Customs Clearance Question

[Mura]

This isn't specific to Oceania, but since I primarily post here I thought I'd ask my question here.

 

We returned from 3 weeks in France this afternoon and while awaiting our turn at Passport Control I saw several individuals giving fingerprints and undergoing retinal scans.

 

Now, these people were in the "US Passport" line. And I noticed that all of the individuals I saw being scanned in this way were of Asian extraction.

 

Perhaps they were also people who were naturalized citizens ... I'd have no way of knowing that.

 

But I was struck by some people carrying U.S. passports going through tests that the rest of us were not.

 

Does anyone know what is going on? I was quite surprised at what I observed.

 

Mura

[ksps cruise fan]

This isn't specific to Oceania, but since I primarily post here I thought I'd ask my question here.

 

We returned from 3 weeks in France this afternoon and while awaiting our turn at Passport Control I saw several individuals giving fingerprints and undergoing retinal scans.

 

Now, these people were in the "US Passport" line. And I noticed that all of the individuals I saw being scanned in this way were of Asian extraction.

 

Perhaps they were also people who were naturalized citizens ... I'd have no way of knowing that.

 

But I was struck by some people carrying U.S. passports going through tests that the rest of us were not.

 

Does anyone know what is going on? I was quite surprised at what I observed.

 

Mura

 

Were they in the very same line as everyone else holding a US passport? If so, I'm just as confused as you.

 

If they were in a different line within the section for US passport holders, they were likely going through the special line for people who are registered as pre-screened frequent travelers. Several gateway international airports have special programs for people who submit to a lengthy investigative process. These people should be able to go up to a machine and either have their retinas scanned or some other recognition program, typcially more precise than fingerprints. When they make a match, they ought to be allowed to clear passport control without ever making contact with a human officer. The whole point to submit to the investigation is to speed up one's trip through passport control (not customs). If the pre-screen travelers are simply being dumped into the regular line, there seems to be little point to having paid the money for the screening.

[Mura]

I don't think that was the case because as far as I know JFK isn't part of that program, at least not yet.

 

But these were definitely people in the U.S. passport line. The only reason I noticed was because they were ahead of us (and we didn't have a long line at the moment). There were at least two, maybe three, instances of Asian looking people being scrutinized this way.

 

Mura

[ksps cruise fan]

I don't think that was the case because as far as I know JFK isn't part of that program, at least not yet.

 

But these were definitely people in the U.S. passport line. The only reason I noticed was because they were ahead of us (and we didn't have a long line at the moment). There were at least two, maybe three, instances of Asian looking people being scrutinized this way.

 

Mura

 

 

The program that uses the machines is called Global Entry. Below, I've included the link to the list of airports that already have these kiosks installed. You're right that JFK isn't one of those airports, but the NYC area is served by this program flying into Newark. (We have these machines in our international airport; my husband and I simply haven't gotten around to filling out the paperwork. My friend, with grandchildren in London, is enrolled in the program which I why I know about it.)

 

The Registered Traveler program was a pilot program in 2008-9. It hasn't been implemented in any airport yet, but the card that participants in the program received back then are considered acceptable as secondary ID at least for the present.

 

However, there's another, more likely explanation. Based on what I read on the TSA website, the government was satisfied with the results of the pilot but must wait on an airport authority to ask for the program before it can be implemented. Perhaps, that is what is going on at JFK.

 

Global Entry main URL: http://www.globalentry.gov/

 

List of airports with Global Entry: http://www.globalentry.gov/terminalmaps.html

[Earl Rosebery]

This isn't specific to Oceania, but since I primarily post here I thought I'd ask my question here.

 

We returned from 3 weeks in France this afternoon and while awaiting our turn at Passport Control I saw several individuals giving fingerprints and undergoing retinal scans.

 

Now, these people were in the "US Passport" line. And I noticed that all of the individuals I saw being scanned in this way were of Asian extraction.

