As you approach the border guard, hold up your Nexus card(s) to the RFID card reader. If you have more than one card, hold them all up, fanned out, at the same time; some lanes have a counter to let you know how many cards were read.

You now have the option of either using a TDC or making a verbal declaration. When making a verbal declaration, the border guards in the Nexus lanes exercise the same discretion as in the regular lanes as to whether or not you pay taxes/duties. If you're pretty sure they'll make you pay, using a TDC will save you from having to go in.

I was a bit worried about my first time using it as well and was afraid of messing it up some how. I'm not sure where you live and where you would typically cross, but my first trip across we took the Whirlpool bridge in Niagara Falls. Going in to the US you stop where you normally do if you're the next car, and when it's your turn you pull up half way to the booth and kind of hold the cards by your side window and it reads them from a distance. There is also a counter as mentioned that shows it read x number of cards.

Going back in to Canada it was the same procedure except there was no counter. I just assumed it read them correctly based on how easily it read them going the opposite way.

I prefer not to use a TDC myself because I find 9/10 times I get waved through even if I'm WAY over the limit. We went to Buffalo once with the sole purpose of buying a $500 phone. Was only there for maybe 2-3 hours and declared it coming back too. They let us go without paying. With the TDC you're guaranteed to be paying tax.

DO NOT fill out the TDC. Especially if you go to the US for less than 24 hours or are over your your personal exemption.

CBSA agents in the NEXUS lane have the same discretionary power than the agents in any other lanes. They can let you go without paying anything, or they can ask you to park your car and go inside to pay.

Doing a few day trips every month, I have developed a little strategy for the times I am sent to secondary inspection to pay duty/taxes:

1- At the primary inspection booth, declare the real amount of goods you purchased. Do not declare a lower amount as this is grounds for ending your NEXUS membership on the spot.
2- If you are asked to go inside to pay taxes and/or duty (it happens more often in the NEXUS lane than in other lanes) bring all your receipts with you and "dump" them on the counter along with your NEXUS card, your driver's license and the yellow slip the CBSA officer will give to you.
3- This is the most important point: DO NOT HELP THE CBSA AGENT UNDERSTAND YOUR INVOICES/RECEIPTS IN ANY WAY unless he asks you questions. In that case give as little information as possible. Secondary inspection agents also have discretionary power on the amount of taxes and duty they will charge you. If they don't clearly understand what you're bringing back according to your receipts they will either let you go without charging anything or charge a lot less than what you would actually have paid if you would have filled the TDC yourself declaring all the correct amounts in each categories. If possible, try to have both taxable and non-taxable items mixed on your receipts (such as groceries and merchandise), it makes them a lot more confusing and hard to understand.

What I like to do also is approximate the amount of duty/taxes I owe before arriving at the border. That way if the agent decides to charge me taxes/duty on a random amount because he does not understand my receipts and this comes up higher than what I have calculated I can ask for a supervisor to review the decision.

People have reported not paying even after filling out a TDC. I suspect those things get lost every now and then ;)

Hey guys,

Can the conditionnal approval happen anytime during the day or first thing in the morning ?
Just want to know if it's worth checkin any other time of the day.
Also has anyone been pre approved on a week end ?

Thanks.^

Is this such a wise idea? From my experience, they just add the total of all the receipts and look through them to see if anything are tax exempt such as purchases from a grocery store. Then again, I don't usually have THAT many receipts for them to sift through. Personally, it doesn't seem worth wasting my time over having them sort it out for the sake of $10 or what ever difference they might come up with.

You should receive an email when the conditional approval comes through. I don't know if there's a delay between the approval and the email, but if there is I would guess it's not long given that most people receive the final approval email very shortly after their interview.

As for time of day, my "account status change" notification was sent at about 4:00 pm and my wife's shortly after noon the next day (roughly corresponding to the difference in time of submitting our respective applications). These were both weekdays. I had been checking my application status daily online (since that's what they tell you to do!), so I'm pretty sure it had not yet been approved that morning.

[woohoo, 200th post!]

One of the problems I find with the TDC is the "Origin" section where you have to choose between Canada, US and Other. If I buy a 50$ pair of jeans made in Asia and 40$ of groceries made in the US I would be required to check "Other" and pay 18% duty on 50$ and 7% duty on 40$ plus GST/QST because there is no way to declare the origin of each category of goods.

