My husband had his biometrics yesterday in Charleston and while I was waiting for him to come out of the bathroom before we went into the security area, the guard came out and started talking to me. I commented that I wished this was our local office so we could have made the infopass appointment and gotten the I551 stamp too. He informed me that not only could they be our local office for that (I thought we'd have to go to Atlanta since we live in Georgia) but that they didn't even require appointments, they took walk-ins. He even got the number off of the ticker and handed it to us and told us to go to biometrics first since they were almost done with the only person that was in there and would get us through fast, then come back out of there and sit in the front row of the other waiting room until our number was called.

We had gotten there about 50 minutes before our biometrics appointment time, but they went ahead and took us because they weren't busy. Then we went to the other waiting room and sat about 10 minutes before the officer called us to the window. He didn't even call out the numbers, just asked us if we were waiting, then called us up. He did take the number from us though. I told him what we wanted and he took Abdel's passport and green card and ID and the biometrics letter (which they give back to you with a number written on the top after your biometrics appointment) and told us to go sit back down.

He got on the computer and looked at the papers and a few seconds later I saw him stamping Abdel's passport and writing in it. Then he called us back up and gave everything back (except Abdel's green card which he kept, saying it would expire soon and Abdel should just use his pasport for now) and told us he had been able to take care of us.

It was all super easy and we were out of there in a total of 59 minutes including the time we spent in the bathroom.

We didn't have cell phones but I had my camera in my purse and the guard kept that in his file drawer until we came out then gave it back to us.

Everyone we met in the Charleston SC office both last time and this time was very friendly and helpful and extremely efficient. If you need to deal with an immigration office and are anywhere near this office, I'd highly recommend it.

Woh, that is interesting. Pittsburgh office was friendly too and fast. But I had to make an infopass-they ask for it at the entrance and some officers (not everybody so, since seems that our names were logged into computer. I was called by name and did not have to show printout). However, infopass appt dates were available even the following day. So, in the evening could reserve appt for the next morning.