I’ve done Global Entry twice which is similar. If there is nothing amiss, they will throw you softballs that just confirm what you’ve already given them. Like “Were you in XXX country on XXX? What were you doing there?” If they throw you a curve ball like “Have you ever brought in agricultural products?” or “Have you ever been arrested?” then there’s a chance they dug up something that you may have forgotten or thought maybe “didn’t count” like maybe you forgot an apple in your backpack when going through Customs. Then answer with a hedge “Not to the best of my recollection.” If you had said “No” but the answer is actually “Yes” then that’s game over, you’re declined as you will have lied in your application. Otherwise it’s pretty painless, no need to stress about it.
Pretty basic stuff and took all of 5 min. How often do you go to CA. Why do you go. Do you bring things back. Not even sure I recall anymore. It should be easy peasy for you. It was a bit harder for me personally because my parents let me sign my naturalization papers with my nickname rather than my formal name, and my birth cert was in Ukranian. But if you don’t have any quirks, you should breeze through.
Thanks!
I need to thank you again for your calming advice.
For others’ benefit, it probably was all of 5 minutes, excluding my inept attempts with the optical fingerprint scanner. After checking in, and a short wait for our names to be called, we were directed to a stand-up counter with a partition. US CBP officer on one side and Canadian on the other. No trick questions. Nothing about why we wanted NEXUS. Basically we were asked to verify 3-4 facts we’d already put in our applications. Face photos were taken for purposes of facial recognition comparisons at airports. Both interviewers were friendly.
Surprisingly, much of the time with the Canadian half was her explaining how to make crossing both ways even faster (The Canadian crossing staff no longer MUST ask questions, so we were encouraged to just announce how long we’d be in Canada, where we’d be going, and whether and what we brought with us, e.g., no weapons).
Also, we learned that NEXUS automatically includes TSA PreCheck. So I learned I wasted $70 when I recently renewed my PreCheck. There’s also some tie-in with Global Entry, but I want to read up on that.
Glad it was smooth sailing for you. We used ours for 2 family RT flights - precheck - before ever using them to cross the land border. That was wonderful. And then no issues a weekend ago when we actually used nexus as nexus for the first time. My only sadness was the vast number of prohibitions on foods you can bring back home. No dice for doing any major shopping over there.
I don’t see a difference between paying for Nexus or buying a fast pass at Disney - both get you in/through more quickly. You pay more for a front seat at the concert than the guy who’s standing at the back.
The difference in price makes it a huge difference. Again, Nexus - $50 per adult, for 5 yrs. Under 18 is free. Unless you live at the border and can drive across easily and often, you’re not likely to get it.
Disney - oftentimes parents go with kids. Assume 2 kids. You’re talking $500 to get all four in for a single day. Now you also have to pay another $15-20 pp to not stand in a line that people are constantly cutting into. Keep in mind unlike Nexus, 90% of Disney visitors are not local. I personally find that distasteful highway robbery. It’s already a stretch for most families to get there in the first place, only to be asked to pony up more.
Also, Kaleo mentioned that the nexus fee is used to do the background checks. Disney just pockets the extra fee. They don’t provide you any extra labor or service.
If you don’t see a difference between these two experiences, then you don’t. I do.
Today we returned to Van and our fav breakfast place there, the Red Umbrella. There was a wait list as usual, but the wait itself was under 5 minutes.
I again had what’s become my must-order, the breakfast salad. So good, pretty unique IME.
If anyone considers another Vancouver breakfast place better, I’d like to hear about it.
