Speaking only from my own anecdotal experience, my wife, my son (under 18) and I all had our renewals in the past six months. My wife didn't need an interview and her new card still had same picture as old one. My son needed an interview and got a new picture which is reasonable as he grew quite a bit in past 5 years. I needed an interview and got a new picture. When I asked the agent how they determine who needs to come in for an interview for a renewal, she said my wife was lucky, as 95% of renewals require an interview. If you come in for an interview, they will take a new picture, and fingerprints even though they may already be on file. YMMV.

Good to hear! Yeah, I think that by being 100% honest, having all the paperwork to back up my expungement and pretrial intervention, and having already been conditionally approved that I should be good.

So it sounds like they didn't really explain why you needed an interview and your wife didn't?

The way she explained it, most people need an interview, but a randomly chosen group representing about 5% of applicants do not need an interview.

Canadian airports don't have anything like TSA pre-check. If you show your nexus card along with bp when entering the security lines in YYZ you'll get to go in a special lane which may or may not save you a few minutes.

On one of my more recent trips out of YYZ we were running a bit late as it was. When I got to security the line was insane! Luckily we back tracked a tiny bit and went off to the right using NEXUS. Saved us way more than a few minutes.

THX for the info. Appreciate it :cool:

I'm happy to hear that others benefit from the NEXUS lanes for security... On Friday I was in YYZ and they let a bunch of random people in front of me in the NEXUS lane, including a gentleman travelling on an Indian passport (so there was no way he had NEXUS!) who had a litre of water in his pack, change in pants pocket, etc etc... Generally in YYC the lines for NEXUS moves the same speed or slower than any random regular line for the same reasons.

TSA Pre Check on the other hand has saved me at least 20 minutes of waiting in line every single time I've used it.

So, I applied for Nexus. Had my interview last month and got my formal approval dated at the end of the month.

I'm still a Nexus card short of a full deck and it's been about five weeks since my letter is dated. At what point should I worry about the card having gotten lost in the mail? I'm mainly asking because once I get my Nexus card I need to renew my passport (it's that time in the decade again...I have over a year left on it but I have some upcoming travel which spills into early next year and I want to get that tooth pulled sooner rather than later).

You should have the card by now. Only took 4 days from VT to Toronto for me, and other posts reflect a similar speed. Worth a phone call.

Ok, have left a message at the center I used. I'm not expecting a quick turnaround and don't know anything else to do for now, but...yeah, I'm a bit worried the card went astray.

Judging..
 

Citizenship is not the sole determination for Nexus, the man could also have been a permanent resident, i'm sure you are aware of that.

It's time to renew my Global Entry... is there a way to apply for Nexus and renew global entry at the same time? or are they two separate things that I should just do separately?

Nexus is a separate program that includes GE. To get Nexus you have to be approved by both Canada & the U.S. Also, Nexus is only $50 & GE is $100 (makes no sense). So, I would recommend applying for Nexus.

I believe a Nexus membership basically supercedes a GE membership, in the sense that your GE benefits/expiration will move to be tied to your Nexus membership. So might as well just apply for Nexus.

However, I believe you don't need to start your application from scratch - if see what happens when you begin your GE renewal and it gives you the option to check Nexus. IIRC, and granted I was renewing my Nexus membership, but back in 2013 or so, the first thing it did on the renewal app was to give checkboxes and ask about the programs I wanted to apply for (NEXUS, GE, or SENTRI) and I could have picked one to all three. If you select Nexus, you should get the cheaper Nexus rate instead of the higher GE rate. But obviously, you'll need to do an interview at a Nexus center, which are pretty much only in Canada or on/close to the US/Canadian border.