My kids were accepted in NEXUS 2 yrs ago when they were 13 and 15 yrs old. We are based in Manitoba and enrolled in YWG. Their fingerprints were not required at that time because they were underaged. When Canadians became eligable for GE earlier this year, we applied online for myself, wife and the 2 kids. All were accepted to GE and all of our profiles on GOES indicated that we were enrolled in NEXUS. In the same window was a message that we can now use GE as well. There was no mention of fingerprints being required on any of our profiles.
My son and I entered at ATL in June and tried to use GE for the first time since our transition. GE kiosk accepted my passport and fingerprints and printed my receipt. However, while my son's passport was identified, the kiosk did not issue a receipt as it claimed that my son was not enroled into GE.
We both went to the CBP oficer in the GE line and I explained that while my son is enrolled (and showed paper copy of his NEXUS profile page claiming that he may use GE - this I printed the night before on a hunch that I may need it), the GE system is not recognizing him and I undertook to rectify the problem once we passed security in ATL. My plan was to go to the CBP Office in terminal E where we arrived. This seemed to satisfy the CBP female officer and she let my son come through with me.
We had no luck at the CBP office in terminal E as they only open at 8 am and we could not wait another half hour. We returned to Canada and I started looking for a way to find out what we needed to do to get my son recognized by the GE system. As all 4 of us enroled for NEXUS at YWG 2 yrs ago, that was my first call.
The CBSA enrolment officer was very helpfull. While CBSA was not the authority requiring data from my son, the CBSA officer did speak to the YWG US CBP officers on our behalf. That's something that a person from the street cannot do as you just are not able to get a CBP officer on the line or get them to return calls from the YWG CBP office. Please note: the problem in YWG is not with the Canadian side and CBSA - it's on US side with CBP.
I did manage to get an appointment (BY PHONE) for my son to attend the YWG NEXUS enrolment centre to get his fingerprints done as I was informed by the YWG CBSA NEXUS officer that the US CBP officer told her that it was my son's fingerprints that were required to complete his transition to GE. NOTE: there was no message to this effect on his GOES profile page and no way to make an appointment via the GOES page ( as you do when you are approved for NEXUS and need to schedule an appointment).
So our problem was solved. We now knew:
1. that he needed his fingerprints taken ( thanks to the help of our YWG CBSA officer) and
2. that we can have fingerprints done by US CBP at YWG NEXUS enrolment center.
WRONG!!!
My appointment was cancelled on the afternoon before we were scheduled to go there. But we had to pick up someone at YWG and I went to the NEXUS office anyway. The CBSA officer saw us and opened the locked NEXUS office. She tried twice to get a US CBP officer to speak to us but US CBP refused to see us. She did bring a message from one CBP officer to say that he had checked my son's GOES profile and he had created a "window" on my son's profile that will allow us to schedule an appointment for his fingerprints.
With that good news, we started our 200 km journey home, in the hope that we will schedule on the computer when we get home and perhaps get this done in a week or two.
Allas, there was no "appointment window" when we checked my son's GOES profile. We had NO WAY to schedule an appointment for fingerprints. My wife started phoning GE help line in the USA. After many attempts at explaining our problem to first line officers who were not at all helpfull, she spoke to a supervisor who said we will have to bring our son to the US and have his fingerprints done at a US GE enrolement center. In the meantime, someone had changed the message on my son's GOES profile to state that he needed to have his fingerprints taken before he could use GE kiosks. ( this was not the case when we first checked his profile)
We searched for the cheapest flight to an enrolement center and it turned out to be LAS - no surprise there! My wife phoned LAS GE office and the officer was very helpful, telling my wife that a walk-in would be fine on any day of the week if it was only fingerprints what were required. My wife phoned anyway on the afternoon before they went just to make an official appoinment.
The fingerprints for my son were done at LAS GE enrolment office (yesterday 13th July 2011) without a any problems. The officer also confirmed that my daughter will have to go to the US to have her fingerprints taken allthough her GOES profile makes no mention of it and claims she is authorized to use GE kiosks (the officer checked my daughters profile on their computer.)
There has also been a lot said about the need for the CBP sticker in/on your passport. As far as the CBP sticker goes I can report the following:
1. my son got a sticker in his passport after his fingerprints were taken.
2. my wife was denied a sticker eventhough she was present and able to prove that she is a NEXUS member and had used GE at ATL succesfully 2 weeks ago. Explanation from CBP officer: " we are phasing out the stickers"
3. I was denied a sticker (my wife asked on my behalf and had my passport, NEXUS card and proof of my recent GE entry receipt at ATL) with the same explanation as above.
In summary, this is what I have learnt about the transistion process as of 13th July 2011:
1. if you are:
a) an adult Canadian and
b) NEXUS member and
c) have applied online for GE and
d) have received your confirmation email in that regard,
you will be able to use the GE kiosks in the US without having
to do anything else.
2. if you are:
a) an underaged Canadian and
b) Nexus member who did not have fingerprints taken due to being underage and
c) have applied online for GE and
d) have received your confirmation email in that regard,
you will NOT be able to use GE despite what your GOES profile says.
You will HAVE TO travel to the US to have your fingerprints done at a GE enrolment center. Off course, if your GOES profile has a message saying that you must provide fingerprints, then it's a no-brainer. Our's was not like that and therein lay our predicament.
3. you will have to PHONE your choice of GE enrolment center in the US to schedule an appointment. Unless you want to take a chance on a walk-in. But there is no way to schedule the fingerprint appointment online.
4. STICKER info - the CBP stickers are being phased out. If you encounter a CBP officer who insists on seeing the sticker that you don't have, you are supposed to ask them to check on their computer to see if you are in fact enrolled in GE. If they refuse, you are supposed to ask for a supervisor. This info comes from the CBP GE enrolment officer at LAS on 13 July 2011. No solution was given to the problem that occurs when the computers are down - which was why the stickers were apparently produced in the first place. Nor a satisfactory reason as to why our son now has a sticker and we parents do not.
This info now begs the question:
If an underaged Canadian enrols in NEXUS and has a set of fingerprints taken on own request, will that person be able to use GE just like adult Canadians can? That will be mush cheaper than flying your kids down to the US just for fingerprints.
I was thinking of cancelling my son's NEXUS and then re-applying for NEXUS and having his fingerprints then taken on our request when he re-enrols at YWG. Hoping then that his fingerprints would be put into the system the same way as adult Canadians' are. But I decided against that due to lack of time as we are traveling again in 2 weeks. I would like to hear from anyone who is enrolling an underaged person into NEXUS and also doing fingerprints at the same time (at your own request), as to whether they could access GE sytem without having to do fingerprints in the US.
Hope this is not too confusing
Nexus-GE transition with underage kids and latest "Sticker" info
