Mar 3, 2013, 10:24 pm
Last edit by: TWA884
Current NEXUS Information messages can be found in the following thread:
The NEXUS Information Thread
The NEXUS Information Thread
Welcome to the Travel Safety/Security Trusted Travelers Forum Nexus Information Wiki! This resource will appear at the top of every page within this thread to help users learn more about this program.
About NEXUS
NEXUS is designed to expedite the border clearance process for low-risk, pre-approved travellers into Canada and the United States.
The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) and U.S. Customs & Border Patrol (CBP) are cooperating in this joint venture to simplify border crossing for members while enhancing security.
Program benefits
If you are approved to participate in NEXUS, you will receive a membership identification card to use when entering Canada or the United States at all designated NEXUS air, land and marine ports of entry.
Membership will enable airline passengers to save time by:
- using automated self-serve kiosks in dedicated areas at designated international airports;
- using NEXUS/SENTRI lanes at land crossings when/where available. NEXUS lanes entering Canada will likely have a constant red traffic signal. This is to discourage non-NEXUS members from using the lane. Canada-bound NEXUS land crossing operating hours. All occupants must have NEXUS cards when using NEXUS lane entering Canada. At some locations, the NEXUS lane, the inspection booth is not staffed but there should be a call button. When entering US in a NEXUS/SENTRI lane, all occupants must carry either NEXUS, Global Entry, or SENTRI cards (or any combination thereof). Notable exception is Whirlpool Bridge which requires a NEXUS card to open the toll gate on the Canadian side to cross to the US..
- As of 17 MAY 2017 - NEXUS members no longer need to complete a paper CBSA Declaration Card (Form E311) when using a NEXUS self-serve kiosk at any Canadian airport where NEXUS is available. (Refer to post #10421)
- using the Trusted Traveller Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) Security Line at major and select medium-sized Canadian airports to expedite airport pre boarding security screening. For detailed information, please visit the CATSA Web site.
Join NEXUS
Here are the steps for becoming a member. There is a non-refundable processing fee of CAN$50 or US$50 per applicant for a five-year membership card.
About NEXUS
Eligibility
How to apply
Enrolment process
Key points about the program as found by forum members:
- NEXUS cardholders must advise of ANY changes to their vital information such as passport numbers/validity, visa status, legal names, primary residence, criminal convictions, and employment if it impacts your eligibility in the program.
- It's normal to find the first in-person NEXUS interview to be months into the future, but a little patience and regular checks on the TTP website almost always yields an interview date much sooner.
- Each person who wants to participate in the NEXUS program must fill out a separate application form. There is no fee for applicants under the age of 18.
- If traveling with non-NEXUS family members NEXUS cardholders are required to use the regular customs lines.
- There is a zero tolerance policy and membership can be terminated for infractions including not having your NEXUS card on you and using the NEXUS lane and not declaring items on your customs declaration card, though members have reported some leniency being granted for such infractions in the past.
- Private companies may offer services for submitting your application and charge an additional processing fee but these extra charges are not part of the official NEXUS application fee. Expedited services offered by such companies will not assist in speeding up the application process.
Updating Passport with Canada for NEXUS
As per CBSA website, updates to passport information can be handled on TTP.
Please note that NEXUS members are not required to report to an Enrolment Centre to update or change their passport information with the CBSA.
Some FT members don't trust instructions provided by CBSA and recommend the following:
Call the Canadian Processing Centre with responsibility for residents of the United States:
After going through the phone tree to reach a Nexus representative, advise them that you need to update your US passport with Canada.
The representative will give you an email address and instructions to scan your updated passport picture page (include your trusted traveler number on the scan) and then email it to a particular email address. I was advised to put the representative's name in the email message so that he could process the update on the Canadian side. He confirmed that any passport update in TTP does not reach Canada. NOTE: FT members have been able to enter Canada without any issues by updating passport online only.
He specifically requested that only the telephone number be posted (and not the email address).
In case the telephone number doesn't work, here's the webpage where the phone number is posted: Canada Border Services Agency - NEXUS - General Information
- 800-842-7647 --- Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm (Eastern Time)
After going through the phone tree to reach a Nexus representative, advise them that you need to update your US passport with Canada.
The representative will give you an email address and instructions to scan your updated passport picture page (include your trusted traveler number on the scan) and then email it to a particular email address. I was advised to put the representative's name in the email message so that he could process the update on the Canadian side. He confirmed that any passport update in TTP does not reach Canada. NOTE: FT members have been able to enter Canada without any issues by updating passport online only.
