Disembarking/Customs for non-US citizens is awful and lengthy.

[dani negreanu]

FYI--On one of the roll calls for a cruise next year, there has been a big discussion about "global entry." This is a program [it costs $100 to apply--but lasts for 5 years] that makes you a trusted traveler. There are special "short" lines at airports and [some] cruise terminals for this. You apply on line and then go for an interview.

 

If you travel very much this could be worthwhile for you. It gives you a TSA pre-check at airports, too.

 

Would u pls. direct me to the link for non-US citizens? I don't mind paying the 100$ fee ...

 

DH and me hold Israeli passports, for our next cruise we'll land in NY, and then leave from San Juan.

 

I'd very much like to "cut the line" :) Thanks for any info, Dani

[Single Cruiser]

Would u pls. direct me to the link for non-US citizens? I don't mind paying the 100$ fee ...

 

 

 

DH and me hold Israeli passports, for our next cruise we'll land in NY, and then leave from San Juan.

 

 

 

I'd very much like to "cut the line" :) Thanks for any info, Dani

 

 

Only non US allowed to apply are Germans, Dutch, Panama and Mexicans.

 

 

Can I join Global Entry if I am not a U.S. citizen or U.S. lawful permanent resident?

 

Global Entry is also available to citizens of the Netherlands who are enrolled in FLUX and Korean Smart Entry Service members. Citizens of Germany, Panama, and Mexico may also apply for Global Entry. Canadian NEXUS members have Global Entry benefits, but are not eligible to join.

 

 

 

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[dani negreanu]

Only non US allowed to apply are Germans, Dutch, Panama and Mexicans.

 

 

Can I join Global Entry if I am not a U.S. citizen or U.S. lawful permanent resident?

 

Global Entry is also available to citizens of the Netherlands who are enrolled in FLUX and Korean Smart Entry Service members. Citizens of Germany, Panama, and Mexico may also apply for Global Entry. Canadian NEXUS members have Global Entry benefits, but are not eligible to join.

 

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Thanks, Craig, for the detailed and quick answer.

 

Pity :(

[Tin can]

This is very useful thread for our Oasis cruise next April.

 

I'm a bit confused though as I often read on this forum that a lot of you here travel without passports so wasn't expecting much in the way of immigration checks back at Port Canaveral.

 

We fly from the UK into Chicago the day before we board so as UK citizens we were quite rightly expecting the immigration checks and lines at Chicago. Once technically in the USA I thought that would be it.

 

I wasn't expecting full departure and re-entering immigration processes when technically still in the USA on the cruise.

 

Perhaps I'm wrong, I might have to re-think our early transfer to Disney World after our cruise :confused:

 

 

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[chengkp75]

This is very useful thread for our Oasis cruise next April.

 

I'm a bit confused though as I often read on this forum that a lot of you here travel without passports so wasn't expecting much in the way of immigration checks back at Port Canaveral.

 

We fly from the UK into Chicago the day before we board so as UK citizens we were quite rightly expecting the immigration checks and lines at Chicago. Once technically in the USA I thought that would be it.

 

I wasn't expecting full departure and re-entering immigration processes when technically still in the USA on the cruise.

 

Perhaps I'm wrong, I might have to re-think our early transfer to Disney World after our cruise :confused:

 

 

.

 

First off, on the cruise why do you consider yourself "technically still in the US"? The ship is foreign flag, so the moment you board, you are no longer in the US, and the cruise calls at a non-US port, so just like an airplane, when the ship returns to the US after a call at a foreign port, you are entering the US again. There will be no departure immigration procedure, you will present your passport at the check in desk, and the agent will enter the information which gets entered onto the passenger manifest. CBP (Customs and Border Protection) will screen the passengers during the duration of the cruise.

 

The reason that US and Canadian citizens can cruise without a passport is an agreement between governments of the nations of the Western Hemisphere, where US and Canadian citizens on a closed loop cruise only calling on ports in the Western Hemisphere are allowed to cruise with a birth certificate and photo government ID. For air travel in the Western Hemisphere, a passport is still required of everyone. Again, the US allows this, as they have several days during the cruise to screen databases to clear all the passengers, not like the few hours they have for an airline manifest.

