I am curious regarding additional passport/document checks GE members face at various airports. My understanding is that there isn't normally a requirement for an additional document check between the time the kiosk prints your receipt and the time you hand your receipt over at customs. However there have been reports of agents checking the receipt before allowing pax to pass immigration, or an additional if cursory passport checks, which can almost defeat the purpose of GE.

For instance, at DFW, there is now an informal check of your GE receipt, done by the contract immigration area staffers, not CBP agents. These staffers are generally roaming around inside the roped off GE kiosk 'area' but will call out at you if they see you walking through after printing your receipt. Generally holding up your receipt at them, even at a few feet distance, is enough for them to wave you on by. Never been stopped at the CBP booth right past the kiosk area. Before GE was expanded at DFW from 3 kiosks to an entire roped off area, I never had to do a receipt check, even with a customs area staffer.

What experiences have you had with GE document checking, and at which POE? And is it consistent at that POE?

Yes, at DFW, there are airport contract agents who will want to verify that you used the kiosk successfully (and did not get an X) before you are allowed to proceed downstairs to baggage claim and the Customs exit.

What I do is hold up my kiosk receipt, wave it at the contract agents, and then hold it up visible to the CBP officers at the nearby booths as I slowly walk by the booths.


Sometimes, the officer at the Customs exit will want to look at your passport to compare it to the kiosk receipt. Sometimes not. At ORD, the officer will want to verify that you have the CBP sticker in your passport. On my most recent entry (at HNL), the officer just took my kiosk receipt and said "welcome back" without checking anything.

Procedures seem to vary based on the port of entry and the individual officers on duty.

At IAH and ORD this year, I have encountered similar set ups. You do the kiosk, then show your receipt, green card ( and passport, good god) to a passport control CBP officer. The customs officer only looked at the receipt.

At IAD this month it was like the original process when the program started; just hand the receipt to the customs CBP officer. I was somewhat surprised, and as ESpen did, walked slowly away from the kiosk with receipt visible, lest I get challenged. Lucky I did not have an X; there was no officer staffing the nearest passport control booth.

What happens if you have GE but don't have the sticker?

Sometimes asked to show the passport and the receipt so they can examine both. Not sure how frequently that is the process for such circumstances but that is possibly what still happens whether it should or not.

At ORD, the officers always have asked to see my sticker. Every time, without exception.

At all other ports of entry, they never even mention the sticker. Sometimes they check my passport ID page against the kiosk receipt. Sometimes not. Now that the kiosk receipt includes a current ID photo taken while you were using the kiosk, I supposed it has become slightly less necessary to compare the information on the printout to the passport.

Interesting. I do still have the sticker, but with only two completely empty pages remaining in my passport, I am about to do a renewal and will no longer have a sticker. Of course I rarely fly into ORD anyhow (especially now that the AA/EY codeshare AUH-ORD is no longer eligible for the cheap I-fares, as it used to be).

Both LAX and JFK have had the annoying habit lately of asking about food products and, at LAX, currency controls. Its pretty stupid, given that the GE machine has been made more specific about what food you need to declare (you know, what is actually written into the law, instead of the more general blue form). So now, I have to say "well, I have some mints" or something like that.

Wirelessly posted (Apple iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_4 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B350 Safari/8536.25)

Just be truthful. If you have food, and you are a GE member, then you probably are quite aware of what is permitted. Just say "I have some chocolates" or whatever it is that you have.

Remember to leave anything containing fresh fruit on the aircraft! (Including from airline catering)

Were those questions asked at the customs checkpoint as you exited the CBP area?

Really? I've through ORD a thousand times, and never once have they shown the slightest interest in my sticker.

Where did you get that from? ORD has been one of my international bases for over 15 years. Never been asked to show any stickers.... You must raise some suspicions or .....

--J