I got my conditional approval letter the other night! Took 4 months from when I signed up. I snagged a good interview too, first week of Feb. There were some openings for this week too but I have work, this was perfect allowing me to take some time off work.

Any tips when I go to the interview? What will happen? Should I mention I'm dating my Canadian gf, or just say visiting friends and shopping (which isn't a lie) - will I know if I'm approved that same day, and if so how long until I get my card, 3-5 days in mail?

Thanks

The interview is not as much a fact-finding exercise as it is a verification exercise, and indoctrination.

In the verification component, they may ask questions they already know the answers to, and are looking to confirm that you say what they know. So don't lie. With all due respect, until you put a ring on it, the gf is a friend. I don't think it's misrepresenting anything to say you have friends on the other side of the border, and you visit them, and anything you can do to simplify the process is going to make your life more pleasant. I don't think they have a lot of prurient interest anyway. They want to know what your default purpose of travel is: business or pleasure (equivalent to B1 or B2 visa). Your purpose is pleasure. That doesn't mean from time to time you take a business trip to a conference or something and tell the NEXUS machine that it's business, but your primary purpose is pleasure.

In the indoctrination component, they will teach you about the use of the machines, take your prints and eye scan, and read you the riot act over by golly do not bring undeclared chewing gum or it's the firing squad for you.

Typically they will tell you at the end of the interview that it'll be 7-10 days or whatever to get the card, meaning it's a done deal, but most people have posted that the approval came in the email immediately, and yes the card is 3-5 days for many people. They give themselves extra time just in case of mail delays.

Don't worry, just be honest and attentive and all should be well.

hi folks!

i got my NEXUS conditional approval notification today. i had gotten my global entry card last month.

i don't have dates for my next trip to Canada at this time. right now, interview dates are 4 months out (in may). when i do make travel plans, i don't know if it will be that far out. we may get there over the summer, or it may not be december before we go up again.

we are near washington, dc, so it isn't practical to get up to one of the border offices either. the only time i'm up in canada is for a weekend or few days to visit my in-laws in toronto once or twice a year.

do i need to schedule my interview within a certain time?

if i am not able to schedule an interview for the dates i will be traveling through YYZ, could i try doing a walk-in? do they take walk-in interviews at YYZ?

any other tips on getting the interview scheduled?

thanks!

May I ask when you applied for NEXUS? Just tyring to get timelines for my girlfriend who applied last month early December.

With regards to the rest of your questions, YYZ generally books 2-4 months in advance except for last minute cancellations or changes. When I booked, I kept looking few times every day to check for cancellations, and eventually got one a month from when I was conditionally approved. Since you're looking at specific dates, it might be very difficult to get the dates you want. However, there are 2 other enrollment centers close to YYZ, Ft. Erie and Niagara. They both can take Iris photographs, (nearby for Niagara), so you have a few more options if you're willing to make the drive.

I ended up at YYZ so I can't say what the experience would be for Ft. Erie and Niagara.

For walk-ins at YYZ, the worst they can say is no. Explain your situation and maybe they can squeeze you in, though you may have to wait for a bit. :)

You must schedule one within x amount of time, but you can always push that back as needed.

I know of one person who got conditional approval and didn't do their interview for over a year (pushed it back twice due to work).

No walk ups at YVR for sure, as they're fully booked all the time. Book an appointment for 4+ months out, then if you have any trips scheduled, check CONSTANTLY and hope for a slot opening up on those days.

You must schedule an interview within 30 days after getting the conditional approval. You can keep changing that interview, but you must have something scheduled or your application will lapse. So book whatever is available now and then just keep looking for cancellations that will work for you.

Walk ins are generally not allowed with how busy they are, you can ask but expect it to be no these days. They might have in the past but with the popularity of the program and especially at an airport location where the normal appointment times are months out they just do not do walk in appointments and ask people to only come on appointment.