By going inside and letting them do their "thing" the way I do, not only do I save over 30$ in taxes every time (I end up paying about 10-15$), I never pay duty and, if they ever decide they want to charge me some, I have the opportunity to prove what goods are from the US and Mexico and are therefore exempt of any duty under NAFTA (for most categories of items) and pay duty only on goods that are really dutiable.

Thanks for your answer Rare.
How long you had to wait for conditionnal approval ?

For me it was 18 days.

Ok thanks ^

Thank you so much for the very detailed responses! I'm so glad to know there are options to the TDC! We do day cross border shopping at the Queenston /Lewiston or Rainbow bridges a few times a year and we rarely pay any duty! Lets hope we retain this luck in the Nexus lane!

Nexus Application questions
 

I am in the process of filling out the paper application form, to be sent to one of the Niagara Falls or Montreal office. I would prefer to do this, rather than filling out the online form - which goes first to the US authorities.

1. Which process is faster - paper application to Niagara Falls, vs paper application to Montreal vs online application?

2. The form asks for preferred locations for the interview. But one has to set a location, time and date online. Is one restricted requesting a location on-line, rather than the one listed on the paper application.

If I do ask for the location and time/date online - will I be given several options, and then I can choose the option I prefer; or will I be limited to one location and time/date.

I ask, because there are 2 competing priorities for the interview - asap, and also a weekend option (ideally, I would like Ottawa on a weekend, but my options are Toronto or Montreal or even Vancouver on a weekend (I have family in the latter city), Ottawa only offers weekdays.

3. My wife and my daughter will also be applying. Can I ship the 3 applications in the same envelope? I plan to courier the application.

4. My daughter is 17 yrs old. Do I have provide documentary evidence that we are her parents by sending a photocopy of the appropriate documentation with the application, or can we just get away with bringing such documentation with us, when she gets the interview?

5. If we are accepted for nexus, do we then ask the Canadian official for the US global entry and US TSA-pre (screening) privileges?

Thanks.

Online application is quicker and it is also easier to book an interview after your application is approved.

If you do the online application, you can book your interview at any of the enrollment centres once you are Conditionnaly Approved. What many people do is that they book an interview on the first available day (which is often 6-7 months away) and then check for cancellations every day on GOES (the website where you make your application). Every member of your family need an appointment on the same day if you want to be interviewed together, if you make three appointments at different times on the same day you can arrive all together at the earliest time and you will be accommodated all together (this has been confirmed by a few members on previous pages)

You will not get approved faster if you send the applications via courrier. Again, I recommend doing the online application as this will be quicker for you, collect more precise informations about you and the members of your family and will make it easier for you to schedule an interview.

NEXUS application is not something you should expect to be completed in a few days. Conditional approval can take anywhere from 1 to 8 weeks (mine took 8 weeks last june) and slots available for three interviews on the same day will probably be in June or July especially if you want a spot during the weekend at busy centres such as Toronto or Montreal. For you information, enrollment centres located at land border crossings tend to be less busy than centres located at airports and delays for interviews range from 3 to 5 months at those locations.

They will probably ask you questions about that during your online interview and ask you to bring the appropriate documentation (birth certificate?) with you for the interview.

You ask the US agent for those privileges during the interview. Global Entry is offered to all NEXUS members when they arrive in the US from an international location at a participating airport and is also available at preclerance airports in Canada.

TSA Pre-Check is available with participating airlines only, you input your NEXUS number when you make your reservation online on the airlines website. On your boarding pass there will be a special barcode that will be scanned by the TSA ID checker at the airport security checkpoint, only then you will know if you are allowed to use the TSA Pre-Check lane. All NEXUS members with US or Canadian citizenship are entitled to participate in TSA Pre-Check, you do not need to request anything during the interview.

I'd like to add to this that it's not just participating airlines, it's participating airline/airport combinations. Just because United has it at SFO, doesn't mean every airline there does, or that United does at other airports that have Pre✓.

Also, you don't need any trusted traveler status to use Pre✓. A lot of airlines let their frequent fliers use it regardless of their trusted traveler status (or lack thereof).