He specifically requested that only the telephone number be posted (and not the email address).
In case the telephone number doesn't work, here's the webpage where the phone number is posted: Canada Border Services Agency - NEXUS - General Information
US citizens/residents who have both Global Entry and NEXUS cards and who renew the Global Entry membership whilst their NEXUS card is active, will not be able to renew the NEXUS card until after it expires. The option to do so disappears from the TTP website.
Dear mxzblftspk,
Your NEXUS membership is not set to expire until July 11 2016.
As an approved NEXUS member, you added Global Entry for an additional $100. When you completed your Global Entry application, you received a Global Entry card. When you activated the Global Entry Card, your NEXUS Card was deactivated and the option to renew NEXUS was removed from your account.
If you wish to renew NEXUS, you will have to wait for your NEXUS membership to expire. Once it expires, you will have the option within your TTP online account to renew NEXUS. After you follow all of the steps to become a NEXUS member again, including the completion of an interview at a NEXUS Enrollment Center near the Canadian border, you will receive a new NEXUS card and will have Global Entry benefits at no additional cost.
When your Global Entry account expires 5 years after your application, do not renew it. Global Entry benefits are included with your NEXUS membership.
It is our goal to provide you the best information we have in response to your question. If you follow the information provided in our response, and still need assistance, please reply to this email and we will investigate how we may further assist you.
Thank you again for contacting the CBP INFO Center.
Sincerely,
CBP INFO Center
Your NEXUS membership is not set to expire until July 11 2016.
As an approved NEXUS member, you added Global Entry for an additional $100. When you completed your Global Entry application, you received a Global Entry card. When you activated the Global Entry Card, your NEXUS Card was deactivated and the option to renew NEXUS was removed from your account.
If you wish to renew NEXUS, you will have to wait for your NEXUS membership to expire. Once it expires, you will have the option within your TTP online account to renew NEXUS. After you follow all of the steps to become a NEXUS member again, including the completion of an interview at a NEXUS Enrollment Center near the Canadian border, you will receive a new NEXUS card and will have Global Entry benefits at no additional cost.
When your Global Entry account expires 5 years after your application, do not renew it. Global Entry benefits are included with your NEXUS membership.
It is our goal to provide you the best information we have in response to your question. If you follow the information provided in our response, and still need assistance, please reply to this email and we will investigate how we may further assist you.
Thank you again for contacting the CBP INFO Center.
Sincerely,
CBP INFO Center
Archived: The NEXUS Information Thread
Mar 22, 2017, 9:48 am
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
As a Canadian permanent resident (not US or Canadian citizen), is a NEXUS card enough to cross the border by land or air or for boarding a domestic or transborder flight ?
Mar 22, 2017, 10:29 am
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: YVR
Programs: UA Premier Platinum
Posts: 3,759
Anything else you mentioned - no
From CBSA:
Permanent residents of Canada who are members of the NEXUS or FAST programs must travel with a passport and proof of permanent residence, and may be asked to present these documents to the officer upon arrival at the border.
Residents (PR) of Canada who are landed immigrants need a passport and visa to enter the United States, unless they are a citizen of a country eligible for the Visa Waiver Program (VWP). If they are a citizen of a country eligible for the VWP, they are only required to have their valid passport - coming by land or sea. If coming by air, they will need to have advance approval to travel through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA).
Mar 22, 2017, 3:29 pm
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: LAS/GRU/DUB
Programs: Amex, JPMR, Nexus
Posts: 365
Do CBP officers at Canadian Pre-Clearance only ask you for your passport if you used it at the GE kiosk (as opposed to Nexus)? If that's the case, I think it would be a matter of consistency.
Also, can you use just your Nexus to obtain a boarding pass at a kiosk on a US-Canada flight (without having to have your passport scanned)?
Also, can you use just your Nexus to obtain a boarding pass at a kiosk on a US-Canada flight (without having to have your passport scanned)?
Mar 23, 2017, 9:00 am
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: YVR
Posts: 243
Ask the airline. If the airline says you need a passport, then you need it. What CBSA/CBP say you need and what the airlines say you need are two different things.
Mar 23, 2017, 9:04 am
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: SFO/SJC
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Gold
Posts: 14,884
AC is very good about taking NEXUS. With other carriers, YMMV. UA mostly gets it right, though I recently had a UA agent at DEN (British origin, so maybe overly security-statish) say they were told not to take them because of the new ETA in Canada. This makes no sense, given that the NEXUS card states your country of citizenship on it, and Americans don't require ETA.
