-
Not sure where to put this, but it feels like we should be talking about this more.
So this is the free initiative that US Border Control have rolled out and the media (incl HfP beyond a few forum posts) don’t seem to have picked up on.
It’s available to US & Canadian passport holders and more recently anyone using an ESTA. Most – but not all – international airports in the US are covered, plus some pre-clearance points. There are some other foibles in there about first time ESTA users but from what I have heard, this isn’t really causing a problem.
Before departure, you need to download the MPC app. You can complete a lot of the information, but can only do the last stage which is submitting a “selfie” once you land in the US.
It also seems that if you are a family and living in the same household then you can all enter on a single application, but that wasn’t explained anywhere, it was just what the immigration agent told us.
Once the selfie is sent in, that’s it. I was under the impression the app would give me a QR code but that didn’t happen. There was no receipt, presumably the data is just transmitted automatically into the DHS system.
At immigration you will now see a separate queue for MPC. At Tampa there were three options – MPC, GE and “everyone else”. The MPC queue was much shorter than the general line. From what I could gather, if you have been into the US using the passport before, the officer will just scan your passport and that’s it. If it’s a new passport then it’s the biometrics process.
It feels like this system is still working through a number of issues and once these are ironed out it could well become less flexible, but if you don’t have GE then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be using this system on your next trip to the US. Looking at the slow moving queue at TPA I’d say we saved at least 45 mins.
As I said…
“(incl HfP beyond a few forum posts)”
The point stands that this should have been covered in the mainstream UK press – it hasn’t – and I reckon a lot of HfP readers would appreciate knowing how it works beyond your erudite assessment of “meh”.
It does seem that the Septics are getting on top of the problem.
Since the mainstream press hasn’t even covered the upcoming Nov 10 Euro fingerprinting change I’d be shocked if anyone outside Simon Calder ever mentioned the MPC.
Global Entry if you don’t mind paying wins hands down though.
But at $100 plus the hassle of registering you can’t justify GE if you’re only travelling once a year, can you, when MPC is free?
And unlike the border control clusterf&ck the EU seems set to launch on itself later in the year – where we will have no quick work around – MPC provides a free fast track solution for those who know.
Anyway if you’d rather ignore this and join the queue next time you arrive in the US be my guest. I simply thought a bit of insight as to how this worked might be welcome. Alas it seems many can’t see why saving hundreds of dollars and an hour of your life in return for a bit of planning makes sense on a family holiday…
Thanks TRST, I had missed davefl’s original post and read about this only in passing on the chat thread. Also surprised at the lack of HfP article.
Will defo use this on my next US trip, don’t visit enough for the whole family to register for GE.
Would be interested to hear if anyone’s used this in Seattle, our upcoming US arrival point!
No @The real Swiss Tony it’s useful and I missed the first thread last time around. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops and whether it just moves queries around in the end. The new scanners have pretty much eliminated the need for TSA Pre unless there is a massive queue of muggles meaning it’s a fast track.
Maybe I won’t renew when my GE is up of this works. It’s $100 for 5 years BTW and in my mind I compare it to the £6 fastrack fee at LGW (not that I ever need to pay that).
I used it at Dallas last month and it worked great. I filled in the form at home, took the selfie when I landed (while waiting to get off the plane), walked straight to the dedicated queue at Dallas and the facial recognition meant that I didn’t even hand over my passport.
I am flying to SFO in a couple of weeks, then to Tampa in October so will definitely do the same again and see if I get similar results.
I fly normally fly to the US 4 times a year and have considered Global Entry but if this works as well for my next few trips then I won’t bother.Used it for an LAX arrival this week. If I hadn’t actively waved the phone and said ‘MPC’ staff would have sent me with the masses they were waving in to the main queue. The MPC line for non-citizens was a line of 10 people, whereas the main queue was probably around 500. It was 1 desk only and took 30 mins, but probably better than the big queue still.
Would be interested to hear if anyone’s used this in Seattle, our upcoming US arrival point!
Used it back in July. Very easy to do and took about 30 mins in total, but it only saved me 10 mins vs the standard queue (I “raced” my colleague to see), as there were only 2 desks servicing it. That said, it was a Sunday afternoon arrival, and the main queue was short. I’ve queued well over 2h at SEA before when things have been bad.
Would be interested to hear if anyone’s used this in Seattle, our upcoming US arrival point!
Used it back in July. Very easy to do and took about 30 mins in total, but it only saved me 10 mins vs the standard queue (I “raced” my colleague to see), as there were only 2 desks servicing it. That said, it was a Sunday afternoon arrival, and the main queue was short. I’ve queued well over 2h at SEA before when things have been bad.
All really useful thanks – will report back in Oct.!
Flew into SEA two weeks ago last Sat on a slightly delayed VS105, there was nobody in the queue for MPC, we told the officer were driving straight up to Canada, no further questions, admitted in less than a minute.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
