Location: Newark Center
Date: February 5, 2003

Following is my experience during the NSEER.

1) Arrived at the INS Building at 7:55AM and was met at the stairs my an oriental man asking me the purpose of my visit. I told him I was here for the Special Registration for Pakistanis. He gave me a yellow instruction slip and pointed out a glass enclosure and told me stand in the queue. I entered the queue at around number 7 place and there was only 1 more Pakistani gentleman besides me. He told me that he had been standing in the wrong queue since 7AM (towards another side of the building) in the morning.

2) At around 8:15AM we were told to proceed inside to the building lobby. Upon entrance, we went through a pretty detailed security check. As per the yellow instruction slip, I was to take Lift #2 to the 14th floor and go to room 1404. On the 14th floor, a guard asked for identification and pointed out the room to proceed to.

3) At around 8:25 I approached a glass window where a lady asked for my passport and handed me a form to complete. She also told me that this is going to take a long time however I could go down to the cafeteria on the 2nd floor. Being a little unsure...I chose not to. There were around 20 other people waiting in this room out of which there were about 8 Pakistanis. There were some other folks here for interviews besides the registration process. I completed the form and began the long wait for my turn. During this wait, the folks who were done would come out and spend a little time answering questions from the eager ones waiting for their turns. Their replies were causing more confusion than help.

4) At 11:25 my name was called and I was accompanies by the INS officer to a room. The officer asked me:
a) If I was working on an H1 and was still employed by the same employer. I told her that my H1 expired and am now on a valid EAD. She asked me to show it to her and then she took a copy of it.
b) For all previous 797s
c) Receipt for I485 Adjustment of Status.
d) Letter from my employer (VERY IMPORTANT)
e) Recent pay stubs...which she said she wasn't interested in checking
as long as I was carrying the letter from my employer.
f) Major credit card
g) Social Security Card
h) Drivers License

She did apologize for the delay in time cause she said they were supposed to  make sure all information was input into the system correctly and completely

5) She took a picture using a webcam

6) The next 20 odd minutes were taken for the finger print process. This delay was due to fact that the machine was unable to what they termed "collect acceptable prints" from my fingers. Assistance was sought by way of other Officers. They all finally gave up and took prints which were captured by the machine and said they are putting a comment that the machine wasn't picking up acceptable finger prints.

7) She told me that she is now writing the FIN number on my recent I-94 and also making an entry on the passport.

8) She then proceeded to explain some details pertaining to the Registration process and that I will have to get this done in an years time and that there were specific exit points from the US which I had to take. It took 55 mins from the time I was called inside for the interview to the time I walked out of that room. Overall it was  not as harrowing an experience as most people anticipate it to be. The only thing which is of concern is the excruciatingly long waiting time. I was finally out of the building around 12:45.