Like many other folks, I also did not like the fact that I had to go for special registration. I did not know what would happen to me once I go there. But I'm glad to say that it was smooth and painless. 

Once I arrived there, I turned-in my passport at the reception. She took the passport and gave me a couple of pages to fill out.

The information on that paper included everything from my date/place of birth to my parents date/place of birth. In addition, it also included my driver's license number, my social security number, and my credit card numbers. It also included my foreign address, telephone number as well as some other information that even I had to look up in the papers that I took with me.

After waiting for about an hour, I get called in by a lady.

I went with her in a room which had glass wall with an exquisite view of the bridge and the river. She puts several pieces of papers in front of her. The top paper had my name on top and in the bottom it had several boxes including FBI check, CIA check, INS check and 15 other checks. When I looked at that paper, I felt relief because she had checked all the boxes. She then asks me some more information, and enters it in the computer. That went on for about 15 minutes. She then starts to enter information from my passport, and several other documents. In between that she was asking me a lot of questions. After about 45-50 minutes, she says:

"OK, you are all set. Everything is good. Thanks for coming in."
I replied, "Thank you, goodbye."
In the end, I'm just glad that it is over.