Interesting experience at BOS yesterday.

Flew in with my gf on same PNR on LX52 from ZRH. She got through just fine. I, on the other hand, did not.

Brought back food and declared it to the customs officer after getting the X on the receipt. The officer looked a bit puzzled at first, so I offered "I marked food on the kiosk. He said, "Oh, so that's why you have the X?" "Yes." Then, the officer said I'd need to go to passport control, that it would take two minutes of my time (he was actually very sympathetic about it, it was odd). I said, "Last time I flew through IAD with food they wrote something on my ticket so I wouldn't have to and so I could go right through." He sighed a bit and wrote an "A" on my ticket and said "Okay, have a great day." I said the same.

Collected my luggage, and went to the GE customs section. A younger (30s) officer told me to put all my stuff through the XRAY machine since I had an X on my receipt (didn't have to do this in IAD last time). Said OK. He then said everything was fine. I started walking away when he called me over and said "Did you go through passport control?" I said, "No, I didn't have to..." He then said "Give me your passport." I did. Two other officers (after explaining why I didn't have to said "No, that's not right." "Odd". He then said "Wait". He yelled over for "Di Santis" who was an older guy who probably is a supervisor. He explained what I said to Di Santis, well, sort of, in front of the XRAY machine (I was behind it). I yelled "That's not what I said, can you please come over here." Both officers came over. I explained to him what I did say and Di Santis just agreed with me, but the other officer was making a bunch of accusations, the worst being "How, then, do we know he didn't just mark the 'A' on the sticker to bypass passport control." At that point I grew irate and said, calmly, "That's ridiculous. I don't know your coding." Di Santis saw I was getting aggravated and said "Okay, I'll take care of this." I asked "Am I free to go?" He said yes and walked off with the other customs officer who was still complaining to him.

So much for an effortless time. :td: Good job on Officer Di Santis! ^

Every passport.

When you get an X on your receipt, you have to go to immigration.

You walk toward the nearest passport control desk (which is usually yet another high priority line, often airline crew and diplomats) hold your receipt with the X clearly visible below your passport with the CBP sticker clearly visible and get the attention of the CBP officer. He will serve you next (ahead of the diplomats in that line. ^).

Worked for me just fine. Added a whole 60 seconds to my processing.

I know. This is what I did. Maybe I wasn't clear. The first officer I spoke to was the one that marked my ticket with an "A".

Your post is unclear ... what is passport control if not the immigration officer? I think you are still at cross-purposes in explaining who you interfaced with during the pass through the CBP checkpoint

Passport Control is a room (about 30x30, at least at BOS) that is for secondary checks.

Then your "two minute" description is confusing, as I've known no one who was sent there who got out in two minutes even if they weren't supposed to be there to begin with. I'd actually complain to GE folks that the guy didn't know how to process the X but was seated near the GE terminals - we should never get there unless we screwed up royally somewhere (and then would've been kicked out of GE so we should never be sent there as participants in the program)

The first officer told me it would take "two minutes" to get through "Passport Control". That's when I complained and when he marked my ticket with the "A". I don't know what that room means, but I'd say there was a breakdown in SOP somewhere. At least Officer Di Santis knew the rules and was nice.

Based on post #1027 and the ones that follow, even though bringing in food shouldn't cause too much extra time to get through CBP, it can--as was the case in #1027--conclusion(?), don't bring food through. GE is intended to save the "member" time clearing CBP.

Global Entry for German Citizens
 

After all these postings i did some research I remembered this news release a while ago:
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1271334386754.shtm

Quote: Under this statement, the United States and Germany will develop processes for qualified citizens of either country to apply for both the United States’ Global Entry program and Germany’s Automated and Biometrics-Supported Border Controls (ABG) program, which each use biometrics to identify trusted travelers.

Now, i assume this would mean German Citizens would become eligible for applying for Global Entry?

Are there any experiences on how much time will pass before this actually gets implemented? Does anyone recall how long it took between announcement and implementation of this for Dutch Citizens?

Not entirely clear -- I was told that a child under 14 (so not GE-eligible) might be able to piggyback on parents both of whom have GE. Or at least get front-of-line privileges.

worth the $100 on one flight
 

I got Global Entry specifically because of Dulles. I arrived there today at about 3pm from Narita on United. There must have been at least 5 other flights there. I saw signs for Heathrow, Mexico City, Brussels, and a couple of others I can't recall. The line backed all the way up to the escalator. Nevertheless, there was someone (don't know if from United or CBP) standing at the bottom of the escalator directing Global Entry members. Zipped up to the kiosk, no wait. Only 2 of the 4 kiosks were open and the two working ones failed while I was there. I got timed out because it couldn't read my prints. Grabbed my receipt, hopped over to the crew line (which was basically empty). The CBP guy was nice as could be and boom I was on my way to get my bag. Grabbed my bag and headed over to Customs. Ran into a friend who was transiting Dulles (from Brussels to LAX). He's not Global Entry and he had already been there 2 hours. Said goodbye and headed over to the Global Entry side of Customs. Officer took my receipt and off I went to the crushing reality of baggage re-check and TSA re-screen. Still, there's absolutely no way I would have made my connecting flight without this service -- I had almost 2 hours between flights.

When you guys got approved did you get anything other than the sticker and a booklet? (an email, or a change on the website?)

Yes. There will be a change on the GOES website under your account--login to see it. It may take a day or so after the interview, especially if your interview is during the weekend. You may also get an email from GOES that advises you to go to the site and check for a change in status.

IME, when you get an X on the receipt, you fill out the normal landing card, and hand it to the immigration guy. You are then processed normally (except that you have head of line privileges at immigration). The importation of food or goods in excess of your exemption should not direct you to a special passport control desk. It should direct you to the customs desk that is after baggage claim but before the exit of the arrivals hall, where a determination will be made of your duty assessment and/or whether you get to keep your food.

As I recall from an experience last year at ORD with an X on my receipt (I exceeded my exemption), customs was aware I had GE because they thanked me for my honesty, and then decided the $5 in extra duty wasn't worth their hassle. But I can't recall if I still had my GE receipt at that point.

Wirelessly posted (goingaway\'s phone: BlackBerry8900/4.6.1.231 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

That is not correct - the normal form is not needed for GE - period. The immig officer needs to mark the paper, that indicates a pass or go via customs insp to exit. No manual forms - if you have something else happening and are being told to fill out the blue/white form, it could be they are still learning the process