With respect, I think that logic is a little short sighted.

First off, the Federal Gov't just raised the duty and exemption limit from $200 to $400 for 48 hours out of the country.

Secondly, while I am sure the gov't wants to charge the duty and tax (what government doesn't) I think issues such as controlling the spread of desease (SARS), farm related issues and illegal / new imigrants, drugs, guns, etc. are just as important.

Flying into LAX from AKL, the setup is virtually the same, with the exception of no one checking on immigration, just handing over the cards after you get your luggage.

Hey, look at it this way, you cannot even ship Alcohol between some US states (to coin your Freedom of Movement)

I see.

Still, since one is supposed to self-declare on the forms it is really just a formality. For that reason the NEXUS booths make sense, it speeds up a relatively useless process.

To me the purporse of a passport is simply to determine whether one can lawfully stay in a country (this includes people who may be on a legitimate wanted list for criminals). The pre-flight recording of this information (either via OLCI or scan passport at AC check-in kiosk) accomplishes this nicely.

A few thoughts: SARS and such cannot be contained, it's impossible when we are surrounded with 6-7 billion of our closest friends globally. Look @ recent case where sickened arriving passengers from an AC flight were left to wander and mingle with others at YYZ. And the case of TB found on an inbound flight. I'l bet that poor fella self-declared his alleged healthy status all the way...

Weapons are already scanned for upon luggage check in, and drug sniffer dogs do the rest. Again we see this process is already automated, it occurs behind the scenes.


(At least one can buy booze in corner stores in the USA, there's no way the Ontario govt. is giving up on that cash cow!)

My point is: remove these two bottlesnecks for collecting these cards, and rely more upon the personal interview with a customs agent and scanning of passport (which occurs upstream from the 2 bottleneck points). Israel has some of the best airport security and it relys heavily on human factors: behaviour, questioning. Or in the case of NEXUS this occurs at the initial interview.

The amount of duty that the passenger stream of customs generates is very very miniscule. Terminal one alone processes more than 20,000 people every day and I'd say 1/5th of them don't declare something that they should... whether it be commodities, food, or something a little more sinister.

The purpose I'm sure of these checks is to safeguard ourselves from possible threats. Did you know back in the 1930's that a sausage from hungary started the foot and mouth disease epidemic that destroyed most of the praries cattle heards... or that people swallow drugs from the caribbean islands at an all-inclusive and coming back with a kilogram of dope in their bellies?

So in conclusion, I do believe both steps are necessary, but If instead of the first officer sitting in the booth, we just had a whole lot of those nexus machines, that'd be a good idea too. Then the officers can be free of the booths and walk around looking for the bad guys.

Just my two and a half cents.

I had absolutely no problems with getting Nexus as a Canadian-resident dual citizen. Because I live in Canada the on-site interview is with US border agents. As I had submitted information from both passports in the application form, this "interview" was a formality (didn't ask me any questions, really - -just punched stuff into his computer for 2 min and printed out the card.)

Overall the entire office seemed quite laid back (YYZ airport T1 office.)

I'm not sure citizenship or residency really matters in regards to who interviews you. I got processed at the exact same place you did, and had pretty much the same experience as you did, and I'm a US Citizen.

The only thing out of line was the behavior of one of the Canadian CBPers. Terse, rude and unpleasant to be around. Will never forget her face, and I remembered her badge number to stay away from for future information.

Has any else noticed an increase of the US folks to check for NEXUS cards lately? The last few times I've gone back to the States, through YYC and YOW, they've been asking for them.

Before that, I've never been asked.

Not universally true. Depends on state to state and even counties within a state.

That's a myth. Hoof and mouth (properly) is not fatal to livestock but it makes them unexportable and there are some health impairments. It's akin to humans contracting some disease that while not fatal may be debilitating to some degree..

Why bother with brining home dope when there's so much produced domestically?

And so you'd propose giving everyone entering Canada laxatives and make them wait until the laxatives have taken effect?

YYZ data point...

< 2 weeks for conditional approval

5 weeks before first appointment available.

I've never been asked for my card travelling either way through YYZ. This seems like a pretty useless check, as the machine will only (I hope) recognize the iris' of members. In this case, before/as you come up to the machine, the iris scan should be the point of discovering if you are a legitimate member of the program, and post-machine, the receipt that prints out seems to prove this.

On that note, I am actually surprised at how there never seem to be any DHS/CBP officers, or even airport personal, near the machines to just ask if you are a nexus member and are entitled to be in the area of the machine. I'm not talking about showing the card, but of a quick verbal confirmation. Heck, even UA does this is the elite line.

Just went through YYZ T3, no one asked for my Nexus card. I haven't had US Customs or Immigration officers ask for my Nexus card, but I have had CATSA ask to see my Nexus card because there was no stamp on my boarding pass.

I've never had it done at YYZ either.

Given the rude nature of someone at YYZ at my appointment and previous posts in this thread, I think they're trying to catch people without the card. Because if you're without the card, that's a violation of the TOS and you could be removed from the NEXUS program.

I have gone through YYZ T1 6 times in the past couple of weeks (coming and going) and have had no issues with asking for my card. I do always carry it as it just makes sense in the event the iris scan does not work; fortunately it has always worked and worked very well! Much better than the previous single eye scan!

Let me guess, it's also 6/6 without checked-in bags. :D Right?

Umm - more like 102/102 with no checked luggage...