Catalina Cuqui
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
My POE was Miami. It took me a total of 7.5 hours to get through immigration. The process was incredibly and unnecessarily long. My flight arrived at 6:50pm and I wasn't let in until 2:20am. First I had to do the 2-hour line for visitors, until I was called to a booth. The officer on this booth was extremely rude. I told him "Hi, I have a fiance visa". He said "Give me your paperwork". I put my envelope on top of the table, where he had a pen, and the envelope hit the pen, which fell to the floor. The officer got really mad at me because of this, and took my envelope, which was wrapped with the MRW envelope it came in, and ripped this outer wrapping with violence. I flipped out at how unprofessional he was. He then said "Go wait in front of the booth". So I went wait there. At first I wasn't sure I had understood him well, but I was scared to ask. After a while, other people were asked to wait at the same spot. We were waiting there for over one hour, before we were called to wait in front of the wall, where there was another line.
This new line was to enter the rooms where they process people's visas. I waited in the line for another couple of hours before entering the rooms. These two rooms have seats and vendine machines, but I had to wait in line for approx. 5 hours before I could go in and sit down. In these rooms there are only 15 officers processing visas, and we were thousands of people waiting to be processed. Midnight came, and many officers ended their shifts, so they went home. A couple of them did overtime (I am guessing it was a specially busy day, though they didn't look surprised either). One new officer came in, but in the end there were like maybe 7 or 8 officers processing visas and still hundreds of people waiting.
Most of us waiting were extremely tired after long flights, so most people fell asleep while waiting. I saw a couple of people whose names were called and they were so deep asleep that the officers had to physically wake them up, cos they didn't hear their names being called. I started to get worried cos I had to catch a flight at 5:30am, and I asked one officer whether I would miss my flight. He said, "No, don't worry".
At 2:15am my name was finally called. This one officer gave me my passport back with a stapled paper on it and a couple more stamps saying that my visa is valid for 90 days, and just gave me a paper with the instructions of what to do after I get married. He didn't interview me or anything. I think at this point they weren't interviewing anyone anymore. The officer told me where to find my luggage, so I went to the luggage collection, and my two suitcases were there waiting for me along with a lot more luggage (surely of the other people who were still waiting). All of them had been checked by TSA. When I got home I saw one of my suitcases had been physically opened and inspected by TSA. The other one had not.
I had booked a room at the MIA hotel inside the terminal with the intention of sleeping there before my next flight. But as I didn't get off until 2:30am, and I had to check in at 3:30, I obviously didn't have time to sleep, so I basically lost $150 booking a room that I never got to use.
Overall, the CBP officers at MIA are generally correct and kind enough (while still doing their jobs and being strict). I did have a bad experience with that first officer that got really angry and was so rude to me for no reason at all, which made me feel like crying at some point. The rest of the officers were okay and answered people's questions with patience. Some of them I heard had been working since 8am that day, which made me feel a little less sorry for myself, LOL.
I had no problems being admitted into the USA, other than the unbearable waiting. I do think MIA should be more prepared to welcome the huge amount of visitors it receives each day. 15 officers processing visas are not enough for an airport that big.
My advice: avoid Miami as a POE because you could easily be waiting a crazy amount of hours, which is exhausting for anyone, and if you still do use it as a POE, don't book a hotel room because you will be wasting your money.
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Port of Entry Member Review #16283
Entry Date: 2017-01-12