Nexus Card

This is a question for other Canadians, from me, a Canadian.

I travel to or through the US often - 3 or 4 times a year. I thought it might be a good idea to get a Nexus Card to avoid border line-ups (terrible here near Vancouver) and to take the guess work out of whether I might be denied entry at some point for some reason, and no there is no reason to deny me entry). However, I don't like the idea of them having my fingerprints and eyeballprint. Is there anything they can do with these that would affect an ordinary Canadian citizen? I have always said that I would stop going there if I ever had to do this.

So, do I compromise all my principles for convenience? Sounds so, well, so opportunistic, to say the least. But another factor is that one of my friends I often go with has this card and we cannot travel together in the fast lane if I don't have one too.

Does anyone have a Nexus Card and would definitely recommend it? And, wtf does "Nexus" mean?

Edited by: siemprepatty

My folks have one, but they spend 3 or 4 months in the States every month.

NEXUS and FAST are joint Canada-US programs. You will just join the ranks of Canada Customs and Revenue Agency's databanks, NSA databank, etc etc

For your edification, and eventual enjoyment :

“The Canada Customs & Revenue Agency is creating a giant, extremely detailed database containing personal information of all Canadian air passengers for surveillance purposes. I twice wrote to the Hon. Elinor Caplan last year and called on her to dismantle this unwarranted surveillance of ordinary Canadians, which is slated to expand to all forms of travel to or from Canada. I do not oppose use of such data to identify passengers for secondary screening or anti-terrorist purposes, but the database as it exists if far too open-ended and intrusive.”
David Loukidelis
Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia

http://www.privcom.gc.ca/media/le_030130_2_e.asp

Profiling 101

Don't do anything wrong then you have noting to worry about. I have had had a Nexus for the past few years and an Inspass before that. yes you are giving up on personal privacy for speedier customs processing...its a trade off. To me well worthwhile for the time I save especially after landing at YYZ and say a PIA 747 landed ahead of me. The 45 minutes I save is worth more to me then the FBI and boder security having my fingerprints...the decision is really that simple.

I have always said that I would stop going there if I ever had to do this.

Then you engaged in the same dumb rhetoric as everyone else, and are now backpedalling frantically when it comes to actually following through on your statements.

Yes, you're giving up a lot of privacy rights, if you care about that. Otherwise, what #3 says.

Yes, I'm justifying and my "justification" is that I think the day is coming when we are all going to have to give our fingerprints and do the eyeball scan anyway (maybe even to our own government), just like the rest of the world does now to enter the US. Plus, there are times where convenience, or also in my case, finances (a $530 airfare to Costa Rica as opposed to $1400 going through Toronto), make it very easy to justify.

I also know people denied entry, or grilled for half an hour or more (missing or almost missing flights at US Immigration pre-clearance at YVR), because of, well, who knows what reason as they won't tell you. Such a dilemma!

I'l probably do it but it sure makes me feel like a "compromiser."

There isn't a reason - it's because the border guard decided that Person X would be grilled that day.

Which, ultimately, is what it comes down to. In the absence of a criminal record (and even sometimes with one), the only thing that will hold you up, or not, at the border is your personal and individual interaction with the person behind the border guard desk.

If it makes you feel any better, the Canadian bureaucracy couldn't organize or keep track of a bake sale at a local elementary school, let alone eyeball scans or fingerprints. Yes, you may have to submit the info at some point, but it will disappear into the vast unknown somewhere (perhaps a warehouse in Miramichi, who knows). And the US government is even worse. So I wouldn't worry too much about your privacy rights, because your personal info will be lost long before you appear at any border crossing, or before the government can do something menacing with it (like, for instance, file it away properly).

So, despite all the claims about fancy security systems and registries - ultimately, it's really about that one single face-to-face interaction with the border guard. Be polite, presentable, and friendly (but not overly so). If you're young, white and good-looking, even better.

My parents just got theirs and have used it once. I plan on getting mine now that my passport has been renewed. Personally, I'm not too concerned about them having my eyeball scan etc as I've never had nor intend having a run-in with the law.
My parents have only used theirs once so far and the border crossing was not lined up in any way that day so they didn't get to feel smug. If I get any further feedback I'll let you know.

"I heard" that "they" have a computer profile of every person's movements on the internet. It wouldn't be so hard for "them" to do this, since when I signed up for a yahoo address or something like that to get a Flickr account, somehow "the system" knew how to link to all my other seemingly unrelated logins and webpages. It was a little scary. If they can just correlate my identity "they" now have, with the IP address of my computer, and then track all my movements, it seems feasible. Is this true? I imagine the government could use this to make political profiles of people and eventually deny entry to or harass those they feel do not uphold the beliefs and values of the country in question, even if they have no criminal record or previous run-ins with border security.

I have one, though I don't think I can use it anymore now I am not a resident of Canada (I have to check on that).

It's very handy if you travel between Canada and the U.S. more than a couple times a year. As I was often travelling for business, being able to arrive at the airport on a Monday morning and not have to wait for 45 in the USA pre-clearance customs line was a godsend.

As for what they can do with the information, the US already had my fingerprints, as a border guard once took it when I was getting a NAFTA visa, even though I don't think I was required to give them. As for the retina scan, given that I am unlikely to leave my eye at the scene of a crime, I figure there isn't much more information I am giving them.

