Saturday, April 01, 2006
Fingerprinted
We are back. The fingerprinting went well. I hope they are sufficient enough for the USCIS fingerprint analysis and it doesn't pull up any nasty unknown or forgotten criminal history. Here is the timeline of our trip.
4:00am Got up, showered, drank coffee
4:45am Left the house
6:05am-6:15am made a quick detour in New Braunfels at McDonalds for a breakfast sandwich and personal break
6:40am arrived at USCIS application support center in far North San Antonio. We were the 2nd couple in line. Note: When we turned off I-35 toward the USCIS fingerprinting office we noticed that the traffice on I-35 toward downtown was dead stopped and the signs had "X"s over two lanes of the three lane highway. There must have been an accident.
6:40am-8:00am Us two couples were the only people there for a while. The third couple arrived around 7:20am. When the door opened there were about 18 people at the door, but of those 18, I think only a few were having a process done. We were the first fingerprint couple. I should have brought a book. Scott waited in the truck since we were the 2nd couple. I ended racking up the data minutes on my cell phone (on my new pink motorola RAZR) reading CNN news for 30 minutes.
8:00am-8:10am filled out the paperwork they hand you at door
8:10am-8:15am wait. I was number 8 and scott was number 9 to processesed. There are two fingerprinting stations. The workers helped others out with various questions, so in reality we were the first to get fingerprinted.
8:15 We were both called to the two fingerprint stations
8:30 Scott was finished with his fingerprinting
9:00 I was finished with fingerprints. I had a new worker, Faye, who had only been on the floor for one week. Both Faye and my husband's fingerprinter let us verify our personal data to make sure it was data entered correctly. Faye then started the fingerprint process. I was patient. she was patient. We both laughed while she did each fingerprint several times. I know how it is when you are first learning. She was apologetic and said unfortunately the electronic fingerprinting skill is on the job training. They don't get to practice in the classroom. The computer kept showing "broken ridges" and "too small" along with a red box around the error. Faye called them Christmas lights because the screen light up. When she was finished, one of the quality managers came to verify the pictures of my fingerprints. Apparently the computer doesn't catch all errors and only an experienced eye know what is qualified as a good print. She docked seven of the pictures as "poor". Faye tried again and then asked for quality approval. A different supervisor came and looked at them and docked five of them. By that time it was 8:50am. She finally asked for her trainer to do the reprints. He finished them in five minutes and asked another supervisor for quality approval. He thanked me being patient. He says new trainees can take up to an hour to do a set of electronic fingerprints because the software is so sensitive.
When we left, the waiting area was packed! I am sure glad we came early. Although Scott says it was a little too early for his taste. He said we could have left the house at 5:30 and still been okay.
Anyway, we drove a few blocks toward I-35 north & south access ramps and we looked at the traffic towards downtown and the traffic was backed up for miles! Oh well! There goes our visit to Mi Tierras restaurant. We would have taken the backway if we brought a map. So, we headed back toward Austin and stopped at a barbeque place in San Marcos. We were back at home by 12:00. We crashed into bed and napped for nearly two hours!
Now the wait begins for our I-171H.
By the way, when you submit your I-600A form, make sure you put your social security number on your cover letter. They made us put our SSN on the office form and data entried it with the electronic fingerprints. So, they match by application name and SSN. I was told it helps avoid delays with the orphan officer.
4:00am Got up, showered, drank coffee
4:45am Left the house
6:05am-6:15am made a quick detour in New Braunfels at McDonalds for a breakfast sandwich and personal break
6:40am arrived at USCIS application support center in far North San Antonio. We were the 2nd couple in line. Note: When we turned off I-35 toward the USCIS fingerprinting office we noticed that the traffice on I-35 toward downtown was dead stopped and the signs had "X"s over two lanes of the three lane highway. There must have been an accident.
6:40am-8:00am Us two couples were the only people there for a while. The third couple arrived around 7:20am. When the door opened there were about 18 people at the door, but of those 18, I think only a few were having a process done. We were the first fingerprint couple. I should have brought a book. Scott waited in the truck since we were the 2nd couple. I ended racking up the data minutes on my cell phone (on my new pink motorola RAZR) reading CNN news for 30 minutes.
8:00am-8:10am filled out the paperwork they hand you at door
8:10am-8:15am wait. I was number 8 and scott was number 9 to processesed. There are two fingerprinting stations. The workers helped others out with various questions, so in reality we were the first to get fingerprinted.
8:15 We were both called to the two fingerprint stations
8:30 Scott was finished with his fingerprinting
9:00 I was finished with fingerprints. I had a new worker, Faye, who had only been on the floor for one week. Both Faye and my husband's fingerprinter let us verify our personal data to make sure it was data entered correctly. Faye then started the fingerprint process. I was patient. she was patient. We both laughed while she did each fingerprint several times. I know how it is when you are first learning. She was apologetic and said unfortunately the electronic fingerprinting skill is on the job training. They don't get to practice in the classroom. The computer kept showing "broken ridges" and "too small" along with a red box around the error. Faye called them Christmas lights because the screen light up. When she was finished, one of the quality managers came to verify the pictures of my fingerprints. Apparently the computer doesn't catch all errors and only an experienced eye know what is qualified as a good print. She docked seven of the pictures as "poor". Faye tried again and then asked for quality approval. A different supervisor came and looked at them and docked five of them. By that time it was 8:50am. She finally asked for her trainer to do the reprints. He finished them in five minutes and asked another supervisor for quality approval. He thanked me being patient. He says new trainees can take up to an hour to do a set of electronic fingerprints because the software is so sensitive.
When we left, the waiting area was packed! I am sure glad we came early. Although Scott says it was a little too early for his taste. He said we could have left the house at 5:30 and still been okay.
Anyway, we drove a few blocks toward I-35 north & south access ramps and we looked at the traffic towards downtown and the traffic was backed up for miles! Oh well! There goes our visit to Mi Tierras restaurant. We would have taken the backway if we brought a map. So, we headed back toward Austin and stopped at a barbeque place in San Marcos. We were back at home by 12:00. We crashed into bed and napped for nearly two hours!
Now the wait begins for our I-171H.
By the way, when you submit your I-600A form, make sure you put your social security number on your cover letter. They made us put our SSN on the office form and data entried it with the electronic fingerprints. So, they match by application name and SSN. I was told it helps avoid delays with the orphan officer.
