Get Through Customs Fast Without Global Entry
Our flight was delayed. Delayed real bad. And we had a connecting flight we needed to run and catch afterwards. And duh dUH DUNNN! We had to go through CUSTOMS! Needless to say, my anxiety was was doing its thing. I started racking my brain on how we could get through customs fast since our global entry had recently expired. Maybe there’s a family line that’s shorter? There wasn’t. Or maybe the line won’t be that crazy? It was in fact very crazy.
But then in dawned on me. My friend Ashley (EverydayPursuits) always goes on and on about Mobile Passport and to be honest I never felt the need to look into it even though she always says how fast you can get through customs. But this time I finally listened and as soon as the plane landed and my WIFI kicked in, I downloaded Mobile Passport and followed the prompts. And honey, let me tell you, I’m not sure what I’ve been doing my whole life. First of all its FREE, unlike Global Entry, with no random meeting at the airport to be interrogated. And all I had to do was answer the customs questions for each passenger right on my phone, take each one of our pictures, and submit. When I tell you I did this as we de-boarded the plan literally running to customs. I took each one of our pictures as we hastily marched on, they were a little blurry but we got it done. When we arrived to customs there was a separate line for people with Mobile Passport and we literally were second in line and skipped the ENTIRE customs line.
We got through customs so fast I could cry, but then I did actually cry because we missed our flight by one minute and had to spend the night in the airport (a story for another day). But the silver lining is I learned about Mobile Passport and now I can skip the customs line without the Global Entry fee! I do want to mention that it’s possible the airport you land at might not offer Mobile Passport but I think most of them do if not all. You can always look it up beofre your trip.
Let me know if you try it! Happy Traveling xx