No Global Entry? No worries. As long as you've got a smartphone, you can still breeze through ... [+]
Ugh. ‘Tis the season of longer lines at the airport, as the long July 4th weekend kicks off a peak travel season that’s expected to be even busier than usual. That means travelers can expect a backup at customs and immigration when returning from international getaways.
Jetsetters often swear by Global Entry, a U.S.-government “trusted traveler” program that expedites passengers through customs when re-entering the country. Designed for “pre-approved, low risk” travelers coming into the United States, Global Entry works great for those who've thought ahead, gone through a pre-trip screening process and paid a $100 fee.
For the rest of us, there’s another totally legit path to the fast lane – one with no weeks-long processing time and no fee.
Mobile Passport is a free app officially authorized by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that lets you fill out customs forms on your phone and then sail through designated fast lanes at customs and immigration.
Despite that the app is nearly five years old and has been downloaded seven million times, it still manages to be an under-the-radar open secret among travel insiders. “It is still kind of a secret,” says Hans Miller, co-founder and CEO of Mobile Passport, “and one that’s especially useful now. The economy has been cranking, a lot of people are traveling, and the White House has directed DHS to surge a lot of the customs officers to the border – so there are fewer personnel available to handle people at the airports. We're projecting that it could get very, very busy because of some of these challenges.”
For folks who have never bothered jumping through the Global Entry hoops – fill out an online application, schedule a screening interview and fingerprinting – Mobile Passport can feel like a genius hack that’s too good to be true.
As long as you are entering the U.S. at one of the 26 participating airports or three Florida cruise ports, you can use Mobile Passport. While the app doesn’t work quite everywhere yet, it is good to go at most major airports, including Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, Chicago O'Hare, JFK, LAX, San Francisco, Austin, Baltimore, Miami and Houston.
Creating a profile on Mobile Passport takes just a few minutes.
Here’s how it works:
Download Mobile Passport on your iOS or Android device. While you can create your profile after landing in the U.S., it’s much handier to do it before you board the plane. Getting set up takes just a few minutes, including filling out your passport info and taking a selfie.
At the end of your flight, there’s no need to fill out one of the customs declaration forms that flight attendants hand out on the plane. Instead, once your plane touches down on U.S. soil, just open the app and answer the same series of yes-or-no questions from CBP, such as: Are you traveling for business? Are you bringing back any fruits and vegetables? Have you been in contact with livestock? Are you carrying more than $10,000 in currency?
After completing the form, you’ll get a QR code receipt. “Once you hit ‘submit,’ we package up your information and send it to CBP, and they come back with an encrypted response that we turn into a barcode on your phone, similar to a mobile boarding pass,” explains Miller.
In the arrivals hall, follow the signs to the Mobile Passport line. In some airports, the Global Entry and Mobile Passport lines are combined. Since CBP officers just have to scan the barcode on your app, you rarely have to wait in line more than a few minutes. Very often, there’s no line at all.
“Essentially, because you've already completed the data entry and processing work that the CBP would normally have to do, the transaction time is five times faster than it traditionally would be,” says Miller. “We've actually had people who were standing in line at customs here in the U.S. download the app and just step out of line. It's super fast.”
It’s also super private because your profile is stored only on your device. “There’s no database that can be hacked. The information is encrypted in such a way that only the consumer has the key to the encryption,” says Miller. “Nobody at our company has access. We don't even have a master key to unlock it.”
Mobile Passport is absolutely free if you use it once a year. You can choose to pay a $15 fee if you do a lot of international traveling and want to store your information so you don’t have to re-enter your information for every trip.
The obvious advantage of Mobile Passport is that you don’t have to plan ahead. You can have a Mobile Passport fastpass in a matter of minutes versus waiting weeks or months for a screening appointment for Global Entry.
The obvious advantage of Global Entry is that it also bundles in TSA Precheck, which gives travelers fast-lane access through security checkpoints at many US airports. If you travel mainly within the United States, it can be worth jumping through the extra hoops to get Global Entry.
But for procrastinators, infrequent flyers, and folks who just love free stuff? Mobile Passport the godsend you need this summer.
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