San Francisco POE

[Trigg]

Ling has booked the flight for her and my new daughter for next Thursday to San Francisco. I will meet her after she clears customs\immigration.

 

 

She has only flown from zhanjiang to guangzhou a couple of times. Does anyone know what she should expect in Frisco? She is very nervous. Where does she go after she gets off the plane?? Will anyone there speak chinese?? Where can she meet me after she gets done with whatever she must do at POE??? Waiting room close?? I will arrive in Frisco 1 hour after her flight gets there. Will she be done with customs then?? As you can see I have many questions and i am sure i haven't asked all of them yet---So---who can help?? Anyone have the SFO POE experience??

[bobmal99]

Tell her not to worry, when she gets off the plane just follow everyone.

I guarentee their will be some Chinese Americans, and

US Customs Agents to make sure she gets in the correct line.

 

Basically just follow the crowd, it is pretty easy.

[frank1538]

Ling has booked the flight for her and my new daughter for next Thursday to San Francisco.  I will meet her after she clears customs\immigration.  

 

 

She has only flown from zhanjiang to guangzhou a couple of times. Does anyone know what she should expect in Frisco?  She is very nervous.  Where does she go after she gets off the plane??  Will anyone there speak chinese?? Where can she meet me after she gets done with whatever she must do at POE???  Waiting room close??  I will arrive in Frisco 1 hour after her flight gets there. Will she be done with customs then??  As you can see I have many questions and i am sure i haven't asked all of them yet---So---who can help?? Anyone have the SFO POE experience??

Jingwen and the kids went through SFO last month. Bob is right - just follow the crowds. Make sure that they have completed thier I-94s and customs declaration before they get off the plane. It can be a pain to try to complete them while standing in line. For her and her daughter, two I-94's will have to be completed, but only one customs declaration is needed per family.

 

First, they will go through immigration. Tell her to use the visitors line, not the immigrants line and not the citizen line. Have them go to the window together. The immigration officer will take their sealed brown envelopes and passports. He/she will take the I-94 and write in the A# and staple it to one of the pages of the passport. He/she might ask a question or two and will take their pictures and fingerprints.

 

After they clear immigration, they'll claim their baggage and go through customs and give the customs officer the declaration. Usually, this is painless. They will then have to re-check their baggage for their connecting flight.

 

All is all, for Jingwen, it was fairly straightforward. I went through immigration with them since we were together on the flight. The officer tried to ask Jingwen a few questions, but her English wasn't good enough for him to understand, so her asked me a couple of questions - how we met, what was the purpose of her "visit", etc.

[JerryL]

Hi Frank,

 

Do you think it'll be a problem if the said fiancee is travelling alone and doesn't speak English? Said fiancee wants to ride the big plane by herself and doesn't want me to tag along...

 

Jerry

[frank1538]

Hi Frank,

 

Do you think it'll be a problem if the said fiancee is travelling alone and doesn't speak English? Said fiancee wants to ride the big plane by herself and doesn't want me to tag along...

 

Jerry

I really don't know, but my sense was that the immigration officer was not that interested. Maybe all you need to do is to teach your fiancee is say "sorry, I don't understand".

[warpedbored]

I am planning on picking Bing up in San Francisco and driving back to Oregon. How can I find out which terminal to meet her at? Whats the scoop on parking? I want to wait for her as close as they will let me in, meet her, go the car and make a beeline out of town to a motel where she can rest before starting the drive home.

[kimnjake]

Basically just follow the crowd, it is pretty easy.

exactly the same thing i told jacob!!! it worked! he did great! (it was at LAX, but no matter where it is, just tell her to do that, and she will be fine!)

 

the officers here dont seem too interested in being a person who is making a decision on anything, but it was more of a matter of making sure jacob had all he needed....and just approving what he had and then he was sent on his way!

 

jacob did comment on the security though. just how "strong" our detectors are, maybe compared to china, he was surprised that he had to take his belt off....because it went off on the metal detector....

[JerryL]

I am planning on picking Bing up in San Francisco and driving back to Oregon.  How can I find out which terminal to meet her at? Whats the scoop on parking? I want to wait for her as close as they will let me in, meet her, go the car and make a beeline out of town to a motel where she can rest before starting the drive home.

SFO has a dedicated international terminal, so finding the right terminal is easy. There's a parking structure next to the terminal so that's not a problem too.

 

I remember in Shanghai, the waiting area was separated from the customs inspection area by a tall glass window so you can see the people in the customs area. I liked that design because as a visitor, you could look for the people picking you up while going through inspections, and vice versa.

 

SFO, unless they've changed it recently, separates the waiting area from the customs inspection area with a wall (and a door), so you can't look in. And of course you can't go in. I have this vision of waiting outside for hours and hours wondering why she isn't coming out...

 

Here is the SFO web site:

 

http://www.flysfo.com/

 

Jerry

[skibum]

Carl, actually there is no airport in SF. These others are just setting you up.

[dvs7310]

Frank, I notice you said you went throug Immigration with your sig. other... I thought I have heard someone say this before? So it is not a problem for a US citizen to go through the visitors line with our wife/fiancee?

 

Thanks, this has been a concern of mine.