Now, I know why…

Have you ever passed by INS office in downtown LA and wondered why there are so many people standing in line in front of this building?

Now, I can tell you why to the extent that I experienced. Sit back and relax. It takes some time, as this is not a very sweet, short story:

My parents were lucky enough (or I was lucky!) to get US visa and come to visit me. The first thing to remember after the first hours of excitement was nothing but the famous INS Special Registration as they were Iranian:

“Now that you have been fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed by INS to state your travel plans, if you will remain in the US for 30 days or more you must re-register in person with a designated INS district office between 30 and 40 days following admission to the US.”

After thirty days of their arrival, I told my cubicle and the boss and the laptop that I will be late on Monday. How late? I had no idea. Just guessed that it should not be more than 1 to 2 hours provided the fact that I will be there as early as a early riser rooster!

The night before we prepared for this registration: gas, phone bills to prove the address that they were staying at, my visa documents to show that I am legal, and etc. Also the forms indicated that you have to be creative and bring any proof that shows you are doing what you expressed at the port of entry. So, we went extremely creative. My parents took the receipts of all gifts and souvenirs they had bought, the pictures that we had taken and even the video camera film of our family gatherings! That was the extreme of our creativity!

We got up at 6:00 Am in the morning to end up 7:30 AM in front of the federal building. Room 2024 was waiting for us. A form was given for each of the passports. The form basically contained the same basic information that was written in the passport and visa: Name, birth date, passport issue and expiration date and the local and original addresses, nothing especial or new. Returning completed forms, they gave me a number for each passpor: 15 and 16.

It was about 8:00 AM and there were about 10 people in the room so I did a quick math. If at least three windows are active (as it sounds to be!) to process three persons at a time, and each person takes half an hour at most. We should be done by around 10 at most. So, kind of felt relieved then sighed and sat.

But seems in INS things do not go as you imagine. Under the look of the big eagle of the federal government and all the present people, I witnessed that the process of only two individuals took about 3 hours. The clock was showing 11:00 AM, those two people were still in front of the windows, my father face was sad and frustrated with his back pain for all that time sitting and the feeling of guilt for my empty cubicle, my mum’s mouth in her pale face was moving with some murmurs of prayers, I had a two o’clock staff meeting and I had no idea this could take this long.

One thing I could not figure out was why it takes so long? I saw they asked the names of the brothers and sisters of the person and what they do (I have no idea how these information can serve any purpose!) but still it would not take this long. At times they were two people in front of the computer trying to figure out something. It was all I could see from behind opaque glasses of the windows. At 11:00 AM, the hall was pretty much full but the windows were all empty. No one was working. I enquired about it and they announced that anyone who wants to go for lunch could go as they have a lunch break. Lunch break at 11:00 AM? Kind of hard to believe but true.

By a miracle, it was at last at 11:30 AM they called my mum. The immigration officer was extremely nice and caring esp. seeing my mum’s pale face. He had the monitor in front of him and his effort called INS Special Registration for Iranian Visitors was nothing but trying to put my hand written form into the computer. He would search for each single letter to type, would make mistakes and then going back to correct it, he would spend another 5 minutes to find backspace button on keyboard. I tried to spell all I could to keep things going but there were cases that I could do nothing:

“What airline did they come with?”

Virgin Atlantic.

“Aha Birgin”

Not B, But V like Vital

“Aha.. like Victory?”

Yes .. Victory , Vital, Visa..

“Aha .. we do not have it ..”

After 5 minutes ..

“OK .. I put British Airlines”

That is fine as long as you are OK with it

“And you probably do not know flight number?”

No, I do not know.

And I do not! Do you ever keep flight numbers? If somebody wants to me to keep this information, they should tell me beforehand, don’t you think so?

The officer liked my spelling or what and wanted me to spell the whole form. They had asked for my Grandparents name and birth date. Well he was kind of upset that I do not remember the birth date of my Grandpa who passed away some years ago (esp. in Christian format!)

“So you do not remember his birth date?”

No, the year is all I can tell you.( And I was guesstimating!)

Oh before I forget the important part was that after every several strokes, when he had to go to next page, he would call a lady that had the badge of: Information Officer and ask: what should I do now? The lady would look and say: Click next, then would do it herself and stand for sometime just for next page to appear and go on.

The information entry was finally finished after 45 minutes. It took them 45 minutes to enter the contents of a one-page form containing information already available in passport and in their visa system into their own system with my spelling help. Then came the oath part .My mum took an oath that all the information written in her passport and the visa issued by United States are correct!

The fingerprint section was another hurdle. Taking the fingerprint of the right hand cross finger was repeated 15 times: “This one is too weak, this too dark.,. now you are sweating”. They had an electronic fingerprint interface attached to their database but it was too sensitive or may be had special conditions that would not easily grasp a good picture of her finger. I am happy that one was enough; the 10 fingers would have taken something like another two hours! The photo taking was painless and easy. But the last part was the ultimate of this show. He called a colleague and asked:” What should I do next? “Together they figured out that they should write this happy date in my mum’s passport to show that she has complied with the law. They needed to get a number from system:

“Please tell your mum to have a sit as normally it takes even up to half an hour to get a number.”

I was really stunned! What kind of database, system it is that a simple query on it would take this long?

My father part was sweet and fast after waiting till 1:00 PM for the lunch break to finish. Within 25 minutes, two immigration officers worked together just to enter a number in system and see all his information is readily available, write in my dad passport that he showed up in INS!

Nobody asked for any documents or any creativity. All they cared was entering the same information into their system again.

Now … I know.. I know why so many people stand in lines in front of this building every single day …and look so hopeless.

Kathy Hadizadeh

Los Angeles

01/14/03