PSA: Register Your Global Entry Cards

~ cswada

We hit a little snag as we re-entered the United States where we simply were not aware our Global Entry cards needed to be activated before their first use. Thankfully, we didn’t incur too bad of a delay as a result of my mishap, but please go register your cards now before you forget.

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When we left Canada, it just so happened to be the morning of Canada Day. Given that Canada Day is July 1 and Independence Day is July 4, this tends to be a popular travel period between the US and Canada borders. I’ll admit I didn’t plan for this. While I expected longer than what it took for us to drive into Canada (five minutes), I didn’t expect it to be more than half an hour.

The line when we arrived into Canada (ideal conditions)

As we approached the Peace Arch, signs said 90 minutes of waiting. Thankfully, I had prepared for this by bringing our Global Entry cards. Global Entry is a very useful benefit of some premium credit cards, as it also gives TSA Precheck in addition to expedited entry into the US. Though some of us with quite a few premium cards can end up with more Global Entry credits than we can use, it’s a service I would consider paying out of pocket for if I didn’t have a premium credit card that reimbursed the fee (though in that case, it’s worth looking into getting Nexus membership since it also includes Global Entry and it’s also half the price of Global Entry).

I had no real excuse to use the Global Entry cards up until this point (since the card isn’t necessary when traveling by air). I knew that everyone in the vehicle needed to have a card and we all did, so I thought that was the only “gotcha” that I needed to worry about. And since this is the US-Canada border, there was no need to register our rental car in advance. So we entered the Nexus lane and bypassed much of the regular traffic, which was all at a complete standstill.

US Border Patrol officers were performing random vehicle checks as we got closer to the border. Our car wasn’t subject to inspection, as it seemed they were being selective with who they “randomly” checked (mostly single travelers). We got up to the front of the line, I flashed everyone’s Global Entry cards to the camera, and the officer told us we had a problem and we need to pull over to the side where we needed to get out of the car and fix our records.

Naturally, I was confused on what the deal was, but I of course complied and we entered the building where yet another lengthy line awaited. Thankfully, there is a Global Entry/Nexus lane there too, so we only needed to wait for one person ahead of us. The officer knew exactly why we were here–we didn’t activate our Global Entry cards–and made the comment that this is a common problem. The cards themselves don’t explicitly say activation is needed, but the officer said that we were supposed to do it and we didn’t.

We were sent along our way without any further delay. I would say the whole trip through the border, including the wait in both Nexus lines, was only about 15 minutes. Even with the delay of needing to go into the side building, we easily beat posted expectations of a 90 minute wait. Just do yourself a favor and activate your Global Entry cards before you cross the border. You don’t want to risk an unexpected lengthy wait or have your kids ask you if you did something wrong/illegal (ask me how I know).

Also, don’t go into that side building thinking you’ll be able to use the restroom immediately. The lines for the restroom rival the lines to speak to Border Patrol officers, which is quite unfortunate. Hopefully they find a way to build more restrooms or bring in some portable toilet stalls to help alleviate lines and prevent accidents.

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