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Re: [OM] OT: American Oddities

Subject: Re: [OM] OT: American Oddities
From: Scott Gomez <sgomez.baja@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 5 Jan 2019 16:32:15 -0800
Sounds like the standard passport card. It's what enables one to use the
so-called "ready lanes" if driving. Down here in the southern part of
trumpistan, at the border with Mexico, they've become so popular for border
crossing that the ready lanes are not always that much faster than the
"old" standard lanes. Wait times in queue are often still an hour. But
during holidays or other popular travel times, "standard" lanes take
anywhere from 1.5 hours, to 4 hours on peak days.

Even the more difficult (and expensive) to get Sentri and Global pass cards
are much slower than used to be true prior to the current regime. Note that
the Sentri/Global pass cards allow one to basically pass through with only
a "very brief stop." Long enough to verify the pass and the vehicle,
typically under 2 minutes at the booth. But again, Sentri, which typically
used to have only a one or two vehicle queue, is now often a 15 minute wait.

Both card types use RFID chips and the readers for them are just a couple
of car lengths short of the gate. They pre-populate the gate terminal's
screen. Then the Border patrol person validates the physical card against
the RFID data on the terminal, card photos against the actual passengers,
and the vehicle license number/state against their record. So, over
standard passport, both are an improvement, but neither allows just passing
straight through.

And you can still be sent for "secondary inspection" pretty much any time,
for any reason. In which case you lose indeterminate additional time, most
of which seems to be expended in waiting to see if you get nervous or
fidgety while Border personnel mostly ignore you. If you don't, there's a
cursory inspection of the vehicle, and off you go.

The Mexican border entry for people entering from the USA is usually
shorter that the wait for the Sentri lane returning to the USA, off-peak,
and even at peak times is faster than the US-bound "Ready Lane". But the
most noticeable difference is the personnel. Mexican border personnel have
generally treated us better the times we've had to stop for inspection or
actually go through the process of declaring goods, than our own US
personnel are to us when we return to the US. Sad commentary, when you
figure with Sentri we're vetted and approved by our own country, but with
Mexico, we're just one of the crowd.

On Sat, Jan 5, 2019 at 12:55 PM Moose <olymoose@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 1/5/2019 7:07 AM, Scott Gomez wrote:
> > Moose said: " but frequent crossers on land get a Passport Card that can
> be
> > scanned as they cross without stopping."
> >
> > I have both Sentri and Global Pass clearance and card, as well as a
> regular
> > passport card and a chipped passport. Is there's some card that's higher
> > level than those? Or is this a case of a card limited to only that
> > crossing? Because none of those allow one to cross without stopping.
> > Sometimes for a very long while when the port of entry is busy...
>
> Haven't done it myself. Only going on something I read. Perhaps not
> everything on the web is true?
>
> We got them when we renewed our passports, mostly as an alternate form of
> picture ID and in case of loss/damage to a
> passport book, but have not used them for travel.
>
> Oops Moose
>
>
> --
> What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
> --
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>

-- 
Scott
-- 
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