The biggest thing that bothered me in dealing with the USA was when I had to file taxes, and one of the forms you need to fill out asks for all your bank accounts, even if the money in them wasn't earned in the US. That I felt was very intrusive of them. But unless you are working there, you probably don't need to worry about that.

I imagine the government could use this to make political profiles of people and eventually deny entry to or harass those they feel do not uphold the beliefs and values of the country in question, even if they have no criminal record or previous run-ins with border security

Well then you've obviously never seen the inner workings of a government. The government is made up of a bunch of people, just like you and me, who really aren't that interested for the most part in their jobs. They go to work, play on the internet, answer a phone call here and there, and go home, whereupon they try and forget that they have to work for a living at all. And then they retire. Trust me, it isn't the government monitoring your movements on yahoo. It might be Yahoo - they'd be far better at it - or it might be a global ring of organized criminals. But it's definitely not the government.

I have one, and although I am concerned about personal privacy i gave that up when I got enhanced security status with the RCMP. since they already have my fingerprints it seemed silly to waffle on the eyeball scan. Incidentally, you don't need to provide an eyeball scan if you don't want to, but then you can only use the card for land crossings. At a cost of a mere $50 for 5 years I would say it pays for itself in time saved, even if you only use it a few times a year, as I do. If I save 10-15 hours a year in border lineups then I've been more than repaid. The only hitch is that you have to wait months for your interview.

yeah I remember the statement "never attribute to government conspiracy that which could be explained by government incompetence"

I had forgotten this, but the RCMP has my fingerprints too, from a security check, so that is just as good as the US whatever department having them, isn't it? So I'll probably go ahead with the Nexus pass.

Anyone know what NEXUS means/stands for?

nexus the word just means the connection of two points or of a series, so I expect it just alludes to the border connection between the US and Canada. I don't believe the letters stand for anything

I hate to admit it, but the vast majority of Canadians are about as dull as dull gets. I mean a nation obsessed with sweeping a broom across ice in front of a hard thing, and grown men chasing around a puck for millions of dollars and this is what these people get excited about?? I can never understand why they think anybody would be interested in what they do. I lived in Wpg for two academic yrs in the 70's and so many people there were obsessed about the CIA snooping around Manitoba (I was suspected of being an agent). Any outsider with actual brain function would consider the whole lot of the crazy - snoop on what - Grain & hog production which is available in the newspaper? How many waffles or perogis they consume? It is just the way so many Canadians think, ummm when they think at all.

I agree with you about the curling and the ice hockey, but everything else you said is a pile of crap!

I curl, and I love watching it too.

#15 - Did the Canadian and Manitoba taxpayers subsidize your education for two years so you probably paid a quarter or less of what you would have paid in the US? You're welcome!

Any outsider with actual brain function would consider the whole lot of the crazy

If an outsider such as you judges the whole country from what he has lived in the 70's in Winnipeg, then IMO you half-brained, at the very best. So you think the whole country is obsessed with curling and hockey? You think that Canada holds the monopoly of sport kids worth million of dollars for the game they play? If you have traveled half the known world as your "bio" pretends, I suggest that you keep travelling, but with your eyes, and mind, open for a change.

Canadian over-sensitivity, is another thing I dislike about Canadians.

Narrow-minded criticism of a country, from posters who are ashamed enough of their own country to not mention it in their profile, is another thing I dislike about some posters.

Saskja, are you referring to me or Edricepatty?

I am not referring to you, sodelicious.

Frankly, I find his opinion quite insulting. If I based my judment on, say, the whole USA and its inhabitants on my experience of the what people thought in say, Arkansas 40 years ago, I would rightfully be called names by US posters reading such statement from my part.

I live in Vancouver where the border crossings to US can amount to mucho hours in a lineup. I have family in Seattle so like to go there a few times a month. The nexus pass lets me zoom right through in minutes. I love it.

Yes, I had concerns about my privacy but considering that I use credit cards and post on the internet and reveal myself in a million ways everyday I figured the US having my fingerprints and retina scan was pretty much moot. And it's my understanding that the eyeball scan thing is going to become the new normal for international travel anyway.

A Supplementary Question.

IF I get this Nexus Card, which I probably will, when I fly from San Jose, Costa Rica to Miami, is there a Nexus queue so I don't have to suffer through US Immigration at the Miami Airport which I recall is awful? I realize this would be the eyeball scan card.

In theory, no. There is no actual Nexus queue for anything other than Canada/US crossings

However, you can sometimes get away with going through the crew lineup with your Nexus card, even though it's not supposed to be for that. Hit and miss, and if you miss then you hit the back of the regular line.

The machines have improved quite allot recently and I havent had a failure in about 8 months. Loudly saying "damn machine isnt working usually will get you access to the crew line, but if you are going through YYZ go to the machines on the left as that is where the crew lines are.

OK - I submitted the application on-line about a week ago. How long will I have to wait for my interview? I guess for the full deal - eyeball scan and all - I have to go to YVR, at least that is what my friend said, and that's fine because I'm only a short drive (or much cheaper bus ride) away.

you'll get a conditional acceptance within two weeks and with that they will ask you to book an interview time at whatever choice of locations is available to you locally. here in the vancouver the earliest available appointment was 3 month from the date I received the conditional acceptance. When you go do the interview you get the card on the spot.

Thanks to all.

Just an update. Received email notification today of conditional acceptance - that was about 10 days. Interview at YVR late September - so that's quicker than I thought too.