Originally Posted by
ryandelmundo
Crossed the border at TJ today, GE got me to the head of the insanely long line but had trouble w the agents as according to them my card was not active. They could not understand how i could have gone thru the airports as Ive done in the past few years.
Got pulled out, sent to some office, heavy inspection, and GE card confiscated.
Had no idea any activation was required.....now I am worried I will lose the GE for violating rules. What a bunch of crap, how is anyone supposed to know this?
I have a NEXUS card, which requires you to show the physical card for NEXUS specific privileges, like using NEXUS lanes or crossing the US-Canada border without a passport. In other respects, the program is administered by the same Trusted Traveler folks at DHS that administer GE (and include GE privileges in addition to NEXUS only ones), the instructions posted by
TWA884 look the same as for NEXUS, the cards themselves look the same except for the title on top. I would not have dreamed of crossing into Canada or back into the US with an unactivated card. I guess because GE mostly works with passport use and you don't show the card to get the primary GE privileges, the card could just be considered a kind of swag and something to flash to get head of line privileges. Well, at border crossings to get head of line privileges you have to show the card which will be used as your ID, not your passport, just like NEXUS. That you ran into trouble when CBP ran an unactivated card is completely unsurprising to me.
The DHS Trusted Traveler programs are famously sticklers for rules and it is likely your GE status is endangered. The fact that the card was confiscated indicates your GE privileges were likely suspended right then and will probably remain so until you take some action to get them restored.