That's exactly it. I went day-shopping a few weeks ago and was giving Mrs. Fly-yul a hard time about buying a few articles of clothing since I didn't want to pay the 18% duty (on top of gst & pst).

Then I remembered someone on this thread mentioning the 51% rule.

BTW diapers zero-rated under the QST system in Quebec.

My application finally went through and I got the notice to come in for the interview. I fly into YVR often but the the soonest appointment at YVR is August 20.

Instead I'm scheduled for the interview at Blaine.

I've done some searches before so apologies in advance if I'm repeating an oft-asked question, but I'm still confused on one or two points.

Do you still need to go to the airport to get the initial iris scan, or can they do that at Blaine now? If I need to go into YVR to take care of the iris scan, do I have to schedule an appointment through GOES or can I just walk in?

Better to call than rely on this thread.

360-332-2380
360-332-2381

You can get the interview done and Blaine and then just show up at YVR when you feel like (before 4:30 pm.) This is what I did. My iris scan at YVR took about 5 minutes and I did it the day after my Nexus interview at Blaine.

Also, if you don't want to wait I suggest you just pop into the Nexus office when in the area and ask if they have any free time/cancellations.

Perfect. I take it then that an appointment isn't necessary just to get the iris scan, if you've already got a card.

Next time I'm at YVR I'll see if they can squeeze me in. Failing that, I'll just snag myself a rental car and drive down to Blaine, and then head over to the airport to get the iris scan.

Correct, from the papers Blaine Nexus gave me not appt. is required for the airport iris scan.

When/if you rent a car you may wish to park it on the BC side and walk across. Canadians cannot drive a US plated vehicle into Canada. I am not sure if the same restriction applies to Americans into US.

Probably an excellent suggestion if the intention is to return to Canada after the process.

No. It's a rather-unique Can Customs thing ("Canada expects every man to pay his duty" thing). U.S. customs has no such hangup.

Almost three months! At YYZ it was about a month's wait; I had my interview and got my card yesterday. First use will be next week when I return from ZRH ...

You can only drive the US plated rental vehicle to the nearest rental station to exchange it for a Canadian plated rental vehicle, however.

Sanosuke!

I did my interview today - my first trip through customs with my spiffy new card is Monday!

Did anyone else have trouble with the iris scanners? I have a visual disability (I can only focus one eye at a time) which made it hard to capture the image. Unfortunately the lady doing the scan wasn't quite able to grasp my difficulty, and kept insisting that I focus on the circle til I saw two of them (not possible!). I passed the demo eye scan test, so I'm hoping it'll be ok once I get used to it.

Anyone updated their passport information at the YYZ office ... just had my passport renewed as the old one was full. Planning to just drop in on Monday on my way to a flight ... I seem to recall that was what they told me to do last year when I got the Nexus but the memory fails ! :)

I had no trouble getting my eyes scanned, but the demo machine did not work for me. However, I have not had any issues with the real-thing. I find them significantly better than the previous technology of a single eye scanner.

Good Luck!

Yes, you need to give them your passport to scan as soon as you have a new one. This is even more important with passports than for DL's, as they have access to the passport system and can probably tell your old one was replaced. If this is the case, you will definitely get a secondary to have it copied anyway, and could possibly have your NEXUS pulled if the officer is having a bad day - T+C's say you need to provide new/updated documents before you travel again.

I had a good day with my Nexus on Friday. I was able to use my Nexus card only as ID coming through EWR. It was accepted at check in (granted, Air Canada), through the TSA checkpoint (no questions asked, even) and for id to get on board the flight. Particularly with the TSA I was impressed - its the first time I have actually been able to use it without being questioned on whether it was a valid ID or not.

I'm wondering if this is luck or they are starting to learn - I hope the latter.

Filling in a TDC
 

Hello all,
I'm new to this forum. I have a question regarding Nexus. I've been a member for almost 6 months and mostly use it when flying in/out of YVR (I live in Vancouver). I sometimes use it at the land border too but oday was the first time I used the Traveler Declaration Card (TDC) since I rarely buy anything in the US.

My girlfriend and I were in the car, crossing back to Canada, both of us are Nexus members. We'd both bought small things in the US, within our $50 exemption for being away 24 hours, and wanted to declare the stuff on a TDC. We filled up a TDC each, but my question is, how do the Nexus people identify individual travelers from their TDC? There is no place on the card to fill in your name or Nexus number. Ok, there is a signature box but that's hardly definite identification. It turned out that neither of us had gone over our limit, but if we had, how would the system be able to identify which was which and charged our credit cards accordingly?

My girlfriend thinks that the serial numbers on the TDCs identify the person to whom the booklet was issued. But if that's the case we're worried that we may have filled in the wrong cards- since both our booklets have just been lying in the car for the last few months since we became members as we've never had to use them. We certainly don't remember now which booklet was issued to which one of us. We weren't told at the time of the Nexus interview to be careful to only fill up a TDC issued to us, and never really thought about it until today.
Any thoughts?