INSPASS working now
 

Now that the terror threat level has fallen below Orange,does this mean that the INSPASS Machines are working now at the usual airports -eg LAX?
It makes my passage so much easier on entering the USA.I am a little confused as I read that airports will continue to work at the orange level.
Ozflier

The title of this thread is mis-leading. INSPASS is not working (at least not at LAX today) and customs said they will not be coming back.

I have ALWAYS gotten mixed answers about the INSPass. Yes, it's true - you can use them now that the Orange Alert is no longer.

I have used INSPass in LAX and sometimes it's working, sometimes it's not. The customs agents there really are clueless and when I got the new card a few months ago, the man there said there was NO intention of it being phased out - contrary to what MANY agents have told me in different airports - LAX, JFK, IAD, ORD, etc.!

Heard the same thing as auh2o at EWR. Oddly, though, the office where they process them at EWR is still staffed.

Edited to add: Officially, INSPass is still a "pilot program".

[This message has been edited by Axey (edited Jan 11, 2004).]

I renewed mine a year ago at Toronto Pearson airport and it worked when I used it at IAD last August. I understand Congress has stopped funding this program, which explains why a lot of machines have not been fixed.

I have always got the answer that the program does not exist anymore when inquirng about it...
-howie

I renewed my pass at Peason, Toronto in October (although the office had been closed the previous two trips) and used it in November.

As I understand it, officially the pilot program is still there, and you can still renew expired passes annually. The machines that are working (where available and at less than Orange alert) will continue to work until they stop working. The machines that have stopped working, or in the case of SFO international terminal - never installed, will not be brought back to working order.

Personally, I have not seen a working machine in about a year at IAD, SFO, LAX (UA, TBIT).

In the past year or so, ignoring the times when we have been at alert level Orange (when the machines are turned off), the INSPass machine in the TBIT at LAX worked about 80% of the time, the last time about two months ago, and 25% of the time in Terminal 7 (United), the last time in early December.

On my last few trips thru SFO I have gone over to the (out of order) INSPASS machine on the far left by the crew immigrations entry desk. If there was no one in the crew line I politely inquired when the machine would be working again. Generally I am told something like never because of security reasons or that the hand geometry scan is going to be replaced by a retinal scan. And then in every case that person offered to process my entry. Sure beats waiting in the long line.

When INSPASS was operational, it was very unreliable. Down much of the time -- both at the entry points and the places where you signed up and renewed the pass.

------------------
gfowler-ord-1k
Living in SIN

[This message has been edited by gfowler-ord-1k (edited Jan 12, 2004).]