Global Entry With Kids: What You Need To Know

Great post! We are getting global entry for my wife and I through the ameriprise amex platin credit card. It has room for 3 authorized users.

Unfortunately we have six kids so it will take us a long time :-). We still need to I get all the kids PASSPORTS (8 passports are expensive!!)

A couple of things - it may depend on the agents as to what ages the kids get fingerprinted. At JFK, they did fingerprint my kids (aged 4, 3 at the time) and tried it with my toddler. It didn't work so they said they would let "him slide." 🙂
I'm not sure if this is still the case but Nexus used to be free for kids which means that Global Entry is free with that. Anyone know if this is still the case?

All my kids have Global Entry, my youngest is now 13. Unfortunately, it seems they (Delta, or the UM ground services people at BOS) never use it when she flies UM from Europe (even though, I include a note about it). But, she travels with me (or my wife) quite often; and it is of course a time saver in those situations (especially, when we do not have checked bags).

I personally think it makes sense to do for all your kids, since it's not a particularly painful process. In my sons interview (as a teenager) they only asked him "did you ever do anything really bad?"

My 4 year olds were both fingerprinted at EWR.

If I recall right, They tried to get prints from my 1 year old, but it didn't work so we skipped it. My 4 year old was successful.

It's worth mentioning that the NEXUS program, which provides expedited border clearance at either the US or Canadian border for qualifying citizens of either country, also gives holders access to Global Entry at any US port of entry - and is only $50 in either USD or CAD. It is valid for 5 years and has the added benefit of allowing access to NEXUS car lanes at land border crossings. Similar to Global Entry, everyone in your party or vehicle have to have it to use the expedited lanes. But it can really be worth it. If you think jumping the queue at JFK on occasion is a benefit, you've never tried to cross the US/Canadian border on the Friday of a long weekend when the line of cars going each way stretch off over the horizon.

One thing to be aware of is that the Global Entry interview scheduling may take a very long time at some airports. For example, the current wait time for Boston's Logan airport is FOUR MONTHS. That's your government at work, baby.

Travis, yes, nexus is still free for kids. I think the cutoff is 18 years old. Comes with global entry benefits too.

For a family of 4 such as yourself nexus would be 100 total versus 400 for global entry.

If you can make it to the border for the dual country interview it's a no brainer really

Thank you for the info...unfortunately we don't travel frequently enough to make this program worth the expense . I just wanted to say, your children are adorable. 🙂

@Andy good point re: both NEXUS family pricing (it is free for kids) and the need to get to a border crossing for the joint US/Canadian interview, which is not going to be convenient for many (with the exception of Seattle and Detroit which have downtown locations available). But it's worth remembering that you can also do it an international airport with US pre-clearance such as Toronto Pearson or Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver etc.

The full interview locations list is here: http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/prog/nexus/location-eng.html

I also didn't make it clear that while NEXUS gets you access to expedited lines or lanes entering Canada as well as expedited Global Entry entering the US, the reverse is *not* true. If you are a US citizen with Global Entry you do *not* get access to NEXUS fast track lines or lanes entering Canada at any port of entry. The only way to skip the queue entering Canada (today) is with a NEXUS card and everyone in your party or vehicle has to have one.

As a sidebar, in 2012 1/3 of all foreign visits to the US are made by Canadians and 2/3 of foreign visits to Canada are made by Americans. In terms of visits to the US, Canadians accounted for 22.7m trips, compared to the UK in 3rd spot with 3.8m. Huge delta.

Yes, Nexus is still free up until age 18. We just enrolled our 3 month old, with her interview in Toronto last week. Everything went smooth (they didn't ask her any questions). If you travel to Canada, well worth it - $50 cheaper than GE and you get it, also.

Interestingly enough, the U.S. Officer doing the "interview" told us not to use the GE machine for our little one at all - but to bring her through the GE lane with us and just fill out a blue customs declaration card for her, go through the regular GE process for us, and to just give the declaration & Nexus card to the officer working in the area to have her processed. This was a week and a half ago. I wonder if the process is different at a pre-clearance location, or if it is a matter of you get a different answer from different officers.

