Seattle snow and INS

The northwest has been having some real cold spells...of all days, I had a fingerprinting appointment with the INS today here in the Burien office. Now, they do not have a phone number listed anywhere. The appointment letter says if you do not show up without notice, your application for permanent residence will be rejected...Ok, so I try calling the INS 1-800 number yesterday, because if I can avoid it, I dont want to drive to Burien. And having waited so long for this, I didnt even want to chance missing the appointment in case the office was open... (I guess if there is bad weather, you can explain and they wont reject your application - but surely, rescheduling the appointment means some more unnecessary delay in the already lengthy process!)....My husband and I, having never driven much in snow before, bought snow chains yesterday. Woke up at 5am, so we could leave here before the snow gets too heavy, and reached there fine...Camped at Denny's next to the INS office, and went there sharp at 8am when the office is supposed to open. And guess what, one of the officials is sitting outside in his van - and says the office is closed! No notice, no information on the 1-800 number, no phone number to call - I say, its ridiculous. He just said come tomorrow and we will take care of you...now let's see how long the queue is tomorrow; and how they will handle tomorrow's appointments along with today's.

So many people like us reached there around 6:30am to avoid driving in the snow...if only they had been considerate and informed the national office, we wouldnt have to risk driving...My husband asked them why they didnt report this, since the national number has an option to find out any field office closures - the guy just said we didnt anticipate it...Tell me about it, the newspapers were filled with news of the winter storm and impending snow....I dont know why they do this. Being INS, you cannot even take chances with their appointments which as is take forever to come...

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 07, 2004
  Today was power outage...I got to go again tomorrow. 3 days in a row...
• Anonymous
  January 08, 2004
  Finally got it done! No queue since others probably decided to come in late....ah such a relief.