Earlier this year, I wrote about Newark Airport having Automated Border Clearance Machines.
Well – they have them at O’Hare. How do they stand up?
Well, the they work. That’s the good news where these have been called “Automated Passport Control“.
Here’s how it rolled at O’Hare:
- Get off plane at the back end of nowhere (gate M2… Seriously… Why????)
- Head to the border.
- The queue to enter the USA is divided. First time ESTA users outside USA in one queue. Global Entry has its own queue. Everyone else (US residents, Green Card, Canadians and repeat ESTA users get lumped into one queue.
You can tell where I’m going with this can’t you? 😉
That one queue took about 15 minutes to get to the head of.
Using the machines, it’s pretty similar to a CBP interview. Pop your passport in, confirm the details. The add biometrics, reasons for visiting the country.
A photo is taken, and then you’ll be given a receipt. One will allow you into the exit queue, whilst the other is a more in-depth border interview.
Except these aren’t directly accessible… Because there are MORE QUEUES!
I was screened into the successful queue, and after another 10 minutes was what I’d call an “immigration-lite” interview.
It’s also where you get the traditional thunk and stamp on your passport.
From there, it’s an almost traditional process – except the customs officer takes just the revolt from the automated border clearance machines, and doesn’t do anything with your customs docket.
And of course, there’s nowhere to dispose of a completed form securely… which is clever.
End to end… 40 minutes with three wide-body loads arriving.
Not impressive to be honest – although compared to the main queues that were taking at least an hour to process (rough guide … 1 switchback of a queue = 10 minute wait)
There certainly room to improve – but it’s a start – which for US Immigration is a small miracle in itself.
Those of you with Global Entry, hang onto it instead of this – you’ll be processed a lot quicker. If you’ve only got hand luggage use the One Stop Clearance
I suppose it’s a start. But it’s going to need more than this to shake off the image of a long wait to clear passport control in the USA.
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