Tuesday, March 30, 2004
CHECK!
One more step in the process checked off the list!
I went to school this morning to teach for half a day and Steve went to a doctor's appointment. We decided to meet at about 11:00 at Fuddruckers, the center of Steve's outside world. After Steve grabbed an ostrich burger for lunch, we hopped in the car and headed for Charlotte. We made it in record time. We walked into a non-descript building, reminding me of the DMV, but on a day that it is closed and empty.
We handed in our papers, showed our passport identifications, wrote out a short information sheet, and were told to line up in "Line 1". There were no other people at all in the line for fingerprinting, so we kind of looked like two little pre-school kids practicing line formation in preparation for the first day of kindergarten. Fortunately we didn't have to look like dorks for too long, because the two technicians were staring at us as we lined up. Steve and I were called forward immediately. We were asked to rub our hands and fingers with "Cornhuskers Lotion" and then meticulously electronically fingerprinted. Different groupings of fingers, special rolls of fingers, repeated fingers, wiping the screens, re-doing thumbs... Again a little like kindergarten fingerpainting on a computer. Our fingerprints were checked by a quality control manager after a loud yell of "QC!!" And we were out the door in less than 15 minutes!
We were back in Asheville by 4:00! Amazing. Now we wait for the I-171H form - the last paper in this arduous chase!
I went to school this morning to teach for half a day and Steve went to a doctor's appointment. We decided to meet at about 11:00 at Fuddruckers, the center of Steve's outside world. After Steve grabbed an ostrich burger for lunch, we hopped in the car and headed for Charlotte. We made it in record time. We walked into a non-descript building, reminding me of the DMV, but on a day that it is closed and empty.
We handed in our papers, showed our passport identifications, wrote out a short information sheet, and were told to line up in "Line 1". There were no other people at all in the line for fingerprinting, so we kind of looked like two little pre-school kids practicing line formation in preparation for the first day of kindergarten. Fortunately we didn't have to look like dorks for too long, because the two technicians were staring at us as we lined up. Steve and I were called forward immediately. We were asked to rub our hands and fingers with "Cornhuskers Lotion" and then meticulously electronically fingerprinted. Different groupings of fingers, special rolls of fingers, repeated fingers, wiping the screens, re-doing thumbs... Again a little like kindergarten fingerpainting on a computer. Our fingerprints were checked by a quality control manager after a loud yell of "QC!!" And we were out the door in less than 15 minutes!
We were back in Asheville by 4:00! Amazing. Now we wait for the I-171H form - the last paper in this arduous chase!
# posted by lorrainegriffith @ Tuesday, March 30, 2004 
