It's not just which country at a given time, but which part of the country. The one time I had a can of foie gras confiscated was during a bird flu outbreak in France. The agriculture officer spent several minutes showing me the memo which enumerated which areas of France were infected. It wasn't possible to determine from the label exactly where the foie gras was from, so he erred on the side of caution. :( At least I didn't get fined, as I had declared what I was bringing in.

And you need a PhD to sort through the regulations. France is OK on most of them, but there is one related to Horse Diseases where they fail. This in turn directs you to another regulation about this particular issue and so on. Does a problem with horses only affect horse meat, or is my Foie Gras a problem because of the horse issue. Who can tell quickly! Far easier for the officer to err on the side of caution and not allow it in. I'd be very surprised if anyone would ever be fined for trying to take in something that was borderline if properly declared.

Then you actually did declare all of the items, as they were explicitly listed on your blue customs declaration form. It would be impossible for them to claim you were trying to sneak these items in when it was written out for any CBP officer to read right on your form...and if anything, writing it on the form is even better than a verbal declaration, as you have significantly better evidence that you did declare these items (rather than it being just my word against hers) should anyone claim you were trying to sneak something in.

If he answered no the "food" question on the GE kiosk, didn't declare.

The blue form is just there in case you get an X.

It is best to err on the side of caution: if the kiosk asks if you have "food", then say yes. If the CBP officer then admonishes you for declaring your breath mint, too bad for him. You still get front of line access.

I just received my Global Entry sticker and authorisation today at Schiphol Airport (FLUX Alliance, ie. Global Entry and Dutch Privium). It was painless. The immigration officer just asked me if I had any criminal convictions or customs offences (obviously not) and told me how to use the machine, making sure to remind me to queue-barge at any available opportunity and to show my sticker. Looking forward to trying it in practice, although I will no doubt be self-conscious the first few times I do it. Interestingly, she made it clear that if I was just bringing back some chocolate or a bottle of duty-free booze, that I should not mark that I am carrying food. Then a nice chat in Dutch with the Marechaussee official about iris scans (we were talking about the UK Iris programme -- apparently the Dutch one is more reliable, which I would find easy to believe based on experience), one more payment to Flux Alliance and off I go. The Privium lounge at Schiphol is really very nice, stylish, something to see. I think it's a good thing that Dutch passport holders can take part in Global Entry and that US nationals can use Privium and it will be interesting to see how this programme is expanded when other countries are added in 2010.

ps: I heartily agree that Global Entry should also be brought to Denver.

One of the best uses for international traveler's $$
 

I used Global Entry for the first time today at IAH and it was so painless and so quick. As others have noted, there was a CBP officer there to assist at the kiosk.

As you would expect, I did receive some stares when I skipped the US citizen immigration line to go to the kiosks. When I got to customs, the officers pointed out the Global Entry lines on the far left and right sides and told me to be sure to take them in the future so as to speed my way out. We discussed the fact that the sight of some travelers skipping immigration lines and going to the head of customs lines was about the best advertising for the program. One CBP agent at customs said, 'Well, you paid for the privilege."

There appeared to be only about one plane's worth of passengers in the US immigration line today at 5:30 am when I arrived at immigration. When the surge hits out of South America later in the morning and out of Europe, Central America and Mexico in the afternoon, the GE registration process would have to seem even more worthwhile.

I arrived to MIA on AA 2110 from Lima yesterday and once again breezed through Immigration.

I wish MIA had a designated GE exit point at baggage claim.

One the CBP agents asked me to tell all my friends about the GE program, which I have.

Aren't the CBP folks great? They seem so proud of the program and happy people are using it. It's so unlike the sourpuss TSA guys.

The last two times I used the kiosk it actually took longer than the regular line because I was one of the first persons to arrive and I had to check off things on the screen rather than just hand over the pre-filled blue form.

However, even without a line I love the kiosks because I don't have to talk to the agents. It's worth the $20 a year.

I'm glad to hear that people are having good experiences with the program! I will be taking my first international flight since I signed up for GE, and I'll be happy to bypass the bank of five or six plane-loads of people landing at IAD when I return from LHR... Lets hope they deploy to more airports next year! (cross fingers DEN!)

Please don't lump the CBP officers with the TSA hacks.

CBP = professional federal officers

TSA = McDonald's wasn't hiring

+1 :D a very accurate summation.

Future GE changes
 

went through the GE interview process about a week or so ago and in casual conversation with the cbp officer he mentioned a couple of interesting things that I didn't know about the program.


1. GE allows you to avoid filling out the blue forms entirely, unless you are traveling in a party with non GE members. In this case, you and your party still must fill out those forms but can skip to the front of the line entirely.


2. CBP and TSA are apparently in early stages of cooperation with some kind of Registered Traveler program ( a government run Clear Card, if you will) based on the results of the GE program.

3. GE will be expanded and special dedicated lanes set up depending on whether the number of travellers on average surpasses some metric at various airports.



Has anyone else heard this or am I just misinformed?

Not new or earth-shattering. That has been a standard benefit of the program since its inception.


Sounds interesting. If GlobalEntry members will be able to keep our shoes on and laptops in, and have a special line, sounds VERY interesting.

Some stations have this kind of thing in place on a trial basis, such as MIA.

Link on .gov?

+1.

This March I will be using my Global Entry for the first time. I have never used or even been shown how to use the machine. Should I make an apointment with the people in ORD to be shown how to use the machine when I return or could I just walk up and explain the situation.

Thanks in advance