Also, noticed you've never seen the flight information be wrong. I've seen it not come up for my wife on occasion, and she's had to enter it in manually. But probably worse, when doing pre-clearance, every single time there's a connection, without fail, it will show the correct flight number for the U.S. - Canada segment, but the final destination (of the second segment). Kind of drives me mad, and i didn't know how i should handle it at first, but I just click that it's correct and I've never had an issue.

If the LEGO fails at Copenhagen Airport, the travel retail store next to the baggage belts sells all the candy necessary to fill up a kid's mouth 🙂

Great comments on Nexus. Will keep that in mind for the next round if I can't get anyone else to pay for our renewals.

Per the CBP website, you can also call and have them schedule a family appointment for the GE interview over the phone, if you have small kids

Elliott -- I can imagine skipping the GE process for the littles and just going to the officer, as that effectively is the net result anyway. We sort of just go through the motions at the kiosk, and it does print a receipt for them to take to the officer.

And yes, it does matter on the point of entry. There are slightly different rules (or at least expectations) at each one. This annoys my wife greatly, as she just wants to do the right thing.....

I had the same experience as some as the others - they did fingerprint my daughter, who was 17 months at the time. As one would expect, they didn't get good prints and we found out later they shouldn't have done them anyways. If you are going to take your kids, try to have the rules printed off from somewhere where it discusses kids and prints. We did ours in SLC.

My now 2.5yr old has it, and had her fingerprints taken at 19months. They managed to get a good print and then it worked coming into SFO. The obligatory photobomb happened, but the receipt was valid so we just continued as a family right through. The CBP agent was a little shocked that it worked... Will see if her prints change enough by the next trip.

Great and informative article! They did fingerprint my 4 & 5 year old in Seattle. We get the big X at the kiosk if the picture doesn't turn out. 🙂 the immigration officer during our interview process interviewed the kids way longer than the 2 of us. We couldn't figure out if he was just simply interested in what my kids have to say or catch us not telling the truth about our travels. Either way, we all got approved on the spot.

Charlie,

Nexus is still free for children until they reach 18. After that their minor membership would expire, they must update their account as an adult (no need to re register) and they would need to pay the $50 US fee. Hope this helps.

Laurie Hu,

You are correct in that some facilities take longer than others. What I would advise is check the website frequently for cancellation which due occur or if you are planning any domestic travel soon see if the city you are traveling too as a facility with less of a wait. You are not confined to facilities just in your state/ area.

Stuart,

Great info! If I may add something, border check points at Canada have three lanes General, Nexus, and Ready Lanes/ RFID (tech lingo). The ready lanes can be used by any of the GOES programs GE, Nexus, or Sentri while you and all passengers have membership cards in hand. Although not as fast as the Nexus lanes, it's still faster than the general lanes. This is same for Sentri at the US/ Mexican border.

Just FYI for those with Greencards. Use your GC at the kiosk instead of your passport. The instructions at the kiosks don't say that. I tried using my passport and it didn't work until I just decided to try my GC...

Great article, thanks for posting. I've had GE for over a year and it's been a huge benefit, enough of a benefit to justify signing up my wife and 9 year old daughter as well. Their interview is in August at EWR ... in the case of our 9 year old, what supporting documentation is required? We already know we have to bring her passport and the approval letter but what else? Birth certificate? Either my wife's or my drivers license to prove residential address?

We want to make sure we have our ducks in a row to avoid any issues.

Thanks

Michael

If you have Nexus, does that allow you to use TSA pre check when traveling domestically?

Nexus gives you eligibility for Pre-Check the same way GE does. You need to be flying a participating airline, and enter your PassID from the back of your Nexus card into the KTN field on your reservation. Note that Even doing that won't always get you pre-check, but it should most of the time.

I have GE by virtue of Nexus but it never works for my kids who have Nexus but were not fingerprinted since they were too young (1 & 3 years old). Usually the officer just lets us cut in line but does anyone know if they are "officially" GE? Or if there is something I need to do to get them official GE status due to their Nexus cards? I didn't do anything special and GE just started working once I was Nexus.

Thanks!

Thanks for the info. I'm debating whether to get the GE or TSA Pre check since I travel mainly domestically now. If I do the GE route, does the TSA Pre check rules around children still apply? Can they go through that line with me, even if they don't have GE?

Yes, the same rules apply. Any children (12 and under, I believe) should be able to go with you.

