Hi folks...I wanted to post this in the Canadian forum so that you have an idea of what's coming if you haven't been through it yet. The AOS forum is full of reviews.

We live in Northern Virginia, the local office is in Alexandria about a 25 minute drive from us.

Our appointments were at 3 pm, we got there around 2:30 and just walked in. They checked our letter and passports (I brought my marriage cert since I filed the AOS in my married name), had us fill out a small form asking for A#, hair colour, eye colour, height, weight (sheesh), Country of citizenship...you know the routine and then looked at our hands (I guess to ensure we didn't have any injuries or whatever to our fingers which woudl prevent fingerprints being taken).

We got a number (775 &776..woo hoo...they were processing 700 already) and sat for approx 30 mins. It struck me as a busy day

Our number was called, we went in. They took full sets of prints, plus a charming photo and we were out. 10 mins max once we were in.

Easy peasey

Thank you for that! I live in Alexandria so I'm assuming I'll be going to the same office.

Thanks again

Probably!...8850 Richmond Highway...depending on how you come, was just past Fort Belvoir

hope you're not there at 3-4 pm....the only downside was that the janitorial chickie made us play musical chairs as she swept and mopped the sitting area

I live 5 minutes from there so that's great.... ANY day now

cool glad they took you both on the same day .
( check your mail i bet they touched you after the BIO )

Good thinking taking your marriage certificate, even though it's not on the list. I didn't take mine and they sent me back to get it.... an hour's drive each way. But I'd come straight from the CIS office to obtain an emergency AP, so I wasn't quite in thinking mode. Good times. My lovely pic looks just as miserable as I felt.

Congratulations on a smooth bio appointment! You mentioned that you were #775 and 776, and they were at 700 when you got your number and it only took you 30 minutes? Wow, they do a lot of fingerprints in that half hour eh? Unless numbers were for other things....

same 1 I went to for the 10 yr green card thingy biometrics appt. Was very painless, that is if ya fileld out the info onthe clipboard correctly!! People in front of forgot to do 1 section near the botom, so the lady at the desk would just send them out of line to correct it,lol
congrats!

From what I saw...there were about 10-15 cubicles (if you want to call them that) each with a person who had the computer, scanner and camera. They were moving people through relatively quickly. The lady mentioned it had been a busy day, but they seemed pretty motivated to get everyone out by closing time (4 pm). I'm wonder where I will go for the AOS interview, since I saw no evidence of meeting rooms/ offices.

There is another half to the building and my husband commented that it may be there that some of the other immigration stuff takes place, dunno - people were heading in there as well

Wow. That's a lot of processing equipment. There may have been two or three at the Orlando office but only one of them was being used. In Orlando, the biometrics office is in a completely different part of the city than the USCIS office is.

In St. Louis, there was this huge room and seperate cubicles etc. for my biometrics on the 1st floor. When I went for my AOS interview, it was on the same floor, just several doors away. Another waiting room, inside more rows of cubicles. You might have your file transferred after biometrics as well you know.

I keep reading about the transfering stuff - what does it all mean? Our numbers begin with MSC...so that's Missouri, correct? Where could it go?

Even for Missouri, surely they don't expect that we'll travel there? Sorry, I've tried to stick my head in the sand and don't know much about the transfer whoas of some people.

They send it to your local office. If your local office has a backlog, they will send it to one of the other offices for faster processing. Your interview (if you have one) will be at your local office.

If I remember in Hartford there were about 6-8 of those cubicals...

It was a pretty straighforward process.. I always brought my accordian folder from the K-1 interview, just added tabs and kept adding info - like my SSN card, the marraige certificate etc.. as I went.. that folder is still together at my house awaiting ..... Lifting of COnditions.. I just keep adding to it.. it's all in one place, and i know what to grab when i need important docs..

Now if they only made them fireproof!!

We actually bought a small fireproof safe and it's in our closet. Not specifically for that purpose, but I keep everything from this process in there, our passports etc... Gawd forbid any of that was destroyed.....can you imagine?

Small cube type, not very expensive...from Walmart i think...around $100

Excellent tip.. we actually looked at some like what you describe at Ocean State Job Lot (like big lots) I believe they were around 50$..

great information all around! i have my biometrics on feb 5th so this is good to hear that it's so quick except that I will have 2 bratty kids with me (5 and 2) so it should make for an interesting trip.
at the interview in montreal, i took them with me and the officers found it quite annoying and despite their clear instructions to bring them along if they were applicants as well, one officer said "can you quiet them down, they're disturbing other people" and then "you know you didn't have to bring the kids!". (and my husband wonders why my user name is 'frustrated'). try sitting in that waiting room for 3 hours only to be told blah, blah, blah....