I thought childern under 18 didn't need interviews?

Anyways, just got "condistionally approved" and all the centers around me are all booked up till mid july. Has anyone had sucess just showing up at the enrolment center asking for an interview slot?

"Interview" is a little bit of a stretch for the kids. Mine where not able to answer any questions as they did not speak at the time. For older ones 6-8 I have heard that nothing was asked on the children.

For your interview, call directly and ask. (Yes they never answer but leave a message etc). At some locations (YUL at least) they do not put cancellations back onto GOES.

Has anyone tried using the nexus pass instead of a passport at a non nexus crossing? What happened? Did the agent still want to see a passport? Do they scan the nexus card like a passport?

I went across this week at the Pacific Crossing in BC and the US Agent said no additional docs were required. The Nexus card was fine. I think he was just nice....a rarity.

Not unusual at all. If you do not plan on traveling by air, then you can certainly get a NEXUS card without having a passport. I was told this by the people at YUL, and was a bit surprised, but I guess they know best.

I also just applied for wife and kids, and was quite surprised that both kids got their letters two weeks before my wife did. We were suggesting the 4-year-old would drive the 2-year-old to the interview. ;)

Got an interview at YUL about two weeks from the date I called, so not bad, and on a Sunday morning (!). Will be interesting to see whether they ask the kids any questions.

All 3 machines were down in T3-Canadian Arrivals last night (and it was rather busy when I arrived)..

Hadn't noticed before that special services is on the exact opposite side of the arrivals area than the nexus machines :(....

They need to tape a little piece of paper on the nexus advertisement at the entrance that says all the machines are down, instead of just papering the machines themselves.

Machines were down Canada wide yesterday (according to the agent)

You can use the crew desk, or connections desk or any desk you want with Nexus if you don't want to walk the hall (I don't blame you)

question: using nexus to fly into Canada from Europe seems to work ok. Can we also use it to fly from Europe to US as Canadians?

Absolutely not. There are no Nexus kiosk's at any point-of-entry on US soil (well, airport, anyway). Nexus is also useless when flying Porter to the US, as you do not pre-clear in Canada, and therefore need to clear US C&I in the US.

At YVR when they said the machines were down there was NO lineup at all to talk to humans. As a result I didn't have time to get my passport out before reaching the desk. I apologized for not being ready, saying I was going to use Nexus but they're down. He stamped my card before my passport was out, swiped the passport and kinda shrugged at me which I took as "you can go" and that was that. I think it was actually quicker than playing "please move back a little". :)

They were working fine in YUL. I think Quebec is still in Canada, at least for now :D

depends on who you ask ;)

So I've gotten thoroughly confused with NEXUS now... I was just reviewing http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/whti-ivho/ls-tm-eng.html and wherever they mention NEXUS it's written as a passport OR NEXUS.. now it used to be NEXUS AND passport. With the 'secure' cards being issued has there been a policy shift (and final acknowledgement that as a WHTI document NEXUS can stand on it's own)?

Ha, midway through this post I decided to just call NEXUS and apparantly:

by car, you can take just a NEXUS card to enter the states but to get back into Canada you still need a passport or DL+birth certificate

by air, you can go through US Customs with only NEXUS but the Canadian Customs folks don't have the readers installed in every lane (yet) however, apparantly airport regulations require that all passengers carry passports.


Clear as mud...

Carry a passport - the NEXUS card is there to make things easier where facilities are operational. I found something better than NEXUS - using the Cannon Corners NY - Havelock QE border crossing. Immediate attention, courteous bilingual service, fine scenery. Since the border at Massena-Cornwall is blocked, I decided to cross the border at CC-H and cross the river at Valleyfield. Of course the Pont Msgr. Langlois is under construction, with more than half of the road surface gone. So there's a huge backup - but you can look at a Google map of Valleyfield and plot a neater approach. Separating the border and river crossings is an excellent tactic.

Ok...I have a question re: my first opportunity to use Nexus. I was at my home airport in Yeg doing the preclear shuffle. It was an evening flight so there was no body there. I went over to the nexus machine so that I could try it for the first time and got my printout. After this I turned to the guy in the booth and mentioned that it was my first time and I wanted to make sure I did it right and asked if I am to just give this slip to the second customs dude before baggage drop off. He replied "No, you are to come see me and give me the paper slip." So I walk over and am then subjected to a standard grilling that last about 5 minutes. Surprised I didn'tget my baggage search he finally sends me on my way. At the end, I asked him again just to verify, that if there was a line up of people, I am supposed to get my nexus slip and then butt wait for the next agent, essentially butting in line ahead of all the people waiting and not bypass the agent? He said "yup".

So, uhhh, what is the point again of Nexus and giving them my retinal scan and fingerprints, simply an advance to the front of the line card? I thought the point was to bypass the front line customs guys. Or is it just set up weird in YEG or hopefully, the guy was bored and was being a jerk and decided to lie to me re: how it really is supposed to work if there was a line up.

Anyone been through YEG going to the US and can offer some insight?

I'll try it coming home on the Canadian side in a few days...see how that goes.