After experiencing this process, I think I like it...

The kiosk lobby had roughly 15 terminals, which fed to 2 CBP immigration officers.

This led to them processing each person very quickly. It's the first time I've returned to the US and not been interrogated. Just a quick scan of the passport and an entry stamp. No amateur behavior detection nonsense.

And apparently the picture doesn't really matter. The kiosk took a nearly unrecognizable side angle shot and no one seemed to care.

Indeed. Improve processing/wait times while reallocating the resources to other "work".

Am I mistaken in my recollection about the following? Wasn't there something that suggested that the cost for APC implementation was not being fully picked up by the CBP and that airlines and/or airports were paying for it at least in part? CBP pre-clearance sort of works that way.

I don't remember either; it sounds possible. ords can probably tell us if this is the case.

IIRC One of the linked articles about this noted the airlines were helping to pay (I have to dig back and find it).

Some airports are also paying for more CBP in some areas like IAH and DFW:
http://www.fly2houston.com/0/3921319/0/83280/

Also IAH has 15 GE kiosks because of extra airport funds.

Maybe I travel at off-peak times, but I have never seen more than 2 GE machines in use at any US POE. My last ORD arrival, I used the lav after we arrived at the gate and half the plane beat me to the Customs hall. No one was at a GE kiosk except me.

At IAH, when I came out of some deep South American flights a couple of years ago, I used to see 3-5 of the GE machines used at a time and then down to stragglers of 1-2. I don't assume that (3-5 users at one time) is representative of how it usually is there, but I noticed that a couple of years ago when GE membership must have been some fraction of what it is now.

Maybe the more than 2 GE users at a time took place while you were in the lav and GE users are more likely to be in the first half of the plane? I really don't know, but perhaps that helps explain observations that may look divergent on the face of things but really do align together pretty well.

I do think that the "excessive" machine availability may be done in order to make it more obvious to people that it works really quickly, so quickly that there is rarely or never going to be much of a line (if any line) to get to a machine and on the way to the baggage claim and/or exit hall.

I've seen a max of 13 in use at one time at IAH and two were "down for mx" and I had to wait 20-30 seconds for one to open up with one person in line behind me.

Coming in when the BA flight and UA flight hit from LHR around the same time can be busy, and when coming in from FRA both on the LH 380, plus there are boucoup RJs from Mexico arriving at that time.

In my last few uses ~half the people using the kiosks were UA crew, YMMV.

CBP actually has had two uniformed agents staffing the GE "exit" from the 15 IAH kiosks and from that point you turn left to bypass the second exit if only carry-on or go right for baggage and customs.

Some articles were posted by HAS-Houston Airport System noting IAH had the highest level of GE membership and usage. As the program has expanded I don't know if that is true.

Sidenote-Two trips ago the one-stop CBP lane was 30 deep...but seemed to be moving fast.

At EWR Term-B three weeks ago I had 5 in line in front of me for the GE kiosks. Took about 2 minutes to get through.
I think EWR could use more....My $0.02 :-)


I am actually surprised IAH did not get the new APC kiosks like ORD. HAS-IAH is normally first in line to do whatever CBP wants to try, from model port to one-stop to GE.

The APC kiosks at ORD are the only ones being used within the U.S. at this time. Again, these are different than GE.

Yes, more airports within the U.S. will eventually gets them but the cost at ORD was funded by the airlines directly. CBP (DHS) will not pay for these at all. So it's up to each airport to decide if it's worth the cost.

CBP in Washington has given the vendor in YVR the specs to start making changes to include ESTA travelers.





Regarding funneling all U.S. citizens into the APC kiosks. Yes that will become the norm at ORD.

I think we all know that, did someone say otherwise LOL?
I agree with you though this is going to be the norm and at some point CBP will pay.
Other airports will jump on board also. MIA, DFW and IAH pay for extra CBP time and if they find this reduces time better than more agents they will jump on it soon IMO.

I was too lazy to look back and read all the post. :cool:

Anyway, I know a few airports are balking at the cost already so we'll see what happens. Each kiosk cost around $75k each plus DHS requires a dedicated network admin to run it. It's not cheap, but personally any airport (or airlines) which refuses to look at these will be putting themselves behind others.

So when you look at airline misconnect cost, baggage cost, hotel cost and the such it's a no brainer. IIRC, last year misconnect cost at ORD was around $6MM alone for international flights.

After these were installed in July, data now shows only 2% of all passengers being processed had wait times greater than 60 minutes. (it's crept up some recently because the fiscal year is ending)

ORD has the ability to handle certain Canadian citizens using APC but it's being delayed until it's decided by CBP how they will handle the various Canadian visa holders.

The goal is to have the ESTA portion finished by end of March 2014 and with ORD being ready to test it prior to peak summer.

I'm breaking balls. :eek::cool:

I remember seeing the fed register posting, or maybe it was the RFP, for getting the ESTA to work on these. It would make sense in theory since Uncle Sam already has the info on those with ESTAs to have them skip step one with an agent and focus on customs.


As I mentioned IAH ahs 15 GE kiosks, and I was told the airport paid for 5 of them when they build the new single GE processing area. I'm still surprised they didn't jump on this too as CBP lackies.

Did ORD get the "one-stop" going? Last I heard they were to be the next airport after IAH to work on that. UA plays ball with the program so it would make sense IMO at ORD too.

That even 2% of passengers still have a 60 minute wait time is a disgraceful way to treat visitors and returning citizens. While it's an improvement from before, that's indicative of long delays for lots of people still.

It was a topic of discussion at a meeting this week and no disagreement from me or anyone else outside of CBP.

There's two, One Stop lanes open at ORD. The issue is the high use gates M8,9,10 and 11 funnel into the main hall, so we're losing a high number of folks that are not able to use them instead. They're working as intended and helping.

It probably frees up 1 person to work on the non-US citizens line, bringing the total up to 2 people total. It is a joke that place.