The way the US handles this is crazy. Anyone with an EU passport can use the automated border gates in a number of EU countries (UK and NL come to mind immediately, but there are more) and not talk to any customs or immigration official. In the US, you go through a vetting process and interview for Global Entry which gets you access which is still more bureaucratic than what every EU citizen gets at the automated gates (the EU gates also do not require fingerprints or that you answer any questions.)
Originally Posted by
GUWonder
Yes. And increasingly CBP has been merging US citizens into the same lines as APC-kiosk-using foreign visitors with an ESTA; and that is also too often making things much slower for US citizens than it used to be before APC kiosks were put in place.
When I am part of a US citizens-only travel party, I've increasingly been driven to adjust my US airports of entry where practical due to the slow-downs since APC was made available to many ESTA users too. More likely to adjust US airports of entry if the US airport doesn't have MPC or if MPC isn't reliably available to my travel party at the US airport of entry.
Even Global Entry lines can now sometimes be slow when the CBP feels like more extensively interacting with most every GE kiosk user at the time.
Regardless of GE, APC or MPC use, you can still be required to speak to CBP. As I again witnessed several hours ago for a long line of GE members too.