nrr

Several weeks ago I arrived in T8 (AA), after getting my GE slip (with NO picture), I handed my slip and pp (to check my picture) to a CBP agent; I proceeded to the special GE (customs line) and handed my slip to the agent and departed...T8 has not caught up with T4.

Xeno

Right as I saw the same coming in from FCO to ATL one month ago.

CosmosHuman

Can someone clue me in on GE procedure at ATL? I have LHR-ATL later this month.

spudley007

In the last two months, I have flown into JFK T4, ATL Concourse E, and DTW McNamara, and they are certainly not the same procedures. JFK T4 you use the GE machine, give the agent your passport and piece of paper, and move on. After claiming your bag (or not), you are quickly out the door after walking by several CBP agents. In ATL, you use the GE machine, show the agent the piece of paper (didn't look at my passport), claim your bag (or not), and go to a special line to give the CBP your piece of paper and out the door (unfortunately no precheck). Despite DTW being one of my home airports, I despise flying in there from an international perspective. After using the GE machine and giving the agent the piece of paper and my passport, we play 20 questions. I then claim my bag (or not), and a line of 5-10 agents stand by the exit looking for people to pull aside. Some will ask you more questions, and you're eventually out. I much prefer JFK T4 and ATL to DTW. For that matter, add LAX (despite being a dump), to that list.

CJKatl

Assuming your trip ends in ATL, you exit the plane and go to immigration. If you deplane in Concourse E, this is a veeeerrrryyyyy long walk, even with some moving sidewalks, as you will actually walk to Concourse F. Once you finally get to the immigration hall, the kiosks will be ahead of you lined up agains the wall on the left. You enter your passport, answer the questions and get a slip. You show/wave the slip as you walk to baggage claim area where you take your bag, walk to the far right corner, hand your slip to the agent without breaking your stride, hang a right and you are out of the secure area. There is a parking garage on that side of the airport and you can get Uber, Lyft or a cab. If you need a rental car or are in long term parking, you get a shuttle across the street. If you need Marta or other transportation, or you need to take a shuttle to the North or South terminal.

RobOnLI

I think you have an incorrect understanding of Global Entry. Global Entry will help with shorter queues for immigration (using the automated kiosk, scanning your fingerprints and only half the time having to show the form to an immigration agent) and short queues for customs.

It does NOT prohibit a customs agent from asking you questions or sending you to secondary screening. Remember, customs agents are there to determine if you are bringing illegal or over-limit items into the country. A Global Entry person, some would argue, is more likely to bring in extra items over the tax-exempt limit because they know they have a lower chance of being pulled for secondary screening. However, I've seen many times where the person in front of me has been told to go to secondary screening from the GE line.

Global Entry does NOT prevent you from going to secondary screening and it sure doesn't prevent you from being asked questions by a customs agent.

-RM

Markie

It sounds a bit similar to Miami.

- Global Entry Machine
- Walk to agent who collects form (and asks questions of they feel like it)
- Downstairs and past a few Customs staff
- No queue at exit.

roberta_h

yeah, i first encountered this in MIA around this time last year and i remember feeling a bit panicked when i realized the agent took my GE machine form but i still needed to collect my checked bag and thought i'd have issues going through customs...

same process still in place at MIA as of last month as well

SDQBound

My parents arrived to MIA and they were not given a customs declaration. The CBP officer at passport control asked them if they were bringing any items subject to customs duty or more than USD 10,000. After that, they claimed their luggage and were out within minutes, compared to their previous trip where they spent almost half an hour at the customs line.

seawolf

Sounds similar to European model by having customs targeting high-risk flights instead of everyone.

bgriff

It sounds like there is a lot of variety in the process by airport and terminal, which doesn't make a lot of sense, but at the same time is totally unsurprising. Unless they are rolling out this new process to various airports one-by-one, but considering there has always been a bit of variation in procedures even among the different terminals at JFK, I don't have a lot of faith that this is a centrally planned process.

I am well aware that Global Entry is not some sort of carte blanche. That said it is clearly meant to identify travelers who at some level are less in need of screening, since otherwise with the kiosks in place for non-GE travelers at many airports there would no longer be a need for GE. The fact that there are many stories around the Internet for people having their GE revoked for various minor and not-so-minor infractions also shows that membership in GE is based on continued demonstration of good behavior and worthiness of some level of trust (it's called "trusted traveler", after all).

Obviously there needs to be a risk that a GE member could be pulled aside for secondary or people would abuse the system -- but I have often been given a short interrogation (where are you coming from, why were you there, how long were you there for, etc.) at various points in the process, most often with the slip-collecting customs agent, without then being selected for secondary, which I'm happy to see go away.

Indeed if the new system means that they will just randomly select every 50th person (or whatever) for additional screening as they exit the baggage hall, that means that GE members will sometimes be that random person, perhaps more often than they would have been under the old system where GE members were in their own designated line -- and I am fine with that, and prefer that over getting interrogated every time I exit.

bgriff

How does this work in Europe? At most airports once you get into the baggage claim area passengers from different flights are all mixed together, so they would have no easy way to identify who was coming from which flight as people exit customs.

The old JFK T4 system would have been a better way to achieve this since the customs agent could see what flight you had arrived on as you handed in your slip at the exit.

mersk862

Not necessarily true in my three international arrivals in ATL in the past month.

Lately, it's been get the slip, wait in the Global Entry line for immigration, have a quick chat with the officer (for me it's where are you coming from, what do you do, have a nice day) and they take the slip at the booth.

Where you used to hand in your slip (right before leaving the secure area) now has no officers at the stand but I've seen some CBP officers hanging out in the area between baggage claim and there, presumably to stop anyone they deem necessary.

SDQBound

At CDG, for example, my experience arriving from SDQ is completely different than arriving from any US airport.

The SDQ flight is met by French customs at the gate, so every single passenger has to show their documents before deplaning. The bags from the SDQ flights are delivered on the high-number baggage carrousels, and customs agents are plenty and very vigilant in this area, often pulling aside many passengers, while the bags from the US flights are delivered on the other side of the customs area where there are much less customs agents.

CosmosHuman

I meant to add that I'm also flying ATL-PIT.