Because of where I live, I figured my Dh would enter through Chicago. Memphis is basically the only other place he could go, and I have never heard of someone coming through memphis?

So have any of you found any POE to be better from what you've heard? I heard Chicago was pretty good for Arabs entering, but I have also heard of people being held there for 8 hours or more without even being spoken to at all.

Would you reccomend trying to schedule a layover inbetween that's of a decent length of time? my layovers are usually 2-2.5 hours and I am running around like crazy. I figured he needed AT LEAST 4 hours to figure out where he is going in a strange airport.

good thought on the timing - I'd plan a 4-5 hr layover if possible. As far as I know, the main thing that differs is that @ JFK you get temp EAD if that matters to you. Otherwise, my hubby entered thru Washington (Dulles) w/ no problems and a smooth ride. Best of luck wherever you go!

whats ead?

employment authorization document - can't work until you have one. JFK is the only place that gives you a temporary stamp. It's good for 3 mos from entry.

oooooooh nice! thats where my fiance will come through when he comes!

OOO! That's great to know! I may try to route him through there then. He'll still have to go to chicago or memphis, but it's a really good point. Right now I work 70+ hours/week to break even.. so... a job? him having a job? is kind of essential. Especially since he wants to start to pop out the sagheers.

haha exactly like me and my fiance. he says he wants to begin right away when we get married so he better get a decent job pretty fast.

don't count on it - but good luck anyway!!!

definitely not holding my breath on that one.

Do you live in Nashville? If so, another possible POE is Atlanta.

fyi - that temp ead stamp is only for those coming in on the K-1 visa. The K-3's do not get this stamp.

No, NW Arkansas, Our airport only flies to a select number of airports so it has to be through one of them or routed through one of them. DFW is actually another one.



Oh, man! Well back to the to-do list...

Another question (which I should have asked the first time)--instead of trying to FLY into AR, is it possible for you to DRIVE to the POE airport? Admittedly, you may need a full day to do this--but the tension of waiting will be inconducive to working that day anyway.

Cincinnati is also a POE.

Not easily. it would be memphis, which is about 8 hours (one way). To fly from one of these adds between 45 minutes and 2 hours, so I think you see a slight time disparity That would involve renting a car since mine probably wouldn't make it. It would be a huge hassel. I get violently car sick and that would be a horrid nightmare for me It's just easier to fly. Our airport goes to DFW, Chicago, Memphis, Denver, and like 2 others. We have 3 airlines which come in.

Are you sure though that Memphis is closer to you than DFW?

(having actually driven from Memphis to Dallas before).

Yeah, but just barely. Also I've driven to memphis before, but my only experience with DFW is being IN the airport. Being that I hate driving with a passion, and I don't have a lot of time since I work (and I don't have any extra money to be renting cars) this is an inconvinient and time-consuming option. I'm dreading the 30 minute drive to my own airport, during which I will probably throw up at least once.

And LOL! Can you imagine? he may rething coming here when faced with vomit and a car with no A/C in the summer if I drove! Although i guess I would ahve to rent a car to be sure my car didn't die, so scrap the no A/c.

But LOL! Could you imagine? Welcome to america! (blehhhh).

Last option I can think of would be to find a job in the POE city (Memphis and Dallas are reasonable for this purpose; airportwise, I agree that Memphis is much easier) before summer--a partial solution, as this would eliminate the connexion (and also some of the confusion in the case of Dallas) issues.

Why? He can just fly into my airport. He'll just fly into chicago. Then connect to my airport. It's simple, and one connection total. I'm not trying to avoid a connnection. I was just asking if anyone has any experience in knowing which were the most friendly.

Mohammed came into Chicago. They were very professional and friendly to him. It did take 3 hours due to alot of international flights arriving at the same time. But there was no questioning, just stamping his I94 and welcoming him to America.

Jackie

Since I live in Texas, can anyone tell me the POE choices for us? THanks

Atlanta is one the worst places for POE. I feel for the ME/NA person who uses it. In fact, I feel sorry for anyone ethnic looking person....
I know NYC and Chicago are pleasant, but slightly longer POE. Detroit, I know takes about 20minutes to get throu. ME/NA or any other countries....easy entry.
Houston and San Diego also seem to be tuff POEs (checking the POE reviews)
http://www.visajourney.com/timeline/poestats.php

Ahmkri: Your choices depend on which airline your SO is coming in on, but in TX POE is Dallas (which seems to be easy) and Houston (seems to be difficult)

POEs are international airports.
DFW, IAH for example

How is Boston?

My fiance just entered through Houston IAH and took just under one hour but was the first in line

Boston was super for my husband. It took him about an hour to get off the plane, through immigration and customs, get his bags and walk out that door.

Our only problem was that I missed him walking out the door .... Britney must have been doing something scandalous in my People magazine

I came throuh Detroit ..was really good small Airport and people are super nice there It didn't take me 5 minutes to be done with the immigration ,,everyone was really nice there was an Arabic man working there he is an officer ..Detroit has alot of Arab though it's common for them to see araic people there in the Airport ..
Good Luck

Maybe for someone making connexions. I've used Atlanta TWICE as POE (once from Gatwick, other from Brussels) with no probs (of course, I lived in metro-Atlanta at the time, so no further connexions); and I am of OBVIOUS visible-minority.

NYC pleasant? Maybe at Newark, definitely not at JFK.

Agree on Detroit (which Pras came through).


In which case you get "six-of-one/half-dozen-of-other" exchange. IAH is a fairly simple (similar to Dorval) airport, while DFW is extremely confusing (and I happen to like Dallas as a city).



julianna, would using Detroit as POE, then to Memphis, then fly home work?

Detroit! that was the other one I couldn't think of, I think I blocked it out of my mind on purpose.

He could.. but... all flights soming to and from detroit are delayed to my airport. He will probably miss his flight and have to spend the night there. They only have the morning one (he won't be here in time for that) or the evening one. Nothing arrives in my airport from Detroit after 6pm, so he'd have to make that one flight. Chicago is better (and my plan) because we have several flights and he has additional chances to make it. Chicago is confusing, but he can recheck his baggage and get his boarding pass just outside of immigration in terminal 5 and then just take the tram to the other terminal. We'll just be sure he does not connect with delta. The other two airlines that go to and from my airport have check-ins there.

IMO, Memphis (due to airport being simple, like Calgary's--though substantially larger) would be your best bet.

(I've actually been through all three--Memphis, DFW and O'Hare--before, though never as POE; I can tolerate, but don't really like, using DFW for transit-stop to Calgary; unfortunately, no nonstop YYC-MEM flights exist)

[quote name='Henia' date='Feb 12 2007, 07:15 PM' post='720660']
Atlanta is one the worst places for POE.

You can say that again!

I'll still use chicago over memphis because it is the only airport which flies to mine that flies direct to his country. Otherwise, he'll be stuck connecting all over creation in Europe and in the US. It's not practical or cost-effective. To use Memphis takes a minimum of 2 connections to get to mine, Chicago is still only one. Memphis is an easier Airport to navigate though.