What to expect at POE?

[BigJohn 4]

My wife is arriving Feb 13th in Houston. Is there a guide as far as what happens after you deplane at POE? I looked but didn't see one.

[YuAndDan 153]

Depending on POE, there may be two lines, "Citizens and returning residents" and "Visitor's and immigrants" if so then follow the Immigrants unless an officer directs otherwise.

The POE officer simply looks over documents, stamps passport, takes a fingerprint and welcomes to USA.

Pretty painless.

MORE: http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/poereviews.php

[meb5 1]

Congratulations BigJohn. I wish you both well.

[missin miss d 1]

My wife is arriving Feb 13th in Houston. Is there a guide as far as what happens after you deplane at POE? I looked but didn't see one.

Well as far as POE is concerned in Houston( just got into Houston last weekend), Once you get off the plane you just follow the signs to where you will get to the immigration point. There you will queue up witht the visitors and hand in your passport with the brown envelope you were given at the embassy. you then do a fingerprint scan then you are asked to wait to be lead to a small room. In the small room you wait for a while then called in turns. They take another finger print and you sign there and ask a couple of questions depending on your unique case. then the passport gets stamped and you are advised to await the green card in 4-6months.

Hope this helps......best of luck to your wife

[Wayne and Claudia 40]

My wife's POE was much like missin's. However, if you are accompanying your wife you can go through the citizen's/LPR line. My wife and I chose this line since it was much shorter but isn't always the case...you, the citizen, can use either as well with her. The CBP officer will take the immigrant's fingerprints and place her documents in an envelope and direct you to a small, secondary screening room. There were only two other "cases" ahead of my wife's and mine so the process was quick. The open the sealed folder and may or may not ask additional questions. Since my wife was entering on a CR-1 visa they made her sign a document stating she knew to apply for removal of conditions at 21 months from that day. My wife was also able to submit a change of name form so when she received her green card last week it read the name she wanted it to read (married name). We went through Atlanta and it could not have been a more than rewarding experience...total time was about 10 minutes...just in time to get to baggage claim when the bags started coming off the conveyor.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

You go up the "citizens/residents" line, not visitors. I was a K1 and still went up the citizen/resident line and I didn't get my greencard till AGES later (K1's pay for it and a different process after marriage). As a CR-1 you technically are a resident already because you've been approved, you just haven't walked the line and got your card... definitely citizens/resident line for you.

Good luck and congrats