So, my fiance will be arriving Aug. 1, Dallas will be his POE. Yay! Please can someone give me some advice...as to the general procedures upon arrival? My concern is because my fiance speaks very little English, so I'm very worried about how he will process through at the airport. I'll be driving up from Houston....and will be at the airport, but I know that you cannot contact anyone at immigration as they will not release any info. I was thinking of writing a note in English and having him carry it w/ him to present to the officer in case they ask him any questions he cannot answer. Something along the lines of "My name is ____, I am here on a K-1 visa to marry my fiance ___. We will marry w/in 90 days. My fiance is waiting for here in the airport, her number is _____, for further reference." What do you think...should I write such a note for him???
(I understand that there are usually interpreters present, but the language my fiance speaks is not one of the 'common' ones....so should they decide one is needed....they wait may be quite long until they get an interpreter.) I'm just trying to do anything I can to prevent that scenario.

Also, a small related question. We'll be staying the night in Dallas, before coming back to Houston. Does anyone have ideas of a decent 'budget' hotel around the airport....no frills necessary, we won't have time to notice.

I think the note is an excellent idea.

Oh wow...I just got back to the Big D recently myself. Dallas is AWESOME.

Unfortunately I don't know anything about the hotels around DFW since I never had to stay in any of them but there are TONS of hotels/motels in the DFW area....search for them in Irving, Grapevine, east Fort Worth, north Arlington, and the H.E.B. area (Hurst/Euless/Bedford) if you want something that is only minutes from DFW. Be aware that depending on the time of day he arrives, you may encounter extremely heavy traffic.

In terms of highways...121, 183, 114, and 635 are the major highways that run near the airport. 183 is sometimes called Airport Freeway, 114 is sometimes referred to as John Carpenter, and 635 is also LBJ. Apparently the DFW airport property is larger, square-mileage wise, than the island of Manhattan...so it's a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig place. 121 is a pay road through the airport and 161, aka George Bush Turnpike, is a tollroad. 183, 635, and 114 are freeways.

As for the POE at Dallas...I've been through immigration in Dallas a few times and it's unlikely they'll have anyone there who speaks Magyar (that'd be unusual anywhere) but I'd guess they are used to dealing with immigrants who don't speak the language very well and it's probably nothing they haven't seen before. If they do have to bring in someone it could take a while for them to rouse a Magyar speaker; those are pretty rare!

As for the no-frills aspect....please be aware that some areas around DFW can be pretty rough. Irving south of 183 can be dodgy and the area of Irving where I once lived...near 161 and Beltline...has gone into a gradual decline and some streets/apartment complexes have become pretty dicey. Some of the motels around the airport are actually mainly housing for people who can't rent an apartment due to credit problems or bad rental histories so keep this in mind and BE CAREFUL. It's not exactly 'tha ghetto'...there are much worse areas in DFW...but it is definitely not a well-heeled area directly east or directly south of the airport.

You might want to consider a hotel a little closer to civilization. If you must stay near DFW, try this link:

http://www.expedia.com/pub/agent.dll?qscr=...4856711290&

Thanks H_A for your detailed response! Yes, Magyar is not so common as to necessitate an airport interpreter in Dallas. JFK, or Chicago...perhaps, but not here. If they'd let me interpret, we'd be set, but no such luck.
Unfortunately, he arrives at 3:05 pm, which means by the time he goes through immigration & customs, we're looking at rush hour traffic. I'm assuming the traffic nightmares at rush hour are similar to Houston's....so I want to avoid it, if at all possible. That is why I thought of getting a hotel near the airport...but if the 'hood is not so appealing, what about the south southeast of the city, maybe off 45 as that is the freeway I'd be taking out of town, towards Houston? Any ideas?

-P

There's a motel at Walnut Hill and Beltline in Irving that is a short drive from the airport; I can't imagine it being very expensive. It's fairly close to where I used to live; years and years ago I lived on Country Club Drive in Irving, back before the area declined. It's not really ghetto, it's just much more blue collar than it used to be. It was never a dangerous part of town when I lived there and I don't think it has that rep now, though there have been murders, assaults, etc. from time to time. It's not really the 'hood, though some areas south of 183 ARE hoody.

Check out this motel, see if it's what you're looking for...there's a McDonald's, Burger King, CVS, and Wendy's nearby plus a Tom Thumb (supermarket). It's near 161 and 635, and you can also access 114 from Beltline and that's probably a better route to take to the mixmaster to get on 45.

Southeast Dallas is to be avoided AT ALL COSTS. Don't even consider it. You want to live with your fiance, not be buried with him.

http://www.crosslandstudios.com/hotels/dal...omodations.html

i've stayed at the bedford super 8 a couple of times. its just a short trip from the dfw airport(about 5minutes).

http://www.super8.com/Super8/control/Booki...il&rate=000

as far as dealing with the language issue, they are used to dealing with non-english speaking individuals. in addition, the paperwork in his MBE will contain notes as to his native language. for my wife's POE, they didn't even ask her any questions. basically took a fingerprint and had her sign a couple of pages.



dfw is a pretty good sized airport, so you might want to check his arrival gate online before hand.










good to see you online. how are you taking things?

