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My family and I have B1/B2 visitor visas for the US. We also have SENTRI cards through the Trusted Traveler Program, for when we cross via the land border into the US.

Before the southern border closed (approx April 2020) we rarely had to show our passports/visas when entering the US by land, we just showed our SENTRI cards.

Since the border re-opened, however (approx Feb 2022), we have been asked to show our visas and/or our entry stamp almost every time we cross into the US. It seems odd to me since the SENTRI card will show them a photo and all our passport/visa/I-94 info on their screens before we even get to the booth.

Has there been a change in policy where a visitor visa must be sighted every crossing now, even with Trusted Traveler? What has brought about this change? I am unsure whether it coincides with the change in how I-94's are issued (via the app now), or whether it's related to the Ukraine war (I know that Russian citizens are being stopped from entering the US, even those with valid visas)

We've not been delayed or detained at all, just asked the question something like "Do you have your visas with you, can I see them?" and a couple of times they've also asked "where is the latest entry stamp?"

We mostly cross by car, but this has also happened the two times we crossed on foot (plus once by land from Canada, but I was unsure whether that was because they're not used to seeing SENTRI cards there)

Midavalo
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1 Answers1

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I don't know if this is a policy change at all, but lacking an actual/official answer I'll add what we found out last week.

We entered the US and handed over our SENTRI cards as normal. The CBP officer asked if we were US residents (we're not) or if we had an ESTA (I'm not sure how ESTA was relevant in this case), so we told him we had NZ passports and B1/B2 visitor visas.

He told us that we must always present those along with the SENTRI cards, as the officers don't get that information on their screen (!?!?!) and that they don't know our status unless we give them all our documents. I guess we had mistakenly assumed that the SENTRI system would have pulled up all our details for him.

I suppose the times we've been through SENTRI and shown only the cards may have been the exception to the rule.

Updating to add that while at time of writing this answer ESTA authorisation was not required for land entry into the United States (see comments below), that has since changed and ESTA authorisation is now required for travelers entering the US under the VWP no matter how they are traveling. That rule changed less than a month after I wrote this answer in 2022.

Midavalo
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