Iahflyer1

Kids policy is inconsistently applied
At yyz we were warned if we take our kids age 2 and 3 that our card will be cancelled!
In Iah we do this without a problem

GUWonder

For minor children who are eligible for Global Entry, what kind of questions do they ask the U18s at the time of the interview where the parents/guardians show up? Presumably, asking infants questions is pointless (with or without physical pointing).

frankmu

I don't remember much from my kids interview, but it was very quick, and painless. We had some issues with obtaining fingerprints off my oldest (he likes to bite his nails). I think we brought their school report cards for records.

My wife wanted them to answer this question "Have you ever been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor?" with "Convicted? No." Unfortunately for my wife, the question never came up.

bevoinva

I just took my 13 year old for his interview last weekend. The only thing they asked him was how old he was. The agent asked me if I already had GE, confirmed my address and then proceeded to take my son's fingerprints and photo. We talked about Pre-check for a few minutes and were out the door in 10 minutes. Confirmation for my son came in an email by the time we were home 20 minutes later.

intrepid720

My husband and I and our two children (aged 1.5 yr and 7 months) had our global entry interviews in December and were all approved. At the interview, the kids did not have fingerprints taken (this was at the DTW location).

We just came back from Asia on NRT-SFO last week, and couldn't figure out how to get the kiosk to recognize the kids. My husband and I did ours just fine. We got my 1.5 yr old's hand down on the fingerprint scanner, but it wouldn't accept them/couldn't verify (obviously - I don't think his fingerprints are in the system!). After several failed attempts to figure it out, we just took our two adult GE forms to the CBP agent and explained the situation. He had us fill out an old school customs form for the kids and marked it "2," as PP mentioned.

Does anyone know if there's a way to get the kiosk to process infants? They are members of the GE program, so....

Sam I Am

When we enrolled our infant (8 months at the time), they took her fingerprints (or tried to.. They got one hand, kinda.) But they told us not to expect that the kiosk will recognize her cute little fingers.

We were informed that when traveling with the baby, we should fill out the old-school form, and continue to the CBP agent/booth assigned by the kiosks for processing.

intrepid720

Thanks! Fill out the old school form just for the baby and process the adults through the kiosk? Or old school form for everyone in the party?

The people at DTW were super nice and helpful with the kids, but they didn't explain that part at all.

Appreciate the info.

Sam I Am

I think you can do either. My approach will just be to fill out the paper form for everyone, since it's the exact same amount of work, and then we don't have to spend time at the kiosk…

uwr

We got Nexus and Global Entry in November 2011, and after they allowed GE for children under 14, I enrolled my kids several months ago.

On our return on FCO-FRA-SEA last week, the customs officers were surprised that all four of us had GE. They had never seen a family with young children who had GE.

It did make a big difference. We would have had a 30 minute wait in immigration and a long wait at customs, as two DL flights from AMS and CDG came in just a few minutes before we did.

frankmu

^

It is worthwhile domestically when they can get three beeps for PreCheck (I know you can take one child under 13 through PreCheck with you, but it's nice if they can do it on their own)

bevoinva

I'm not aware of any limitation on the number of children under 13 you can take with you. On the Precheck FAQ site, it says:

jbrown2665

I am a member of Global Entry ( A GREAT program for frequent travelers) and in the past, have been allowed to go to the front of the line with my young twins and wife. My wife was just approved yesterday and we were advised that children must now join if they want to use the benefits of the program while traveling with their parents. The customs agent said that attempting to take children through that are not enrolled, could result in the loss of your card and cancellation of enrollment among other things. Probably worth the extra $100 per child just to be safe as there are no guarantees that you can skip to the front of the line when traveling with your family. By the way, the appointment bookings online can take two months from the time you receive your conditional approval, but we went to the Miami airport yesterday to standby for a walk in and they got us in and out in 45 minutes - not too bad!

Often1

GE is very backed up due to budget constraints. But, if you either watch the availability or are willing to risk a fruitless visit to t GE facility, it's likely that close-in appointments open (2-3 days out) or that they will simply deal with you on a walk-in basis. I think that they allow 20 minutes for an interview and most probably take well under 10. Lots of free time and they're pretty decent about it.

okazon69

I recently tried getting the kids (5 and 8 years old) fingerprinted for their Global Entry membership, and have to say it was a frustrating exercise:

The first time we went to YUL, the CBP agent flat-out refused to do it, saying children were not eligible for Global Entry. I knew this to be false, but did not feel like arguing.

I went back two weeks later, hoping to meet a different agent, but no such luck: I had to deal with the same guy. This time I had brought along a printout from the CBP website and while the agent was initially not very cooperative, after a short conversation with one of his colleagues he completely changed his tone and agreed to try.

The 8-year-old was fingerprinted, but the quality of the prints was not good. The agent still refused to do the 5-year-old. The CBP agent said that both kids' Machine Readable Zone (MRZ) information was in the system, however, and that he had made a note about the prints. He told us that he had heard of lots of problems with printing children and that the system is "not set up for that".

Questions:

1) Will we be sent to automatic secondary if the 8-year-old's prints don't read properly? I certainly don't want this to happen and am not willing to experiment when we are trying to catch a flight.

2) Can the 5-year-old still use Global Entry even if there are no prints on file?

3) Based on various threads here on FT (including the NEXUS thread in the Aeroplan forum), it would seem that many people have had success in getting their children, even much younger than ours, fingerprinted. What is the secret?

Any comments and feedback are greatly appreciated!

GUWonder

There is a process in place for GE use by those who can't or don't provide reliable fingerprints? I would have thought so.

You get a card for the child to get Global Entry access even if they aren't printed.