The more time that goes by, the less I want my husband to join me over here. Right now if he came I'd let him stay, but I don't think there's much if any hope for our relationship...and I'm OK with that.

Yes, I know I'm reviving an old thread, but as his POE isn't for 2 more days, thought it would be ok. (Holy cow, H_A, I live like 5 minutes from the airport, and I think you had me baffled with all that info!! I STILL make wrong turns frequently up in the Grapevine area ) Generally the immigration officers at DFW are pretty easy to deal with. The last time Dan came through he actually asked the guy how it would all work since he knew he'd be entering the next time on the K-1. He was told that he may or may not be taken off into the separate questioning area depending on 1)how busy they were and 2)which officer he got. It will be Terminal D (you'll need to know that when you're driving there.) All international arrivals are at D. Good luck and let us know how it goes! We'll (hopefully) be doing POE in the next couple of weeks as well.

Yeah, that area north of the airport where 114, 121, and 26 meet is a pain; I don't see how anyone lives in Grapevine. I get so turned around up there. Then there's the whole 121 and Business 121 thing...and since when is northbound 121 a TOLL ROAD?

LOL - yeah great idea since it's not even FINISHED and all! Drove down 121 tonight from Frisco - it's a huge mess.

I'm still wondering why Ikea chose to set up shop in Frisco; Frisco is the land of super-sized furniture for super-sized houses! It takes forever to get up there too.

I got stuck in all that fun on Central yesterday with that high speed chase involving the guy who said his cat was sick. By the time I passed through Richardson he'd already been snagged but the traffic was backed up all the way to Parker just because people were rubbernecking!

Dallas was my POE last ear and staff was very friendly (see my review in my timeline), I don't think he will have any problems, but that note sounds like a good idea to me, I was thinking of doing this for my parents when they come for a visit.

We stayed a night in Dallas once because we didn't want to do the drive home the same day and stayed near the Galleria, but that's not exactly close to the airport, it's off LBJ though..., maybe a 20 min drive to the airport?
We came in around rush hour too and traffic was bad, but we were able to use the hoover lane and that helped out a whole bunch!

Yeah; the Galleria is pretty far from the airport but it's an OK area. There are some really nice hotels in that area, but some of the areas around there north of LBJ...like the intersection of Montfort and Alpha...can be skanky. South of LBJ between Midway and Marsh is also a little scary.

Eastbound LBJ in that area can be pretty hellish at rush hour; I'm glad my new job won't require me to use it.

I just moved to the DFw area. I stayed in Lewisville right up 121 and it is a very nice area with lots of good hotels.

Yeah - Dallas area is funny like that - really nice neighborhood sandwiched in between SCARY places (and vice versa.) You REALLY have to do your homework before moving or anything like that.

I saw a gorgeous townhouse today near 14th and Jupiter in Plano...the neighborhood looked a little iffy.

Good luck with the POE I am sure it will be fine! the note is certainly an excellent idea - everythinghelps! do post back to let us know how it all went!

I will post a review for Dallas POE as well, but just wanted to update that my fiancee came through Dallas with NO WORRIES at all! It was lengthy, but much of it was due to the weather being rainy in Dallas and when it cleared several international flights landed at the same time. It took over two and a half hours for him to process through, but overall it was a good experience. My fiancee did have a note from me in English, in case he needed to use it, but they asked him no questions he couldn't answser, so he didn't need to use it.

H_A, thanks for the Crossland Studios suggestion! We used it, and it was quite acceptable for a one night stay. Its nothing fancy, no frills, but the area is nice so I wasn't worried much.
FYI for anyone reading this thread...the hotel is located in Irving, TX, which is a DRY Town....no alcohol is sold at convenience or grocery stores. I asked the hotel staff and I drove a little ways, to find a convenience store that sold beer.

-P

So glad all went well...good wishes for your future together!

Always do you research on Dallas. I was born and raised here in the Pleasant Grove section (not so pleasant). Pleasant Grove encompasses a very large area now days and you do need to watch yourself and not do anything stupid around there. ESPECIALLY IF YOU'RE WHITE!!! That's in a general sense. I grew up there and have no problems, but I know what to avoid. Other than that Dallas is a great place. Very large. It takes time to get anywhere. Be safe and enjoy Texas in general.

Wow, this is an old thread!

Anyways...Dallas will be my POE in 16 days. Woohoo!!
Anyone tried to get an EAD stamp in Dallas?
( I know JFK looks like it's the only one handing those..) Just wondering if anyone tried to get the stamp in DFW, and what was the result.

Justin and I will live in Austin

Saludos,
Caro