Practical Travel Safety Issues - Global Entry at Canadian preclearance points

I gather that the GE kiosks at CBP preclearance stations in Canadian airports are a relatively new feature.

I used one at YYZ a few weeks ago while making a fairly tight connection, and it allowed me to bypass a fairly long line. The signage for the kiosk was not great, but given the generally abysmal signage for the tortuous path of passengers with checked bags at YYZ transferring to US flights, the GE kiosk was relatively easy to find.

I used one at YOW more recently. That one was not signposted at all, but it's side by side with the NEXUS kiosks that are signposted. But most surprisingly, the route from the kiosk takes one straight into . . . a line to wait for normal CBP inspection! In my case it was not a busy time, and I didn't need to wait for more than a few minutes, but I was surprised further when the officer didn't just accept my GE receipt but asked to reinspect my documents. So I ended up spending more time than I probably would have without using the kiosk. The physical set-up at YOW seems to defeat the whole purpose of GE.

Is this common at other Canadian preclearance stations?

I gather that the GE kiosks at CBP preclearance stations in Canadian airports are a relatively new feature.

I used one at YYZ a few weeks ago while making a fairly tight connection, and it allowed me to bypass a fairly long line. The signage for the kiosk was not great, but given the generally abysmal signage for the tortuous path of passengers with checked bags at YYZ transferring to US flights, the GE kiosk was relatively easy to find.

I used one at YOW more recently. That one was not signposted at all, but it's side by side with the NEXUS kiosks that are signposted. But most surprisingly, the route from the kiosk takes one straight into . . . a line to wait for normal CBP inspection! In my case it was not a busy time, and I didn't need to wait for more than a few minutes, but I was surprised further when the officer didn't just accept my GE receipt but asked to reinspect my documents. So I ended up spending more time than I probably would have without using the kiosk. The physical set-up at YOW seems to defeat the whole purpose of GE.

Is this common at other Canadian preclearance stations?

Not common at all. GE in the Canadian airports is relatively new, so I'd imagine there are a few growing pains.

So I ended up spending more time than I probably would have without using the kiosk. The physical set-up at YOW seems to defeat the whole purpose of GE.

Is this common at other Canadian preclearance stations?

I've only used it at YVR and haven't encountered the issue you saw at YOW. Indeed, at YVR, the overall experience is by far the most efficient of all GE stations i have used. I did however encounter the issue at IAD. Increasingly, CBP seems to be igoring the program. It can't force you to fill out a blue customs form when the kiosk works, but it does ignore a non X with impunity, contrary to the stated rules.

GE still gives you front of line privileges, and that might be worth something.

I gather that the GE kiosks at CBP preclearance stations in Canadian airports are a relatively new feature.

I used one at YYZ a few weeks ago while making a fairly tight connection, and it allowed me to bypass a fairly long line. The signage for the kiosk was not great, but given the generally abysmal signage for the tortuous path of passengers with checked bags at YYZ transferring to US flights, the GE kiosk was relatively easy to find.

I used one at YOW more recently. That one was not signposted at all, but it's side by side with the NEXUS kiosks that are signposted. But most surprisingly, the route from the kiosk takes one straight into . . . a line to wait for normal CBP inspection! In my case it was not a busy time, and I didn't need to wait for more than a few minutes, but I was surprised further when the officer didn't just accept my GE receipt but asked to reinspect my documents. So I ended up spending more time than I probably would have without using the kiosk. The physical set-up at YOW seems to defeat the whole purpose of GE.

Is this common at other Canadian preclearance stations?

YEG and YYC have the same setup (although to be perfectly correct, only YYC has GE and Nexus, YEG has only NEXUS at the moment) where you complete your kiosk activity and then wait for the same officers that the regular line leads to. In YEG, only once have I ever had an officer ask for my documents and do the normal questioning, even though I had a clear receipt from the terminal. In YYC, it happens every single time for the last two years. I've used both the Nexus and GE, and still the YYC officer goes through the docs and poses his questions. Defeats the purpose of a trusted traveller program.

That's why I vastly prefer clearing in YVR or YYZ, where you just give your kiosk papers to an officer manning the exit line. Never cleared through YOW or YUL, so can't comment there.

YEG and YYC have the same setup (although to be perfectly correct, only YYC has GE and Nexus, YEG has only NEXUS at the moment).

Last time I went through YEG, April 2012, GE signage was in place. The GE kiosks were there. Alas they were sitting on a wooden pallet in shrink wrap.

They still aren't set up?

I cleared in YEG on the way to DEN at the start of June using NEXUS. Didn't see GE setup yet. It's entirely possible I didn't notice, but I have been waiting for them because the NEXUS machines are frequently offline in YEG.

I cleared in YEG on the way to DEN at the start of June using NEXUS. Didn't see GE setup yet. It's entirely possible I didn't notice, but I have been waiting for them because the NEXUS machines are frequently offline in YEG.

Sigh. It's been two months.

Oh well, at least there is front of line access (as long as the GE signs stay up).

YEG and YYC have the same setup (although to be perfectly correct, only YYC has GE and Nexus, YEG has only NEXUS at the moment) where you complete your kiosk activity and then wait for the same officers that the regular line leads to. In YEG, only once have I ever had an officer ask for my documents and do the normal questioning, even though I had a clear receipt from the terminal. In YYC, it happens every single time for the last two years. I've used both the Nexus and GE, and still the YYC officer goes through the docs and poses his questions. Defeats the purpose of a trusted traveller program.

That's why I vastly prefer clearing in YVR or YYZ, where you just give your kiosk papers to an officer manning the exit line. Never cleared through YOW or YUL, so can't comment there.

YUL has it setup where you get your receipt from a kiosk and then see an agent no matter if you get an X or not...it is a dedicated agent for GE and NEXUS so only adds an additional 30 seconds...

I used the GE machine at YOW October of last year. The agent would not take the GE receipt but made me fill out a regular blue customs form. He did not seem to know what the GE receipt was all about. Have not been through YOW since, but I hope that they have become more educated.

Where is GE located at YYZ?