[Tin can]

First off, on the cruise why do you consider yourself "technically still in the US"? The ship is foreign flag, so the moment you board, you are no longer in the US, and the cruise calls at a non-US port, so just like an airplane, when the ship returns to the US after a call at a foreign port, you are entering the US again. There will be no departure immigration procedure, you will present your passport at the check in desk, and the agent will enter the information which gets entered onto the passenger manifest. CBP (Customs and Border Protection) will screen the passengers during the duration of the cruise.

 

The reason that US and Canadian citizens can cruise without a passport is an agreement between governments of the nations of the Western Hemisphere, where US and Canadian citizens on a closed loop cruise only calling on ports in the Western Hemisphere are allowed to cruise with a birth certificate and photo government ID. For air travel in the Western Hemisphere, a passport is still required of everyone. Again, the US allows this, as they have several days during the cruise to screen databases to clear all the passengers, not like the few hours they have for an airline manifest.

 

Thank you for your reply, very interesting.

 

Its very different over here, I'm sure I've never had to 're-enter' the UK after returning a cruise departing from Southampton. Not even when the cruise left the EU for our Baltic cruise stopping at Russia.

 

It might all be different in the future now we have left the EU.

 

 

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[chengkp75]

Thank you for your reply, very interesting.

 

Its very different over here, I'm sure I've never had to 're-enter' the UK after returning a cruise departing from Southampton. Not even when the cruise left the EU for our Baltic cruise stopping at Russia.

 

It might all be different in the future now we have left the EU.

 

 

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.

 

I'm sure if you left the EU you would have had to "re-enter". If the ship collected and kept the passports, which some lines do, then some countries will clear the ship with just a review of the passports and no face to face interview, so its all done behind the scenes. But then again, I'm not sure what documentation you needed in the EU when returning from a non-EU nation in Europe.

[Tin can]

I'm sure if you left the EU you would have had to "re-enter". If the ship collected and kept the passports, which some lines do, then some countries will clear the ship with just a review of the passports and no face to face interview, so its all done behind the scenes. But then again, I'm not sure what documentation you needed in the EU when returning from a non-EU nation in Europe.

 

Never had our passport kept cruising out of Southampton (we did from Dubai) and never had to clear customs or show our passport when re-entering the UK from EU and non EU countries cruises. Just walked off and collected our luggage.

 

Whether you are escorted off separately in groups at Southampton if you are a non EU passport holder for immigration I'm not sure.

 

 

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[lbjen]

Has the UK left the EU yet? I know there was a referendum but as far as I know nothing else has been done.

 

Galveston tends to have a lot less non-citizen passengers than Port Canaveral, where people come from all over to take a cruise. I'm sure they are better equipped for it than Galveston, which is primarily a 'drive-to' port.

Edited September 9, 2016 by lbjen

[Tin can]

Has the UK left the EU yet? I know there was a referendum but as far as I know nothing else has been done.

 

We are apparently negotiating our way out at the moment, nothing official will commence until we invoke 'article 50' which is some red tape bound leaving mechanism.

 

I'll leave them to get on with it I think :)

 

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Edited September 9, 2016 by Tin can

[MikeNJ1109]

So far Global Entry is only available at Port Everglades, not in Galveston. And it is based on your US passports, I don't believe that others would be eligible for the program....although we received a letter that there was a similar program available for entry into Great Britain.

 

I am a US citizen, but my wife is a German citizen with a US Green Card -- yet we both have Global Entry, and it is the best $100 per person that we ever spent. We literally zip through US Immigration and Customs instead of standing on the conga line that is normal Passport Control.

 

Yes, Legal Permanent Residents (Green Card Holders) are allowed to apply for and have Global Entry. Highly recommend it, and as others have mentioned an ancillary benefit is TSA Pre as well.

 

Michael

[MikeNJ1109]

Only non US allowed to apply are Germans, Dutch, Panama and Mexicans.

 

 

Can I join Global Entry if I am not a U.S. citizen or U.S. lawful permanent resident?

 

Global Entry is also available to citizens of the Netherlands who are enrolled in FLUX and Korean Smart Entry Service members. Citizens of Germany, Panama, and Mexico may also apply for Global Entry. Canadian NEXUS members have Global Entry benefits, but are not eligible to join.

