US Trusted Traveller Scheme

[AlanUK]

I read an article in the Telegraph today about this. Apparently the US authorities are about to trial a sceme whereby frequent traveller to the US can opt to be vetted by the authorities and upon successful screening will recieve special documentation that will allow them to move more quickly through US immigration.

The full story can be found here...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...ir27.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/05/27/ixworld.html

I have no problems about being vetted and I would be very keen to try anything that would get my holiday proper started more quickly

Alan.

 

[Miffy2003]

Thanks for that Alan

I too would be all for this. I recognise not everyone would be happy to undergo the vetting, though

 

[paulh]

think its more for the buisness travelers
Paulh

 

[Miffy2003]

Paul, it says

As long as the process was not too onerous it would be of benefit, particularly for families and business travellers."

I guess it depends how often you travel to the USA?

 

[Boss Hogg]

Sounds good. I wonder how 'Frequent Traveler' will be defined?

We've never had a delay at MCO, but we waited an hour to clear Immigration in Washington recently.

 

[ely3857]

Hullo,

In theory this seems like a great idea. I have no problem with been vetted.

HOWEVER who is to say the 'fast-lane' at airports wouldnt have a queue? If this become a popular scheme then there could be a fair wait in one of the few fastlanes available.



Jodie

 

[paulh]

when they tested it earler in the year it was planed more for buisness rravel
Paulh

 

[steve_rob]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they used to have a similar scheme before (i.e. pre 2001). I've cleared customs at a number of different US airports and remember most of them having something called an "INSPass" lane (or similar) at some point. When I asked a member of the airport staff about it, I was told that was for business people from abroad who'd signed up back in their home country to go through all the background checks there, so they didn't have to do it at passport control.

I guess they are now looking to re-instate it (or at least a version of it).

 

[TinkTatoo]

That's one of the advantages of a scheduled flight from Dublin - you clear immigration here and only have to clear customs once you land in the USA

 

[tink too]

We had to clear immigration in Chicago on our most recent trip (Dec. 04) and were met by an extremely long queue due to the computers being down.

Security staff came up the line and took us out because we had a small child travelling with us - DD3. Unfortunately it was just our family of 3 and NOT our party of 9 that got this special treatment! As DD was almost asleep on DH's shoulders, we were taken to the US citizens line where there were no queues. It did mean that we were able to get everyone's luggage off the carosel so we were ready to run to catch our connection down to Orlando, though!

I would definately try the pre-screening out to avoid/ease similar instances!