Fingerprints

This morning Brian and I got our fingerprints done at the USCIS office in Philly. The trip there at 9 am was not as bad as I thought it might be. Luckily the office was a bit north of center city so we didn't hit the rush hour traffic. We even arrived a bit early, which turned out to be a good thing for us.

We walked in and there were a ton of signs saying no cell phones or cameras were even allowed in the building! We first stopped a desk and our appointment papers were checked. Then we each had a form to fill out and then take to another desk. Our forms were checked, along with ID and we were given a ticket with a number, like at the deli counter, and told where to sit. Our wait was only a few minutes until our numbers were called.

Once our number was called we had to sit int he last chair in a line of chairs. When the first person got called, the rest of the line had to get up and move down one chair. I found the whole thing to be quite comical. It was like an assembly line!

The actual fingerprinting was easy. All the prints were scanned, no more black ink to try to get off! It was neat to see the prints come up on the computer screen. And it automatically told them whether or not the print was acceptable or not. This is good, because now I know the prints were good and won't have to be redone! They did have to do a few fingers more than once, but in the end all prints were accepted.

I think we were only in the office for about 30 minutes total. As we were leaving, the whole place was filling up, so I am really glad we arrived 15 minutes early! Now we sit and wait, again. I have heard that NJ is taking about 12-14 weeks for the clearances. So that puts us in mid to late December. Maybe an early Chirstmas present! Still in plenty of time for an early Spring referral!