POE story for IR1

[brocku00 1]

I responded to a previous post today about today's experience, so I will just copy and paste that so everyone can see....since it might be hard to find on another thread. Overall a great experience and very quick. Hope you enjoy and here it is:

Hi there,

I just wanted to totally agree with you since I just did the process today! I called Lewiston Bridge yesterday and explained the same thing about getting the ball rolling and not moving for a few months and he said that it was fine. So today I drove 35 minutes south, hit the PIL booth and told him I want to activate my Visa. So he sent me in. Within a few minutes I was called up and AGAIN I explained what I was looking to do and the officers (3 of them) said after activation that I have a year to move down!! So he told me to sit down for a few and relax. He called me up about 5 minutes later and took my fingerprints (electronic), my picture and then the old fashioned ink fingerprint (only one finger). He told me to sit down again and so I did. About 10 minutes later he called me up, explained how to cross the border and so on and said that's it, see ya later. I took my passport and drove down the street to the SS Office and applied for my SSN and my childrens. The SSN applications took about 20 minutes and the man said I should get them in the mail next week or the following week (in Canada). ***Just to let you know when you apply for SSN, have your passport with VISA (obviously!!) and your birth certificate....you need both.

So, I am now "ACTIVATED" and will have my SSN in a couple of weeks and I must say it was the easiest process yet. I drove from home, did the border thing, applied for SSN's and drove home in 3 hours and 45 minutes!! Not bad! Just one question though, the border officer said that I will be getting my GC in the mail in approx. 5-6 months. ......is this correct??? I swear I read peoples timelines that said it only took about a month. My Visa is a temp. GC for a year anyways, so I'm not worried about it....just curious.

So, hope this helps some people.....and I'm sure that every bridge or POE is going to be different. ...this was just my experience at Lewiston.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Congratulations! Nice to hear things working out the way they are supposed to . I would be very surprised if it took that long for you to get your green card. I expect the Officer was playing it safe and allowing a fair amount of time for the card to arrive, knowing that if it did take that length of time you wouldn't be freaking out about it, and that if it showed up earlier you would be pleased. I think you can expect to receive it earlier. Your SSN card, however, might take longer than 2 weeks what with the verification requirement and the mail .

Edited March 5, 2010 by Kathryn41

[OBX 51]

Nice to hear that everything worked out well. Congrats.