mac the knight

Hi All,

Trying to work out connection times en route to Austin, coming through Houston as the POE....

Anybody got guestimates of how long to process an immigrant visa for my wife (DCF in London) - I'm the USC and I'll be with her on the flight so I guess we should be able to go through the USC passport line as we have before on VWP (they always wanted to see her return ticket!). Is 3.5 hours way to long..?

Thanks :-)

Stuart

ironporer

I wouldn't think so- better safe than sorry. The actual immigration portion for my wife following DCF (in ATL) only took 10 minutes- however the line took 3 hours, as all European Int'l flights seemed to land around the same time there (~3 pm).

meauxna

For this entry, I believe you'll need to use the "Aliens" line, although you can go thru together. You 'should' carry the Brown Envelope out in sight and will be waved to the station they want you at. After stamping you (the USC) in and briefly inspecting The Envelope, you'll both be directed to Secondary Inspection.
As ironporer says, it doesn't take long for the actual processing (ours took less than 15 minutes) but you need to plan for the wait if there are others in Secondary. We cleared Immigration and still had to wait 20 mins for our luggage to get off the plane. 3.5 hours is not to long, IMO.

PS: this was not in Houston, but I'd give the same answer for any POE.

Yorkieabroad

We cleared in Houston in October 2002. Same as everyone else, the actual clearance was only 10 minutes, but the wait was a bit longer. You can't got thru the USC line, you have to go thru the Aliens line, but make sure they know you're not just coming in as a visitor, then they take you all off to the side to wait. There were only 2 or 3 others ahead of us, but I think we waited about an hour or so - the problem was a lot of seamen coming in for express clearance to join ships, and they all got pushed in ahead of us by the immigration officers.

I don't think theres any way of guesstimating the wait though - it'll depend on how many other flights are coming in at the same time (as a USC my wifes clearance has varied from a few minutes arriving from Europe to over 2 hours when coming in from the Far East!). Plus, Houston is a pretty busy seaport, so the seamen situation is probably not unusual. But even in the worst case scenario, I can't magine it taking more than 3.5 hours.... if it does, pop over here for a cuppa and a vent!!

ironporer

Don't know if it was Houston, but I have read of cases where you are allowed in the USC line, if accompanied by your husband/wife-USC. Ask upon arrival.

g1ant

I came into Newark as POE on the 22nd May with a DCF spouse visa. We used the USC line with no problem. The immigration officer said they can do all jobs at all desks so it didn't matter.

I've have not used the aliens line in the last six years and never had any problem whatsoever.

It took us five minutes to get through there and then about 20 minutes in the back office doing the fingerprinting.

Still got the X-ray. Nobody wanted that.

Yorkieabroad

We were at Houston, and we asked, making sure they knew my wife was USC, and they saw the grouchy toddler we had in tow, but it still made no difference - the USC line was off limits - maybe because its across the other side of the immigration hall to the waiting area for inward processing. Of course, things may have changed now.....

Laverock

My partner queued for over 2 hours at Houston IAH under the Visa Waiver. After that he faced a ridiculous and petty interrogation by INS and his luggage took a further 30 minutes to appear. Never mind though I hear Dallas are now doing the retina scans and finger printing so that added to the other stuff can't be any better.

meauxna

Ignoring the "ridiculous and petty interrogation" bit, we *are* discussing IV entry, not VWP entry.

Laverock

Maybe so but he mentioned he was used to the VWP in his posting and it didn't used to take this long on the Visa Waiver Programme. Why talk in abbreviations anyway? The whole business is worse than ever. So don't be a pedantic jerk about it.

ironporer

Don't think Meuxana was being a P.J about the OP's question. Whether its a IV, DCF or VWP, the DHS/INS/BCIS/USIC still must be sure the FBI and CIA don't let in any AQ into the USA.

AH

Yorkieabroad

WTF??