Originally Posted by
DanK
Rare: you said that you just did the Nexus interview. Any tips for applying? Did you do it online? And yes, I do live minutes away from the border crossings, so it is very convenient.
DanK
Hi Dan,
Yes, I applied
online. I'm not sure if you can still apply by mail, but either way, online is best.
I learned a lot about the process from reading the
NEXUS Information Thread over in the Air Canada forum. It's a rather formidable thread, with 5580 posts on 372 pages over the past 5 years, so here are links to a couple posts with particularly helpful info for getting started:
"My experience from start to finish"
The interview
One clarification to the first of those posts: He says that you "need to book an interview at one of the closest nexus interview locations." Actually, you can do your interview at any of the
enrollment centers. Probably the most convenient for you will also be one of the closest, but if you happened to be in, say, Seattle and wanted to do it there, you can.
You have at least two
enrollment centers near you. A number of people have posted that they did their interviews at the Niagara Falls office. It's on the US side of the Whirlpool Bridge; if you want your iris photo taken so that you can use NEXUS for air travel, they'll give you a pass to go across the bridge to have it done on the Canadian side. There's also an office across the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie that can do it all.
The online application mostly asks one question at a time, advancing to a new screen for each question. It was helpful to me to see all the questions ahead of time, which is possible by way of the
Step by Step Online Application Instructions (a PowerPoint file).
Other than the above, the only other tip I can think of is to be honest. Both NEXUS and GE are "Trusted Traveler" programs, so they need to be sure they can trust you!
One other reason that someone might get Global Entry instead of NEXUS is if they qualify for GE but not for NEXUS; e.g., if they're not a U.S. or Canadian citizen or permanent resident, or perhaps if they have something in their record that the U.S. is ok with but Canada isn't.
Hope this helps. FlyerTalk has been very useful to me in learning about these programs, and I am glad to pass along what I have learned.