GUWonder

They don’t go finding me first. I go looking for them first when I need to do so, especially if there isn’t a person staffing the GE line right after the kiosk use.

blue_can

Came through YVR a couple of days ago and experienced the facial recognition machine - I was not expecting it and was surprised when after the photo the receipt came out. I guess they must have installed the system this year as I came through YVR at the beginning of the year and recall the old method of asking questions and verifying fingerprints. The person collecting the receipts also seemed to be processing people faster than in the past which was good.

Dubai Stu

You can download your I-94 online from CBP. As an attorney, I always encourage people to check the computer. I've seen stupid errors. I am a US citizen and have an I-94 stamped in my US passport admitting me as a B1/B2 visitor. Figure that one out!

https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/

Xyzzy

YYZ US preclearance has moved to the no-receipt version of GE. When one gets to speak to a CBP officer they ask for your name and if you haven anything to declare and then just welcome yu in. It was pretty easy.

NA-Flyer

Yup. The Pre-clearance facilities at YYZ is becoming a state of the art

abaheti

Data point today at LAX. Walked up, sign on kiosk said remove mask and glasses. Then screen says "proceed". Walked to the officer who had a tablet showing our faces in full color, large. He greeted each of us by first name, asked I had any food. I said coffee, tea, candy and he asked about dairy, meat, seeds. Told me to keep moving. Interestingly, I noticed that in the tablet my picture was typical of me at the kiosks -- looking down, face not showing perfectly (which used to make poor images on the printed receipts). Painless, efficient, and handled my concerns about not having an opportunity to declare stuff because I had human interaction. I'm impressed the facial recognition works that well but assume w passenger manifests the possible options of " me" are limited and then they do human verification.

1kprem

MIA GE kiosks at J area were not altogether working well this evening after my arrival on LX from Zurich. There are about 8 or 9 kiosks and three were inoperable. Many travelers had the same experience I had in that the machine kept saying “no face” even though we were putting our faces in the outline. Finally, one machine worked and a line formed behind that. And one seemed to work with fingerprints. It was confusing. I finally got one machine to work for me and headed to the officer who had my face on his screen. But it was very frustrating.

CorSter

Same as my experience except they also asked if I had checked bags.

​​​​​​Sat there for a few moments looking like an idiot until I realized I had to press the "Take Photo" button (unlike the Canadian Nexus kiosks that do it automatically) but otherwise seamless.

EDIflyer

My experience with GE 2.0 w/facial rec this evening at SFO was a slight variant on my recent experience at Boston - camera recognises you straight away, prints out a slip but then still have to queue for an agent, however this time they didn't stamp the passport. What's happened to the old system where you didn't need to queue to have your passport chekced, has that gone?

drewguy

This seems to have become an increasingly common situation. I'm wondering if CBP is waiting on repair parts and there are supply chain issues. Or if CBP is planning a whole new set of machines, with a better camera and internals for 2.0, and has just stopped maintenance on the older ones in advance of rollout.

Boraxo

Same for me at SFO yesterday. I presented my passport to scan but did not realize I had to press "start" on the screen. Not even sure if I needed the passport. Took all of 20 seconds for the facial scan to process and print the receipt.

The worst part was standing in a line of about 10 or so while the sole CBP officer (for GE line) took 5 minutes to process some dolt. Waiting defeats the entire purpose of GE. Immediately after that he left his booth and just started collecting paper forms. After glancing at the photo he asked "anything to declare" and then waived people through as soon as he received the right answer.

Gotta say Iike the no stopping for customs now though I noticed I had to pass through 2 scanners. Not sure how those works as I didn't see the red lights go off for anyone. Maybe they tag you electronically if you get flagged at immigration stop? Or random like Mexico customs? Who knows...

flyingron

Atlanta was testing out a new receiptless kiosk. I was nervous as all the kiosks I was passing were marked out of service but an agent pointed out that the ones on the very end worked. I sat there mugging in the target area of the thing before I realized you have to push the "take picture" button. Then you go to the booth where the guy looks at the pictures of people who recently went through the kiosks to wave you through. One guy was using a desktop of some sort but another had a tablet. I didn't have any problem but for some reason he couldn't pick my wife out of the line up (though I saw here plainly there). He also joked about the fact I was declaring 22 bottles of wine.

Still only a slight delay. Nothing compared to the fact that KLM seemed to have lost all the business class bags on that flight.

sullim4

Interesting. I just cleared at LAX on Saturday for the first time post COVID. The CBP officer simply waived my wife and I through after the kiosks and asked us no questions.

I had a small amount of overage of alcohol to declare (we had a case of wine coming from Argentina and Chile along with a bottle of Pisco) but it wasn't clear to me where to do this - I've only ever used GE at SEA and DUB pre-COVID where the old style kiosk spits out a receipt and you make any declarations to the officer at exit after baggage claim (or during the luggage picture show at DUB).

Having taken the same quantity of wine through these checkpoints before, I've always declared it at exit and the officer without fail never cares and just waives us through. I was expecting to do this at LAX but no officer was there after baggage claim to do so. I suppose this is more efficient for the vast, vast majority of cases where there is nothing of consequence to declare, but it's annoying at times that they don't provide program updates on changes like this. NEXUS is pretty good about this kind of thing and I wish GE would also be proactive and send email updates when changes like this are made.

747FC

Did you consider telling the officer about your overage? Probably just me, but I don’t want to chance a problem that leads to revocation.

sullim4

It didn't even occur to me. After an 11 hour flight, and having been in "travel mode" for 25 hours through various airports, I was in a half zombie state. I was focused on making our connection, schlepping our bags to a different terminal to re-check them, and I concluded I'd eventually be asked these questions explicitly by a machine or a CBP officer, like every other time I've crossed a land, air, or sea border.

I applaud the fact that they made the kiosk easy, but changes like this should be communicated so that participants know what to do. Even just a sign that says something like, "Please make all declarations to the officer manning the kiosks" would have been sufficient, if that's indeed what they want us to do.