tips was individually rolled across the glass plate and a wide image was recorded. Normally this wouldn't take too long but my hands were quite sweaty as I was nervous. Therefore the image kept showing up as too dark. It was more of a black splodge than the pattern of my prints. When this happened the computer wouldn't "pass" the print. It highlighted the erroneous error and came up with the message "too dark". I had to have several fingers scanned over and over again. The lady kept wiping the glass screen and my fingers to try and lighten them. When all the images were acceptable, the screen showed all my prints on one screen, which was pretty cool looking. The lady then gave me the white form as my receipt and told me that I'd be notified in the mail when my prints have been cleared by the FBI. The procedure took approximately 15-20 minutes but most people were quicker than me. I haven't filed for the EAD (work authorisation) so I don't have any personal experience or knowledge about receiving that whilst you're at your local INS office.

take care, Jennie

Ben & Jennie's US-UK K-1 Marriage: http://www.geocities.com/ben_jennie/Frames/main.html
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