 

 

 

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Just to be clear -- the Non-US citizens listed above are indeed allowed to apply for GE, but what should have been stated is "Non-US Citizen / Non US Permanent Resident". There are reciprocal agreements between CBP and these specific other countries to allow their citizens to apply for and receive membership in the equivalent programs.

 

At the same time, if you are a Non US citizen but a US Legal Permanent Resident -- regardless of where your country is -- you are allowed to apply for and be approved for Global Entry. In addition to my wife being a German citizen with a US Green Card, our adopted daughter is a Guatemalan citizen with a US Green Card, and we got her Global entry as well, and had no issues.

 

Michael

[cbowls30]

Interested in this as we are cruising ex port canaveral next week, with British passports, I guess we shall see, but to be honest our flight home is not until 8pm so we are not exactly in a rush! Lol I shall report back and let you know how it goes!

[njkruzer]

I was surprised a few years ago when we sailed rt from Harwich on a cruise that included non EU countries, including Russia, that there were no immigration procedures. Debarked, picked up luggage and left. No forms to complete or officials and no lines!

[christi1805]

As a European Schengen Passport holder, coming back from the USA, I asked a German border police officer to handle all US citizen reciprocal and have them wait up to 2 hours until screened. He answered that "we are not that paranoid like INS and will handle all US citizen within 2 minutes". He also pointed out that in the computer netted age, all information is available for the officials for a speedy process.

US airports are a pest, with wait times up to 2 hours. Last week the only ever exception was Chicago's O'Hare: wait time 5 minutes only. Big kudos to ORD.

For other than US cruise ship pax in FLL or MIA ports: from 30minutes to 3 hours!

 

Good luck with paranoia

[kevinyork]

Interested in this as we are cruising ex port canaveral next week, with British passports, I guess we shall see, but to be honest our flight home is not until 8pm so we are not exactly in a rush! Lol I shall report back and let you know how it goes!

 

 

 

Be interested to know how it goes. We are on Oasis in Feb but have the ships Kennedy Space Centre tour with airport drop off. Not sure if the tour group get some sort of priority clearance or join the main lines.

 

 

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[kevinyork]

Never had our passport kept cruising out of Southampton (we did from Dubai) and never had to clear customs or show our passport when re-entering the UK from EU and non EU countries cruises. Just walked off and collected our luggage.

 

 

 

Whether you are escorted off separately in groups at Southampton if you are a non EU passport holder for immigration I'm not sure.

 

QUOTE]

 

 

Closed loop cruises from Southampton never require any passengers to clear immigration on arrival. It's cleared based on the manifest en masse.

 

We've done a transatlantic into Southampton and an immigration officer boarded in the Azores and cleared people over the next two days. Very relaxed experience with no queues and removed the need for inspection in Southampton.

 

In around 10 Southampton arrivals we've only seen some Customs Officers (different to Immigration) once.

 

Closed loop cruise ship passengers on the scale of things are low risk in terms of immigration but unfortunately US immigration don't seem to risk profile. Instead they want to see everybody, 100% of the time.

 

 

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[Toomanycritters]

Just for future reference, if you are traveling with US citizens and have a green card, you can go through the citizen line, this applies for airports too.

 

That has always been my experience at airports. This is the first time I've been told to stand in a different line. Trust me, there were plenty of annoyed US citizens standing in the line with me, along with their Green Card holding family members and they were all asking the same question and getting told the same answer - 'All non-US citizens, even those with Green Cards, MUST go through this line'. No one wanted to leave the line and go through the US citizen line and get booted back to the end of the non-US citizen line.

 

I even asked the customs officer about it once I finally reached the desk because I wondered a) why was it so painfully slow? and b) what would have happened if I'd gone through the other lines and c) why they had only 2 lines open when obviously it was a problem and the 8 lines for citizens were flying through. I figured it wouldn't have hurt to create another couple of lines for our slow moving group and it would probably only have caused an extra couple of minutes back-log for the citizens to move through at the rate they were being processed. Anyway, he said the fingerprinting EVERYONE takes a long time but it's not up to them how many lines are opened but he agrees with me, it's a problem and he couldn't really say what would have happened if I had gone with my kids through the US line. He said that the officer is supposed to send you back to the non-citizen line for processing with fingerprinting but he couldn't attest to whether some of them just let you through or not if you have citizens with you but it's not definitely not the policy to allow it.

