US: Mobile Passport Control

[yorkshirelad1]

Saw this in the Times (Travel Doctor) on Saturday (3 Feb 2024)
url: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iberia-caused-1845-of-irreversible-damage-to-my-hand-luggage-help-0gbcr9r9v (not paywalled, apparently)

I’ve read that the US is extending the use of its Mobile Passport Control app to include those eligible for the visa-waiver programme. I would really like to use this when we visit the US again. We already have Estas. Do you have any more details?

Anyone who has spent hours in an infuriatingly slow-moving American immigration queue after a long transatlantic flight will be delighted by this news. The Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app allows eligible travellers to submit their travel document, photo and customs declaration information through a free, secure app on their smartphone or other mobile device and bypass the usual lines. Use of the MPC app was extended to returning Esta-holders on December 18 and they can now use the designated MPC queue at more than 30 airports. If it all works correctly (submit information before you fly and then take a photo on arrival), you’ll be able to whizz through immigration in minutes. But anecdotal evidence suggests you’re not always guaranteed a speedy exit because the designated MPC queues may not be open and the app is sometimes glitchy. Another way to speed through, if you’re planning frequent trips, is by applying for global entry, which lasts for five years. The fee is a non-refundable $100 (£79) and you’d need to attend an interview at a global entry enrolment centre in the US (cbp.gov).

[RockRabbit]

Saw this in the Times (Travel Doctor) on Saturday (3 Feb 2024)
url: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iberia-caused-1845-of-irreversible-damage-to-my-hand-luggage-help-0gbcr9r9v (not paywalled, apparently)

I’ve read that the US is extending the use of its Mobile Passport Control app to include those eligible for the visa-waiver programme. I would really like to use this when we visit the US again. We already have Estas. Do you have any more details?

Anyone who has spent hours in an infuriatingly slow-moving American immigration queue after a long transatlantic flight will be delighted by this news. The Mobile Passport Control (MPC) app allows eligible travellers to submit their travel document, photo and customs declaration information through a free, secure app on their smartphone or other mobile device and bypass the usual lines. Use of the MPC app was extended to returning Esta-holders on December 18 and they can now use the designated MPC queue at more than 30 airports. If it all works correctly (submit information before you fly and then take a photo on arrival), you’ll be able to whizz through immigration in minutes. But anecdotal evidence suggests you’re not always guaranteed a speedy exit because the designated MPC queues may not be open and the app is sometimes glitchy. Another way to speed through, if you’re planning frequent trips, is by applying for global entry, which lasts for five years. The fee is a non-refundable $100 (£79) and you’d need to attend an interview at a global entry enrolment centre in the US (cbp.gov).

This sounds similar to the Canadian system where in addition to eTA (USA ESTA) you now have an optional digital customs and immigration system aka ArriveCAN which you can complete before entry to Canada. I used the Canadian one last summer and it must have saved me all of 30 seconds

There are a couple of issues with it.

1. You still have to queue at Immigration/Customs but in the case of ArriveCAN you queue at an ArriveCAN terminal (equivalent to USA MPC queue). Of course when I arrived, the ArriveCAN terminals had longer queues than the normal ones and appeared to be very unreliable. Hopefully this will change as the system beds down?

2. At the terminal, ArrriveCAN then asks you to go through all the details you submitted from abroad again and re-confirm that they are correct, so all the system seems to achieve is to reduce the amount of data entry you need to do at the airport.

3. Once you go through ArriveCAN, you're still subject to a physical passport check and short interview by an Border guard in much the same way as before!

Therefore the only difference I could detect between the new and the old was that you go into a different queue and there is a bit less data entry. All a nothing burger really and the whole thing is incredibly bureaucratic. AFAIK, Canadians/Americans coming here just go to an eGate and bang they're through.

[Lootman]

Personally I would never travel overseas and rely 100% on a phone or phone app working at a foreign airport.

And although this does not answer your question directly one hack for avoiding US immigration delays upon arrival is to fly from Dublin. (Or Shannon but I have never done that). The reason is that you clear US immigration and customs at Dublin airport, and then arrive in the US as a domestic flight.

So a few times I have flown over to Dublin the day before and stayed at the airport Radisson overnight, which is walkable from the terminals. Check in early and you can waltz through US border control in minutes. Then relax in the amusingly titled "51st and Green" lounge until boarding.

I have a visa and so do not need an ESTA but that should not affect the processing time.

This method also avoids UK air passenger duty and the saving on that pays for my positioning flight, food/drinks and the hotel.