Last I was there (a month ago), there were two of each I think (two GE, and at least one NEXUS).

I was last through on May 13th, and as of then there were two Nexus & two GE @ YVR.

This automated border control is similar to the German ABG (Automatisierte Biometrische Grenzkontrolle). I just registered for it thanks to the agreement between Global Entry and ABG.

The difference is that it still involves an iris scan to verify the identity of the passport holders. It works for both arrival and departure border control.

If the Canadian governments wants it citizens to be able to use automated border controls in other countries, I would hope it will persue some agreements with these countries which will in turn allow their citizens to use the canadian system. Global entry is doing this.

I fail to see why the government of Canada would care one iota about citizens being able to use automated border control systems in other countries.

Even if they did, to establish such agreements, we'd have to get some sort of biometric identifiers on our passports to be read by such machines. Good luck getting the ever-whingeing Canadian public to accept such a "government intrusion into our privacy".

It would be the same as a US passport, basically a chip, not a biometric identifier. The biomentric identification is done by the iris scan, same as nexus. If I'm not mistaken, the new canadian passports have or will have chips in them.

Right now US citizens who are GE members can use automatic border controls in the following countries:

Netherlands (requires registration and fee)
Korea (requires registration and fee)
Israel (no registration or fee)
Australia (no registration or fee)
Germany (registration, no fee)
UK (possibly since UK citizens can now register for GE but I have not checked with UKBS yet)

Those are ones I know of. If anyone has information on others, please post.

I like using Nexus line no matter how short the regular line up is. You never know when an agent will go off on some power trip and start asking all kinds of questions. The machine asks none of those random things an agent might ask

Huh? July 1st, dude. http://www.ppt.gc.ca/support/faq.aspx?lang=eng&id=q891

I went into the YYZ office and told them I had renewed my DL--and it could not be updated on line. They advised me they actually were not tracking that anymore and then said they would remove my DL from my profile...fine with me. Took about 5 minutes and I was out of there.

GE and a biometric passport. July 1 for us. We should start seeing deals like this after that.

A friend of mine got his CAD ePassport from Montreal passport office on friday May 17, 2013. On that day everyone was getting the new passport book (ePassport)

He was surprised to receive it but the agent told him they made for him the new passport with the old one fees free of charge as they are running out of old passport books.

:cool: Is it good for 5 or 10 years?

I just asked him and he told 5 years and the new passport is 36 pages only. However, he told me it is a very nice and sleek one.

I precleared at YYZ on Sunday for LAX in transit to Tokyo. Since I am allergic to 99% of what they eat here, I had some granola bars in the suitcase so I had to select "yes" for food and got the big X. I asked the desk guy who wasn't doing anything where to go and he pointed at some guy farther along (which I took to mean the card-collecting guy). The card collecting guy said I was supposed to go to another guy who is behind a non-transparent door. There is a sign saying "secondary" or something, but really poor directions. There could be a sign with a picture of an X'd card and an arrow leading to the door, but noooo they leave you to guess. In my opinion, the door could not be more invisible if they contrived it to be so. Inside secondary, they were chatting to one another so I had to wait for them to finish and then a guy took me and my bags to a counter, and asked what was up, and I said "in transit" and "granola bars" and he asked which bag and I said that one, so he looked in the other one, and sent me on my way. A little nuisance but no big deal.

Two 750mLs of wine in my suitcase coming back from MVD to JFK last night...selected "yes" to the "over your exemption" question (limit is 1L). Got the X at JFK T4; no dedicated GE desk folks like my previous time at LAX, so I waved the paper at the nearest regular passport control officer, who looked around for a sec before saying, "Just get in my line and I'll help you next."

Told her 2 bottles of wine, total 1.5L, and she said, "Let me look up the duty," typed something in her computer, and then a few seconds later stamped my passport and the customs declaration card (which I had filled out just to be safe--IIRC you don't normally need to fill it out as GE?) and sent me on my way without collecting anything. She said you'll pretty much always get the X if you answer yes to any of the questions, and I asked, "So next time I come back with the same amount of wine, I should still check 'yes'?" She said, "It's always better to be honest" with a smile.

Customs guy at exit was clueless, though--first he was ignoring me in the GE lane to the side of his regular line, so I finally called out, "Global Entry?" He paused for a second with a deer-in-the-headlights look and then waved me over, and when he saw the big X on my card, said, "Did they send you to secondary?" I said, "I'm over my exemption but the lady at passport control approved it." He then had to ask a coworker how to deal with the GE and customs declaration forms and then tried to wave me on my way without handing back my passport. ;)

Would have been a mostly quick (if not super-smooth) process except that Copa (at JFK at least) apparently doesn't bother prioritizing priority-tagged bags, so my bag didn't come out until T+40... :rolleyes:

I laughed at that, but I guess it makes sense.

I wish they could better deal with the "trusted" part of this "trusted traveler" program though. There are some stories on here about the card-collectors asking why you're being sent to secondary, and just letting you through for things like "granola bars", and I wish that was more common.