Originally Posted by
meijiem
Does a global entry card work for nextgen? I see some of the posts above mention it. The representative said my passport card could not be used, only drivers license or passport book.
Unfortunately, no. I tried this and was turned down. I’m in a similar situation to you and short of it is that unless you have either a state ID, state DL, or US passport from which the chip can be read by clear’s pods, you’re sol on nextgen+ update.
Also, I can tell you from first-hand experience communicating with clear supervisors at 4 different us airports, including multiple terminals at both sfo and ewr that if you can’t be upgraded, clear has no process to adjust your account such that all future clear reps at checkpoints know you cannot be upgraded so you will encounter the very frustrating experience of 1.) trying to explain the problem you face as you request to be “manually processed” (which means the clear rep verifies you’re a clear member then makes you show both boarding pass and ID at the TSA checkpoint for verification by TSA) which you may prefer if the parallel non-clear tsa cue is long enough 2.) the clear rep, and possibly even a clear supervisor insisting you must be upgraded to nextgen+ to be processed at the clear checkpoint otherwise you have no recourse 3.) encountering that only a subset of clear supervisors at airports seem to be knowledgable about this limitation (and the limitation makes sense considering the security lapses clear has and that they’re only able to match to dataset of state ID, state DL, and US passports for now). 4.) clear reps via email are not knowlegable and will try to convince you to remove your clear account then re-enroll the next time you visit a clear checkpoint. However, I’m 95% sure under this circumstance with a US passport that cannot be read by a clear pod and no state DL or state ID that you will not be able to enroll in clear again. 5.) if you have family members on your clear plan, when you remove your clear account, all of their clear accounts will be removed too. they’ll only be able to re-enroll on your account once you have a form of id valid for clear per above.
In my case, because I have multiple family members who do have state ID or state DL on my clear account, I’ve decided to go the route of keeping my clear account as is for now, knowing that I’ll have the very frustrating groundhog day discussions with clear reps/supervisors if I choose to use a clear lane in the near future until my passport is renewed, which will likely be in the next year.