 

I don't know what other ports are like but, for what it's worth, this was my experience in Galveston last month.

 

I would love to hear that other people have done it from Galveston, for future reference. Good luck :)

Edited September 9, 2016 by Toomanycritters
Added additional commentary

[easyboy]

That has always been my experience at airports. This is the first time I've been told to stand in a different line. Trust me, there were plenty of annoyed US citizens standing in the line with me, along with their Green Card holding family members and they were all asking the same question and getting told the same answer - 'All non-US citizens, even those with Green Cards, MUST go through this line'. No one wanted to leave the line and go through the US citizen line and get booted back to the end of the non-US citizen line.

 

I even asked the customs officer about it once I finally reached the desk because I wondered a) why was it so painfully slow? and b) what would have happened if I'd gone through the other lines and c) why they had only 2 lines open when obviously it was a problem and the 8 lines for citizens were flying through. I figured it wouldn't have hurt to create another couple of lines for our slow moving group and it would probably only have caused an extra couple of minutes back-log for the citizens to move through at the rate they were being processed. Anyway, he said the fingerprinting EVERYONE takes a long time but it's not up to them how many lines are opened but he agrees with me, it's a problem and he couldn't really say what would have happened if I had gone with my kids through the US line. He said that the officer is supposed to send you back to the non-citizen line for processing with fingerprinting but he couldn't attest to whether some of them just let you through or not if you have citizens with you but it's not definitely not the policy to allow it.

 

I don't know what other ports are like but, for what it's worth, this was my experience in Galveston last month.

 

I would love to hear that other people have done it from Galveston, for future reference. Good luck :)

I guess it's a judgment call by the agent who manages and control the line, not the agent taking the fingerprint.

If one of the line "for citizens only" becomes available, non citizens are diverted to it.

It then means each line (towards an agent) is capable of processing non-citizens for fingerprinting.

[squadron]

Wonder how they handle senior citizens who no longer have fingerprints. I had to be printed 3 times for a FL government issued card and each time I had no fingerprints. They finally had to do an FBI check on me before they could issue my card.

 

They explained than many/most women over 70 no longer have fingerprints, and they said it was due to all of the cleaning products we use over the years.

 

After reading your comments I was so interested I checked my fingers and realize that I have smooth finger tips! Think of how clean our kitchens must have been all these years!

[JAF1]

We sailed on Reflection last October to Miami and entry into the States was enough to put anyone off visiting. Collection of baggage was muddled and then the queue! US citizens were moving along at a fast pace whilst we were given plenty of chance to stand and 'admire' the walls as we just did not move. The people in front of us were on a b2b and wanted to just spend the day in Miami but then began to worry they would not get a chance to get out of the port before they had to get back on the ship. Unfortunately we are due to cruise in and out of Miami again at the start of the next year and I am dreading it. It is a good thing that flights back to the UK all leave in the evening or we would probably miss our flight.

[Lisa&Neb]

What happens to suite guests that are non us citizens? We are Canadian and have escorted debarkation (Royal Suite)? How does that work?

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We sailed on Reflection last October to Miami and entry into the States was enough to put anyone off visiting. Collection of baggage was muddled and then the queue! US citizens were moving along at a fast pace whilst we were given plenty of chance to stand and 'admire' the walls as we just did not move. The people in front of us were on a b2b and wanted to just spend the day in Miami but then began to worry they would not get a chance to get out of the port before they had to get back on the ship. Unfortunately we are due to cruise in and out of Miami again at the start of the next year and I am dreading it. It is a good thing that flights back to the UK all leave in the evening or we would probably miss our flight.

 

I consider the Miami airport as one of the worst we have ever flown from. We avoid it at all costs.

[joandian]

I am an Aussie and have a US greencard, husband is now a citizen and we always get into the Citizen lines at ports and have never had any problems. When you have a Green Card you are effectively granted those rights. We have Global Entry for use at the airport now so now issues there either.

[cbowls30]

I would be interested to hear how non-Eu passport holders get on when they disembark in Southampton uk?? Anyone??

 

 

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