I usually travel with my wife - both her and I have Nexus, and have our KTNs in the reservation. Our infant (now 9 months) also has Nexus, but when booking her, we never have her KTN entered - since there is no point since she can come with us. And on 100% of our 6 trips with all 3, our daughter has pre-check on her BP.

Totally unrelated, but oh my gosh, those children are not properly buckled in their carseats! Made me cringe.

I know this is an old post, but just curious - did your kids get their cards at the same time as you when you applied? I had my interview last week (as did the kids, ages 3 and 1), the following day my application changed from conditional to approved online, and today I got my GE card. However, the kids' applications still show up online as conditional, and thus they don't have cards. Other than the fingerprinting issue, I can't imagine what security holdup a 3 yo and 1yo would pose that an adult of South Asian origin doesn't!! Thanks 🙂

Does infants need a passport first in order to apply for global entry?

Yes.

I'm with Jodi -- holy cow how many errors can you spot with the car seats :(. The daughter's shoulder straps are an entire slot too high, she looks to be small enough that rear-facing would be better, the straps aren't even close to being snug enough. The little boy isn't even buckled completely. What is thattwo clips at the crotch and no chest clip fastened? Why??

Physics, man. Laws of physics apply no matter what, and I can tell you this -- your children would have been seriously injured if not worse if you were in even a minor collision. Harm from the collision, and harm from the improper seat usage. Kids die from this. A lot.

Now, if this were a parked car and you'd never ever drive like this ever, I do apologize. Maybe they were just taking a nap in your parked car.

My boys and I are traveling to Iceland in April. Their passports are expired so we are applying for new ones this week. Do I have to wait to have their new passports and passport numbers for them to apply for global entry? Or can I go ahead and do that now in hopes that we will get an appointment and approval prior to our trip? Thanks!

I wouldn't apply with the expired ones. I mean you can try, but you'll need to enter in the passport expiry dates, and I'd guess the system will err out if the expiry dates are in the past.

Better to wait for the new ones, then apply at that time.

When I first applied for GE (right after it first came out), they limited the program to people over a certain age (it was either 14 or 18). They put a "CBP" sticker on the inside back cover of my passport and told me that I could skip the line and bring my newborn through to an agent by showing the sticker or my GE receipt. In practice, I generally skipped the kiosk when travelling with my son since I knew I would have to see an agent. They just stamped my passport as well. No one ever objected.

Just after he turned two, an agent in the GE lane at the exit from baggage claim in MIA told me that children were now being accepted into GE, so I signed him up. They fingerprinted him. The kiosk asks for his fingerprints, but rejects them every time (big "X" on the receipt). We simply go straight to an agent who stamps his receipt and off we go. (Once, the agent started to tell me that I needed to go back and fill out a standard customs form for him, but relented "just this once.")

Isn't that Janet Napolitano? No wonder the CBP agent is trying to be pleasant!

Also, enough of the hating on the carseat thing!!! Ye gods!

I'm looking at getting Global Entry for my kids. I noticed that the website indicated that an ID is required in addition to the passport. Do you know if that apply to the kids as well? They don't have ID cards yet, only their passports.

Thanks for the great article...good summary of the situation. And I will tell you that I got NO sympathy from Border Protection at Newark in July 2017 when I tried to take my 6-year-old through on my GE. It was my first time using GE and I was ignorant that he needed his own card. The agent was very rude about the misunderstanding.

Can someone explain how you apply for Global Entry for minors who don't have their own email address? It won't let me set up accounts for them under my email address (because I already have an account) but they don't have email and I don't want to set it up just for this. Thanks

@ Laura -- Depending on your email provider you may be able to set up alias addresses that still send to you. Like I can do [email protected] -- anything after the "+" is just a filler, and things go to my regular email. Or go ahead and create email addresses for your kids (they'll need them eventually), and just have everything forward to you.

Just get an email for the kid. We have a gmail for our daughter since basically she was born. Since kids ‘officially’ can’t sign up until they are 13, we signed up for [email protected], then used parent info. for name, age, birthday, etc. with Gmail at sign up - so technically it’s ‘my’ email. Once she is old enough, I’ll change that info. to hers and hand over the keys. I manage the account, have it coming into my email client, etc. until that time.

I just applied for Global Entry. I just tried to apply for my kids but when I put my email address in it goes back to my application. Do I need to get my 5 year old her own email address?