What's the point of being expedited as GE into what is likely to be a more even poorly provisioned CBP Preclearance area than is the case for the pre-CBP Preclearance section of an airport? And even if wanting to get cleared into CBP Preclearance earlier at an airport or with less of a line in parts, there may still be the cut-off time issue to clear CBP or otherwise be turned back to the airline to get rebooked. And at a CBP Preclearance facility, how few CBP employees have to get sick before GE at the PreClearance becomes an even more extraordinary hassle?

Belgium isn't the UAE or even Canada or even Ireland; and BRU won't be able to do for BRU CBP Preclearance what the oil-rich UAE is willing to do to have CBP Preclearance in the UAE.

That is why I'm also not hugely in favour of it, but if it does happen, then I'd prefer not to wait in a queue.

We have had GE kiosks at a variety of CBP Preclearance airports since around at least the summer of 2012; and now the GE kiosks are found in Ireland, the UAE, Canada and various other parts of the Americas (all above the equator) with CBP Preclearance. So a Schengen airport getting them too is at least as possible as a Schengen airport having CBP Preclearance.

Exactly...

Worth checking the EY forum:

- long lines, slow process
- flights delayed
- mediocre lounge in the Pre-clearance area (which actually is an improvement as for the first couple of years there was NO lounge; I recall DUB also has a lounge only since 2017 or 2018)

I would not open champagne, yet (but from the other side: after recent changes EU-US transit through YYZ Pre-clearance is fairly OK now).

Whether pre-clearance is potentially good or bad depends on whether your destination is at the place where you enter the US, or you are connecting at a US airport.

If your final US destination is your airport of arrival in the US - then preclearance sucks. Without pre-clearance, you do not have to budget extra time for US customs/immigration. You land in the US, you go through the formalities, and you are done.

With pre-clearance, you have to get to your departure airport early so as not to miss your flight - but, you don't know how long pre-clearance will take, so you have to leave extra time, which means that you spend time waiting in your departure airport after clearing that you would not spend if you did not have to worry about pre-clearance.

The only folks who have a potential advantage are those who are connecting in the US, as they can schedule a shorter connection time.

Even as someone who is often connecting onward on arrival into the US — I who would rather fly into DCA than get into IAD and am often connecting onward to other US airports after arrival at BOS/DTW/EWR/IAD/JFK/MSP/ORD) — I still don’t welcome CBP PreClearance coming to the Schengen area airports. Having a scheduled connection time in the US that is shorter by 15-45 minutes does me little to no good for onward connections when it doesn’t take too much for a long-haul flight to have a 20-80 minute delay on arrival into the Schengen area and/or when departing from the Schengen area. And especially nowadays with the extra thin networks, the idea of counting on tighter connections seems like a recipe to hang out atthe airports more than planned.

If you have GE, preclearance is a negative development in almost all cases, except where it affects the arriving terminal, maybe.

That may be your opinion - it certainly is not mine. How many hours of my life have I spent in interminable queues, being barked at by tin pot officials. Even as crew we would be kept waiting. I have pre-cleared now probably a dozen times in Shannon and once in London when they were experimenting with the system in 1988 (I think). It is wonderful - you wait of course - but that is before you have flown for hours. Since most people on this Board seem to be entitled to a Lounge - and would have gone there either, I cannot see the problem there either. If you are a person who leaves everything until the last minute, then tough. Moreover, it means that everyone will have been seen by the Border patrol who will check everybody thoroughly before we fly off across the Atlantic.

The best I have left until last. You arrive at your destination and you just leave. I love it and hope that it will be adopted in the UK, and the EU. the sooner the better.

If it’s sooner the better, there would be sufficient interest to pay to get it sooner than later, if ever. And yet for all the talk of this coming to the EU/EEA beyond Ireland for going on a decade and then some, it’s not happened. And nowadays it makes even less financial sense to put money into this kind of thing in the EU/EEA than it did even at the start of this year.

My time from plane door opening yesterday (after my Schengen-ORD flight) to being curbside: 8 minutes, zero minutes of waiting in lines to deal with CBP.

I am philosophically opposed to the US opening preclearance facilities. I'm opposed to any country doing so for that matter, it's just that the US has a tendency to extend its long arm more than others. . It should process immigration like practically every other country on the planet- within its own borders.

But this is my view on the matter. Can some find it practical? Sure. I find it conceptually an affront to a country's sovereignty. But if Belgium agrees...or is strong-armed (more likely...)

Can you explain your reasoning behind the affront to sovereignty?

Well it isn't if a country agrees to it by definition.

But out of principle, I believe one country shouldn't be operating its immigration facilities on the soil of another nation. Yes, I know the UK does this in France and vice-versa but not as a broadly pursued strategy under the guise of "security" which is what the US has done since 9/11. It's not for passenger convenience. It's an assertion of power and the possibility of refoulement is far greater-- they know that.

That said, I don't want to devolve into a political discussion- my point is that I don't celebrate BRU setting up the facility.

BRU exit passport control has long been a mess too often. Add in a collection of CBP personnel to another area at BRU and there is yet another bottleneck to make BRU an even worse airport to use than is already the case.

BRU is an airport that barely makes it with direct US-BRU passenger service except in what are the best of times for long-haul flying airlines. With the long tail of Covid-19 hitting international traffic demand, the use case for a CBP preclearance facility at BRU should be considered even worse than pre-pandemic. This CBP Preclearnace football should be punted down the street to be discarded unless and until such facility would mean the cost for staffing and operating the CBP preclearance facility at BRU would be lower than in say IAD and ORD.

CBP Preclearance at BRU would mean travelers paying CBP more for CBP personnel to have a hyper-privileged working sojourn abroad that is more expensive for the travelers than if those very same CBP personnel were kept working state-side.

Sovereignty is a red herring. Pre-Clearance is done only by mutual agreement. If Belgium does not want US CBP on its territory, it need only say no. Just as others have.

Err, apparently the legend didn�t read my posts.