bgriff

Encountered this for the first time last night -- not sure how long it's been around and apologies if there's an existing thread but didn't see any.

Basically there is no longer any sort of document check as you exit the baggage claim hall at JFK T4. No line, no need to hand in Global Entry forms or paper forms, and no mini-interview by an agent. You just walk out. There were a few agents standing near the exit and presumably they can randomly pull you aside for secondary screening, but as we exited they weren't otherwise talking to anyone. Reminiscent of exiting the baggage hall at LHR, for example.

I arrived around 8:30pm well after the afternoon peak so didn't see it in full operation, but seems like it would be a big improvement as the baggage hall exit lines were often extremely long.

Global Entry users now hand in their form to an agent immediately after using the kiosk. Not a big improvement for Global Entry users since they had access to the priority customs line anyway, but IMO it's still better since I'd found some of the agents collecting the GE form at customs liked to give you a little grilling at that point, which always annoyed me since GE is supposed to help you avoid that.

No idea whether this is going to expand to other airports or not but I would hope so. Also no idea how, if you are selected for secondary, they reconcile your answers on the form or kiosk with the contents of your bag (which has gotten some people in trouble including having GE revoked in the past for failing to declare trivial foods -- hopefully it means such "gotchas" won't happen any more). Since most other countries have managed without this I suspect it's not actually that important.

Cory6188

I just flew into JFK T4 this afternoon and noticed the same thing. The arrival experience in customs at LHR actually crossed my mind as well in terms of the similarity.

I was surprised that there was a CBP agent standing by the GE kiosks to take the forms, and then I was wondering what was going to happen at customs. Clearly they've decided that the effort of turning in the forms wasn't worth the line...so no complaints from me!

TomMM

FWIW, I encountered the same thing at IAH in June.

davetravels

I had the same flying TXL/JFK on July 3, and, I believe in ATL arriving from MEX a few weeks before that.

I was VERY surprised, to say the least. We'll probably never know why.

bgriff

All I could think as we were going through was how well the new system would have worked out for this guy (since you can type your passport number into the GE kiosk instead of scanning, and at least in my one experience the guy taking the slip from me right after that didn't ask to see my passport like they used to at the main exit -- so if you had GE and lost your passport on the inbound aircraft, as long as you knew the passport number you could still enter the country without anyone the wiser).

SDQBound

Already posted about this on the JFK Connections thread. Arrived yesterday and was surprised to see how fast it went. For those of us who still have to fill out the CBP form, it is stamped by the immigration officer and they keep it.

I was the first person out and no other flights were arriving at that time (10:00 am) so didn't see it in action either, but basically there were 2 CBP officers by the exit and I just smiled and said good morning, they smiled back Remembers me of CDG as well.


I hope this is just not a trial.^

fpmurphy

Been like this at DTW and ATL for at least a couple of months or longer.

jamiestr

I was very surprised by this, in light of Trump's rhetoric, etc. Arrived back from Cuba in June (with some rum), and no one was even checking the bags.

N830MH

Good! Keep locked your bags and don't let customs to search your bags.

flyerCO

Bags are checked a lot of times before even reaching the claim belt.

ND76

At ATL, once you got through "customs", you were confronted with a 60+ minute wait at the no-precheck TSA.

MCO Flyer

There is a way to avoid this if you don't have checked bags. If you arrive at E than you just follow the signs to ATL Bound PAX and clear coustoms in F and then exit like you are a ATL PAX and go upstairs and use TSA Pre there.

Collierkr

And in Houston IAH as well.

KDCAflyer

I've done this at DTW before. Saved me about 20 minutes.

SDQBound

This. CBP has mobile units (X-ray mini vans) used to scan bags as they come off the plane. In some European locations similar systems are used.