Do CBP officers at Canadian Pre-Clearance only ask you for your passport if you used it at the GE kiosk (as opposed to Nexus)? If that's the case, I think it would be a matter of consistency.
Also, can you use just your Nexus to obtain a boarding pass at a kiosk on a US-Canada flight (without having to have your passport scanned)?
Also, can you use just your Nexus to obtain a boarding pass at a kiosk on a US-Canada flight (without having to have your passport scanned)?
As to your question about being able to scan your Nexus card, not in US stations for sure. At YYZ, the scanners at the check in kiosks are complete crap, and I can't even get it to scan my passport which works in every other kind of machine I've tried.
Mar 23, 2017, 2:33 pm
Join Date: May 2013
Location: New York
Programs: UA Silver, Marriott LTPP, Hertz Five Star
Posts: 1,079
CBP officers will ask for your passport if they want - shouldn't matter what ID you use at the kiosk. Typically, if you don't get an X/O, you will be waived through without being asked for anything. Typically, with an O (food declaration, get sent to booth but not necessarily secondary), I typically just get asked what I have, either from random or for declaring something), I've had officers ask just for my Nexus card or for my passport. My rule is to bring my passport no matter what, because if you're asked for your passport, you've already lost, no matter what the stated rule is.
I always travel light and don't buy anything at my international destinations, so I've never gotten an O. With a "normal" receipt (no X or O) at US customs non-preclearance, I just hand the officer my receipt and have never been stopped (even when the GE photo caught me off guard and took a photo of the top of my head [looking down at the fingerprint scanner...)
When at preclearance in Canada they typically want my boarding pass and my passport, sometimes NEXUS card as well.
YVR: Both times I've been there they just asked how many bags I checked.
YUL: Typically more detailed questions on the nature of my visit, turning the monitor towards me to ask if the bag depicted on screen is mine.
YYZ: They've just asked to scan my boarding pass and then made sure that they had a photo of my bag. [One time UA didn't photograph my bag and I got sent back to international baggage handling #2 while United looked for my bag for 35 minutes... joy.] If you don't check luggage, my observation has been that an airport employee directs you past the booth and you just hand your GE receipt to the CBP Officer near the doors to the transborder gates.
Never tried it, UA has my passport saved from mobile app scan and I travel internationally enough where it doesn't "fall off" my profile. I just enter my MileagePlus account # when I get to the kiosk.
Mar 23, 2017, 10:02 pm
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: SW Michigan, ex SF Bay Area
Posts: 831
Mar 24, 2017, 10:37 am
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: YVR
Posts: 243
Mar 24, 2017, 11:04 am
Formerly known as I_Hate_US_Airways
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Just South Of North
Programs: My Loyalty Programs? I now VOTE with my wallet!!!
Posts: 2,568
Great To Hear (-:
Regarding declaration cards, got home to YVR last night and found the paper cards already phased out for NEXUS members. Declaration questions were on the kiosk and the receipt has been modified to remove the reference to presenting your declaration card at the exit. Asked two different CBSA officers who both agreed, no need to fill the card in any longer for NEXUS.
Mar 24, 2017, 11:29 am
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: YVR
Programs: UA Premier Platinum
Posts: 3,759
Yeah, I was surprised and impressed to see a government program implemented ahead of schedule!
Mar 24, 2017, 12:26 pm
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: SW Michigan, ex SF Bay Area
Posts: 831
Mar 24, 2017, 10:31 pm
Original Member
Join Date: May 1998
Location: NYC
Programs: AA 2MM, Bonvoy LTT, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 14,636
In the past several months, CBP have been doing 3-way checks of picture in kiosk receipt, passport and you. This includes YUL where they ask for passport even if you use NEXUS card at kiosk.
Mar 24, 2017, 10:48 pm
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: YVR
Programs: UA Premier Platinum
Posts: 3,759
Since January 20, CBP has stamped my passport every time through YVR Preclearance. First time being stamped into the US since I got NEXUS.
Mar 25, 2017, 10:19 am
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: SFO
Programs: COdbaUA Platinum 2MM
Posts: 5,532
In today's uncertain environment, I would carry all documentations with me in case someone decides another form/documentation is required. It could be disastrous not being allowed in because of a new requirement.
Mar 25, 2017, 11:57 pm
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: San Antonio
Programs: DL DM, Former AA EXP now AY Plat, AC 75K, NW Plat, Former CO Gold, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 27,042
I take both card and passport everywhere. This way if something happens to one I still have the other to get back. No needing to find the closest consulate and waiting.