Mobile Passport returns to Dulles Airport [Press release 24 Sept 2019]
 

Mobile Passport queues in both Immigration facilities at Dulles Airport have been removed.
If you have a US passport and don't have Global Entry you must use the US Citizens line.

Noticed this as well today on my way back FRA. Asked the USCIS agent what happened and he said this is faster - they have also gotten rid of the APC kiosks. Bummer as mobile passport lines were typically as quick as global entry...

Does this seem to be a permanent move or at least for the foreseeable future?

I expect this may be related (in advance of) the full rollout of the Veriscan facial recognition system.

How did it go?

I like the Mobile Passport and have been through before my travel companion used GE on some occasions.

I arrived yesterday 14 March 2019 from ZRH on UA 53. We arrived 1.5 hours past scheduled arrival and what a nightmare at IAD!

yes, they took all of the Automated Passport Control (APC) machines away so the lines were extra long (It felt like it was a 45 min-60 min wait time but I would corroborate that with data from CBP's airport wait time website). as others have chimed in, they took away mobile passport entry. From CBP Mid-Atlantic's tweet on 06 March 2019, it looks like the reason for the long queues is the transition to 100% biometric screening. I've been incredibly cheap to get Global Entry because I've always found mobile passport faster and, well, at a price of $0, why not? Also, airports have gotten much better with staggering their international flight arrivals so that these small ports of entry aren't overwhelmed during one part of the day so the crowds were manageable.

A few questions:

• taxpayers invested quite a bit for these APC kiosks and it was assured that they helped ensure expedited and lawful entry; a win-win for everyone. now....we're back to the old days of long queues and are we seriously just going to toss all the investments we've made on those APC kiosks?
• before any international flight even reaches the United States, the flight manifest is transmitted via the Advance Passenger Information System (APIS). doesn't some magic government system already vet all the pax in the plane? why do we need even more scrutiny at the border if, in theory, everyone has already been vetted while the plane is in the air?
• one of the peculiar sights was a flight from Dublin, Ireland (I couldn't recall if it was the UA or EI flight), I thought CBP had a pre-clearance facility in DUB?

good news: I have an appointment next week with CBP for my global entry and nexus (it was a special enrollment opportunity put on by CBP and Canada's CBSA without having to travel to a Canadian port/border city). I think it's time to just bite the bullet and use GE instead of this mess.

The goal is to move to facial recognition and get rid of kiosks, paper and other foolishness. CBP will then circulate and pull aside those who are flagged from APIS data and some other random sample just to keep people honest.

The kiosks were a good interim solution, but the concept of moving people through without direct machine intervention is a good one.

A critical part of moving people through on arrival is to be consistent and provide less variance in times for an individual to clear entrance/re-entrance formalities and make connecting flights. Getting rid of MPC and scaling back on APC is not progress in that direction.

Even as a GE member, I miss MPC at IAD.

I will note that CBP doesn't really care that much about side-lining APC kiosks since it's been primarily the airlines/airports that have paid for the APC kiosks. MPC didn't involve a major CBP capital investment either, so I'm not surprised to see MPC scaled back, especially as CBP wants more people to pay up for GE than to use MPC to get nearly the same kind of outcome in terms of time to get landside.

I contacted the Washington Post after they did a story on Mobile Passport and let the reporter know about the issue at Dulles. She reached out to MWAA and received the following response:

Dulles Airport did have automated passport control kiosks (APC) and up until recently, we had the Mobile Passport Control app (MPC) for U.S and Canadian citizens. We have removed these options at the request of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). They have chosen to implement a newer technology using 100% biometric entry at Dulles International Airport, which means that all travelers will have their likeness compared to passport photos on record during the admissions process. We were informed that it would be significantly quicker to process travelers using biometric entry than Mobile Passport Control, which reduces wait times for all travelers.

We have not fully seen that result and have asked CBP to allow Mobile Passport as an option again. Recently, we were notified they will bring back Mobile Passport (MPC); however, we haven't been provided a date yet for re-implementation. MPC will surely speed up the arrivals process for all U.S. and Canadian Citizens; and improve the flow of our visitors queue as well.

We greatly appreciate all feedback from our customers and we look forward to the opportunity to welcome you to a much better experience on your next visit.


Airport Operations/Passenger Services Division
Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...bd38fb9a8b.jpg

David

Did IAD buy them or CBP? If the latter, presumably couldbe transfered to other airports.

Do they publish before/after data, or any other metrics on the performance of the new approach?