 

Perhaps they were also people who were naturalized citizens ... I'd have no way of knowing that.

 

But I was struck by some people carrying U.S. passports going through tests that the rest of us were not.

 

Does anyone know what is going on? I was quite surprised at what I observed.

 

Mura

 

JFK seems to be one of the few airports where the staff are able to adapt. Once we flew in and the lines for non US Cits were horrendous. A few big jets at the same time. A staff member came and led a bunch of us through to a different check point with no lines. Haven't had that experience elsewhere.

[dundeene]

We came through Chicago a couple of weeks ago and the same thing happened.

There were far to many non-citizens on a few large jets all at once. One of the agents started splitting them up into lines for those with US passports only. It took us over 1 1 /2 hours with only a couple dozen people in front of us in line.

After a ten and a half hour flight from Rome we were tired and cranky.

[no fuss travel]

We use the global entry at YVR to go through US immigration. It really speeds things up. We just have to give a fingerprint and the machine recognizes us and voila we are on our way. It really cuts down on the time we have to wait at the airport. We have used the global entry at the airports in Montreal and Toronto on other trips and boy does it ever speed up the entry into Canada. I notice for our next Oceania trip, we will be able to use global entry in LAX which should speed things up considerably.

[pacheco18]

This isn't specific to Oceania, but since I primarily post here I thought I'd ask my question here.

 

We returned from 3 weeks in France this afternoon and while awaiting our turn at Passport Control I saw several individuals giving fingerprints and undergoing retinal scans.

 

Now, these people were in the "US Passport" line. And I noticed that all of the individuals I saw being scanned in this way were of Asian extraction.

 

Perhaps they were also people who were naturalized citizens ... I'd have no way of knowing that.

 

But I was struck by some people carrying U.S. passports going through tests that the rest of us were not.

 

Does anyone know what is going on? I was quite surprised at what I observed.

 

Mura

 

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I would love to hear what you thought of Viking for European river cruising -- it would be good to get some feedback from the perspective of someone who cruises O.

[orchestrapal]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I would love to hear what you thought of Viking for European river cruising -- it would be good to get some feedback from the perspective of someone who cruises O.

 

That would be better posted on the River Cruise board...

 

Back to Mura- We had the pleasure of flying last evening Philadelphia-Munich on the much hyped BL 1year anniversary. Security leaving was a nightmare

with many (although not ours) bags being opened and thoroughly gone through. We did notice that the first class passengers were treated much better. Phila.

does not have the new recognition services but we can't wait until it does especially if it speeds things up.

 

PS for those that fly internationally on USAirways- The new pods with flat bed seats and upgraded food make Envoy Class a real pleasure.

[Mura]

A few things ...

 

Laraine, write to me at mura at speakeasy dot net and I'll be happy to let you know what we thought.

 

We did see signs pointing to the global entry area, except as far as we knew it wasn't in operation yet (no reason why they can't put the signs up early, of course) but they were pointing over to the non-U.S. passport lines, and the people we saw were definitely in the U.S. passport lines.

 

I have to say that JFK isn't always wonderful about the non-U.S. lines because when we came in yesterday (about noon) those lines were horrendous -- the U.S. lines were not.

 

But I figure turn about is fair play because whenever we go to Europe, the EU lines are moving quickly and the non-EU lines are all jammed up. Last October in Paris they didn't even have a person manning the non-EU line! After about 10 minutes they took off one of the EU-line clerks to handle us. Since we were trying to make a tight connection at CDG we weren't exactly happy!

 

And I see from the newspapers that Heathrow and Gatwick are having terrible problems with long lines these days, and there is concern about what will happen when the Olympics are underway.

 

Airports are a problem just about everywhere these days, whether you are coming or going.

 

Mura

[no fuss travel]

Laraine Viking Europe is not near as good as Viking China. Just a quick reply to her question and yes I know it is not on topic.