JFK POE experience on K-1 Visa, May 23rd 2003
ccalgreen
Hi everyone,
I wanted to post this earlier, but as I'm sure many others have gone
through the same thing, I was too busy using up the time immediately
after getting here to actually spend some time with my fiance for the
first time in 6 months!
The POE rolling list http://www.k1poelist.com doesn't have
any room for putting much up in the way of *experiences* at the POE, so
I thought it might interest some people on the NG to hear mine.
So, after following the discussions on this board as to the best option
for getting a work authorized entry, I decided to go the long way round
to Washington, from LHR to JFK and then a connecting flight to IAD. I
flew with UA, and I think we landed at the same time as a BA flight at
Terminal 7. I don't know if the renovation works played a significant
factor in there only being 10 immigration booths for several hundred
people (and then 4 of them were given over to the minority of US
Citizens), but we had to queue for almost an hour just to get to them.
I said to myself how gutted I would have been if they didn't give me the
stamp after all that, considering it was an extra £100 to get a
connection via New York despite there being direct flights from London
to DC/Baltimore.
When I finally got to the front of the queue, I was beckoned up to the
booth by an inspector who really didn't seem to know what he was doing.
He looked at my visa and then opened a handbook at a page that seemed
to have notes about the IAP-66 (I thought I recognized this number, but
I later found out it was a form to do with Student Visas, so nothing to
do with me). I gave him my Mysterious Sealed Brown (no, Yellow,
really) Envelope, and he made a point of reading every single page
(those of you who've seen our site http://k1fun.envy.nu will
know that we were very thorough with our I-129F and K-1 documentation,
so it was a big file of evidence), without ever really giving the
impression he had the faintest idea what it all meant. In the end, he
put it all in a big plastic wallet (he unsuccessfully tried to put it
back in the envelope he tore open), stapled my completed I-94 on the
page of my passport opposite the K-1 Visa sticker, and date stamped the
entry as class K-1, but didn't stamp or write anything about work
authorization. As the baggage reclaim at Terminal 7 is directly behind
the Immigration booths, I thought that he was sending me on my way, and
my heart dropped. I started to explain to him about the K-1 and how he
was supposed to give me a work authorization stamp (hell, it was worth
a try); he didn't seem to understand what I was talking about at first.
Then he pointed me in the direction of another room off to the right
beyond the baggage claim, saying that I had to get it from the INS.
Wait, didn't he work for the INS (BCIS) himself? I kind of remembered
something about the border inspections being done by a different agency
under the DHS now, but it didn't matter as another inspector led me to
the real Immigration office.
This room was very white, with rows of plastic chairs facing a raised
platform, where 4 immigration officers sat in front of computer screens.
To the left, if you were facing the front, there was a small room which
I assumed had a photocopier, and behind the room were a number of
smaller offices with brown tinted glass windows. It wasn't a very
secured area, as airline ground staff freely walked in and out. The
inspector who led me in gave my folder to one of the guys behind the
front desk, who then looked at my passport. He spent the next few
minutes hunting a K-1 stamp with his colleagues (by the sound of it,
they only had one, which doesn't bode well if they ever did lose it). I
had sat down in the front row as there was no other applicants in the
room to begin with (someone else came in, who had been out of the
country on Advance Parole, and a family arrived later, presumably on
K-3/K-4 Visas). The guy with my case confirmed with me that I would be
living in Maryland, and asked me if I had a date for the wedding yet (I
don't know if we had said anywhere that we didn't know, although we have
had it fixed for a few months now) and I told him June 14th. He then
went off to presumably photocopy my I-94, and then entered more things
into his computer. He called me up and explained that I had work
authorization for 90 days, pointing to my I-94 EMPLOYMENT AUTHORIZED
STAMP! He then told me if I wanted to carry on working after I got
married I would have to go to the Baltimore BCIS office who would give
me a Green Card - he made it sound like they would give it to you there
and then, so it was another immigration officer trying to palm me off
with bullshit. As with my London Embassy experience (
http://k1fun.envy.nu/k1intmed.html ) I didn't care since he
had given me all I expected from the POE at this stage. As no-one had
yet asked for my chest X-rays, I asked him if he wanted it, and he said
I should give it to my physician when I registered with one.
So, that was it! I got it! I can't imagine how much of an
inconvenience it would have been had I not been given the work
authorization. I mean, it must be hard for people to survive if they
came over without a job to go to, but when I've already told my
employer, it would have been worse to turn round and say I was still
waiting on my EAD.
Then there was a small matter of hopping on an extremely noisy turboprop
plane (lucky me got to sit next to the engine, worrying whether the
propeller would slice my legs off), and arriving with half my worldly
goods at Dulles International Airport to my gorgeous fiancee waiting
with a "Welcome Home" balloon in her hand... :)
--
Posted via http://britishexpats.com