Hi All,

I went to INS this morning for my registration, and here is my experience which may help all of you who have not gone through this process yet:

1) I went to San Jose office and reached there at around 9:50 a.m. It was a mistake as one should be there around 8 a.m. so that you could be done with this process bit earlier. Anyway after I reached there I had to stand in a line and BTW its the NO-APPOINTMENT line.

2) After few minutes I was allowed to get into the office building, but right after I entered, I had to pass by security. If you are aware of the way security guys check you at airport, trust me it was exactly like that. The only difference is that at airport you may not be asked to take off your shoes, but here its must.

3) After passing security, I went to an Information counter, where I was asked my name, country name and then a pass was issued to me and I was directed to a specific room where I was supposed to show it at a special window. For those who are visiting San Jose office its room # 209  (upstairs) & window # 2 and if you are facing towards counter, you should find it  on your back, right most corner. Another thing about San Jose office is, while you are standing in the line outside INS office, you might see a board "NO MORE NUMBERS", it's not for those who come fo registration, but its for the other people who come for their other things to be done.

4) On my way to this specific room, I had to stop at another counter, where a gentleman checked my pass and then let me go.

5) At the particular window I found a questionnaire, which I had to fill in. Its better to take the questionnaire form from there and then fill it.

Following is the information you are asked to fill in:

a) Personal Information: (Last, First Names and Middle initial, Date of Birth, Current address, phone number)

 b) Father's information: (His Last, First Names and Middle initial, Date of Birth, Current address, phone number)

c)  Mother's information: (Her Last, First Names and Middle initial, Date of Birth, Current address, phone number)

 d) Work information (Company name where you work, address, telephone, Designation)

e) IDs (I put my driving license and passport number)

f) Information about two local friends/relatives (in US) and one foreign person.

g) All financial information (Like all Debit/credit card numbers), the truth is that I didn't like to fill anything here so I left it blank.

h) There are two other sections one is for students and other one is or travelers (I believe they use same form at airports where they ask travel information), if you have work permit then you can ignore these.

6) So when I filled the form, I put my pass in a tray next to the particular window. After few minutes my name was called and I was asked to hand over my passport with the filled form.

7) While I was waiting for my call I got a chance to talk with few people and one of those people was a lawyer, who mentioned that INS was sort of very rude with Group 1 and 2, but they don't have any intention to behave like that to group 3 (especially with Pakistanis) as they are *not* bad guys.

 8) I had to wait for about five hours when a gentleman came there with my passport in his hands and asked me to follow him. I found him a nice person. He took me to a separate room, where another lady was also sitting and I believe she was learning the whole process.

9) First of all he asked me to take oath and thanks to American romantic movies where I found that I had to say "I do"  ;).

10) He asked many questions which are there in the questionnaire details (point # 5). But  following are the few things I would like to mention about interview:

a) He asked my social security number, I tried to show him my SSN  card, but he didn't pay attention to it.

b) He asked questions about my work, like company's name, telephone  number, address. I believe he was trying to double check this information.

c)He also liked to see my H-1/B INS notice (which my lawyer had sent to me), as well as to know from where my visa got stamped on my passport.

d) Although information like city where you were born, city where passport was issued, passport expiry date and date when passport was issued are already mentioned on your passport but I may be asked from you while that person is holding your passport in his hands. May be confirmation thing

11) I was kind of surprised to hear that he wanted my Checking Account

 Number, so please either keeps one of your check or at least ATM card.

You must have to share this information with INS as everybody who went for interview today had to give this information to INS officer.

12) While he was entering my data, he made some spelling mistakes, so

I requested him to fix those. I would say everybody who goes there should also keep his eyes on it and if that person does some mistake then feel free to request him/her for correction.

13) When he was done with data entry then he asked me to first put my  right hand's index finger on a device and then left hand's finger for  finger printing.

14) Finally he took my picture with a web camera connected with his PC  and this whole process got its end.

15) My passport was given me back with few following instructions:

a) I can leave country from specific airports, not from all  international airports like San Jose International Airport doesn't work for me.

b) In case I leave the country then when I come back, I will have to report to INS within forty days.

c) Every year on registration anniversary, I will have to report to INS.

That's all folks, Sorry if I have provided some extra information, but my whole goal was to share every bit of my experience as there are so many rumors going on about this process.