one final question about all this madness

Gator says on Nov 6, 2005, 07:34:

Guess What??? Remember, CR stands for "Conditional Residency. You and the new wife will go through immigration like everyone else. I would ask one of the inspectors, if it's not packed, if you wife could come through with you. Despite all the horror stories you hear most of the inspectors will work with you. Having a CR-1 means she will be REMBER, 90 days before that 2 years is up she have to file with their local service center in the US a form I-751 - which will "change status" to permanent resident (no longer conditional) and instead of a 2 year green card, your spouse will be eligible for a 10-year green card. DO NOT MISS THIS DATE. Take the 90 days before 2 years date seriously, as your spouse can lose residency status if filing is not on time.

Hopefully UtopiaCowboy will jump in here but I think once she goes through the process at the POE (point of entry) that's it. Her "green" card should arrive in about a month.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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utopiacowboy says on Nov 6, 2005, 07:36:

A lot of people make such a big deal about this line thing. Some couples have even gone through separately because he was a US citizen and she wasn't etc. You can stay together and chose whatever line you want to. Hell, one time in Miami coming back from Medellin, I just mindlessly followed everybody off the plane and waited in line. When I get there, the CBP guy says, you're a US citizen, you could have gone to the short line down there. I told him I was just too tired to do anything except follow the herd and he just laughed and waved me through. Later when my wife and stepkids came through we all stayed together and there was no problem. They send you off to another room to process the paperwork anyway and yes, you can go into that room and wait with her. I've had people tell me they didn't go in with their spouses. Cripes, in our case, the guy didn't even speak Spanish. I had to interpret - I could have been telling him anything.

As usual, you are absolutely right, Gator.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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rjstuff says on Nov 6, 2005, 11:19:

About the line thing I have gone through Miami 3 times and each time no matter which line I was in - it had people with foreign passports and we all had to wait (foreigner's immigration pass through tends to take a little longer many times.) So! After the first 2 times, now I just go to the shortest line na matter for whom it may be! And I have seen many couples going through together with one spouse being a foreigner - it's quite normal. Good luck
And Houston was so fast it didn't matter (I loved coming through Houston - all the lines were about 4 persons deep! It took about 3 minutes to get through!)

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utopiacowboy says on Nov 6, 2005, 11:25:

Yeah, Houston is awesome. The gang in Miami need to learn how to run an airport from the dudes in Houston. You can be off the plane, get your baggage and get through customs and immigration in about half an hour.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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Gator says on Nov 6, 2005, 13:58:

If Houston... had the same volume of international passengers as Miami it wold be just as bad. God forbid you come in with a couple of the Air Buses that dump 300 people each.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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utopiacowboy says on Nov 6, 2005, 15:22:

Out of curiosity I checked the passenger volumes of the top 10 US airports for international passengers (not that I doubted you, Gator!):

1) New York City/JFK - 15.3M
2) Los Angeles/LAX - 14.6M
3) Miami/MIA - 13.9M
4) Chicago/ORD - 9.2M
5) Newark/EWR - 7.7M
6) San Francisco/SFO - 6.7M
7) Houston/IAH - 5.6M
8) Atlanta/ATL - 5.5M
9) Dallas/DFW - 4.4M
10) Honolulu - 4.1M

I certainly wish Houston had as many Latin American destinations as Miami so we could put them to the test.

Disclaimer: any comment I make is inane and is not to be taken seriously, and is so patently ridiculous that no one should take it seriously, even as an insult.

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rjstuff says on Nov 7, 2005, 07:17:

Well! I have also come through Atlanta and they show about the same volume as Houston - but it took close to an hour through Immigration and about half hour or so through customs (waiting for luggage another half hour) - so total time was similar to Miami - about 2 hours! Pretty bad considering the volume is so low.

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smoothing says on Nov 9, 2005, 19:27:

thanks guys I thought we were going to return through miami after the cita in bogotá but i decided to catch a flight from bogotá to atlanta since i reside in charlotte,n.c.maybe it wont be too bad in hotlanta.

SMOOTHING

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CaryGrant says on Nov 12, 2005, 09:51:

On my last return from Cali through Houston - 3.5 hours in line. "Helpful" staff sent me to a US Citizens-only wicket (I'm Canadian, which he knew); they told me they could not process my papers, and sent me to another line....

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