Because people must schedule the appointments months away and they may not even know if they can make it there are plenty of cancellations for earlier times. Usually looking in the morning is a good time to snag an earlier spot. You can only cancel or book appointments that are over 24 hours away so getting an appointment for the next day will only likely be possible in the morning if someone remembers to cancel their appointment coming up at the last minute. If it's less than 24 hours the person needs to call the enrolment centre to cancel and the appointment slot will not become available online. They might take a walk in if that kind of late cancellation happens.

I found that just hitting refresh on the page does not show changes to the available appointment slots. I needed to go back to the main page or the time slot page and then back to the time slots page to see any new appointment slots have opened. At first I tried using a web plugin that would auto refresh the page every minute and beep if a certain bit of text changed but it didn't work as I hoped. It would refresh but the slot dates stayed the same until I went to the main page and clicked change appointment again. Still it didn't take long to get better appointments, just a day or two of checking. Needed 4 appointments and I was able to get them all done within a 2 week span. 3 out of 4 were eventually picked as just a few days later, and the last one I was actually more picky as I wanted a Thursday afternoon when the kids have early dismissal so it took a bit more time to get that one. Still didn't take too long.

Travelling to the enrolment centre will make things harder to schedule. Weekends are not a great time to shoot for. Those will have far less cancellations. Better to extend or shift your stay and at least try for a thursday, friday or monday appointment or pick a date far in advance you know you will be a good time for you to travel if you do not find something better.

Hello Globex!

I applied on 05-Dec-2013, so it took one month and 11 days.

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I will go ahead and schedule an appointment now, and then reschedule accordingly when travel plans come together.

Hmm, I wonder if it's any faster if you've already been approved for GE, since supposedly now you only need to be checked by Canada?

Perhaps, though the two approval process by CA and US probably move independently of each other, and the Global Entry application was approved in about a week if I remember correctly. I think the CA approval process would have been the long pole in the tent regardless.

I'm sure they have a number of factors they consider in the background check process, including the frequency of travel to CA, work history in CA, relationships in CA, etc.

They probably looked at how boring I am in all those regards and turned it around in short order. :)

As others said, just grab a date any time and watch cancellations to fine tune. I got a cancellation on the Saturday of a long weekend for my daughter. A whole family of 5 had cancelled. I was randomly checking on the Friday preceding the weekend, and grabbed 1pm, which was perfect for not waking up too early yet still driving 2 hours to Ft Erie. So keep the faith. It makes sense that there could be more cancellations on weekends as we get into spring and summer, family time, vacations, etc. and what is a bad time for someone else to stick around for a NEXUS interview could be a perfect time for you to get away to attend a NEXUS interview.

I don't know of, and based on this thread over the last several years, have not heard of any office that will take walk ins (except for doc updates, iris scans only).

Checking constantly is the best way to do this. That's how my wife got her interview. Her approval came in about a week before a YYZ trip, and the next one wasn't going to be for a few months. But checking a few times a day, a day before we left, we got an appointment that opened up (think 2 -3 days before the interview). So keep checking is the best piece of advice.

NEXUS Revoked
 

My roommate received email from NEXUS today and it says his membership was revoked and CBSA will send letter later. He has had NEXUS membership for over 3 years or so now.

He has never had any problems at US/Canada border before. In fact he hasn't used NEXUS for over 1 year. He rather uses GE often, but he has hasn't had any problems with GE either. Actually he used to be stopped by US immigration officers often because of his Mexican name and his latino looks (the officer told him that) before he got his NEXUS membership.
Anyway the last time he used GE was late November last year. He is so upset and he has no idea why he received the notice suddenly. He will know the reason later according to the email.

Does anybody have the same experience???

Well, maybe your roommate doesn't tell you everything? I would guess it is maybe some administrative mistake on his part like not giving them updated documents, address, or work info. Activity is not required, you could likely go all 5 years and never use the thing and they wouldn't complain.

Tell roommate to log into the GOES page, I think there is a good chance they would post the letter there.

He hasn't he updated his employment history since he graduated from collage last summer, and now he is working for a company. Maybe that's the reason???
He checked his GOES account but it just says he will receive letter.

When I did my interview at Champlain, NY, it was very quiet, and they told me that if you showed up as a walk-in with conditional approval and had some patience, there was a good chance they could get to you that day.