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I'm considering joining one of the US government's Trusted Traveler programs. I found this comparison chart (see below) on the Homeland Security website comparing TSA Pre-Check, Global Entry, NEXUS, and SENTRI.

I'm a US citizen, so I'm eligible to join any of them. Now usually when you have multiple options for something, each has its own relative advantages and disadvantages. But when comparing TSA Pre-Check, Global Entry, and NEXUS, it appears that NEXUS offers all the benefits of the other two, in addition to expedited processing to enter Canada, and also costs a lot less. This seems a little too good to be true, so I wonder if I am missing something.

Given the choice between the three of them, is it really true that NEXUS is clearly superior in all ways? Or is there a catch?

(As for SENTRI, I guess the main extra benefit it offers is that you can register your car, so if you enter the US by road in your own car, you can use a special lane. I don't think I'd use that feature so I don't think it's worth it for me to pay the higher fee for SENTRI, unless it has even more features that I'm missing.)

Comparison chart:

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Franck Dernoncourt
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Nate Eldredge
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4 Answers4

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I'm a NEXUS member, and it is indeed the case that NEXUS is the best of these. It gets you TSA-Pre, it includes all the benefits of Global Entry when entering the US, both the NEXUS lanes at land border crossings from Canada and the Global Entry machines in US airports (it doesn't matter where you are coming from), and it provides similar benefits when crossing into Canada by land or flying into a Canadian airport (from anywhere). And the price is $50 for 5 years, compared to $85 for TSA-Precheck and $100 for Global Entry.

The drawbacks of NEXUS are mostly related to the process of getting the membership. It takes about a month for a NEXUS application to be conditionally approved, which I understand is significantly longer than it takes for Global Entry alone, and the NEXUS interviews need to be conducted at a place where both CBP and CBSA officers are present, which mostly limits you to offices at US-Canada land border crossings or at the Canadian airports which have US preclearance facilities.

So if you live close enough to the Canada border to visit a border crossing for an interview, or you fly to Canada frequently enough to make an appointment at a Canadian airport convenient, the NEXUS membership is preferred. If getting to a NEXUS office is a problem, however, then you probably won't care so much about the Canadian privileges NEXUS provides beyond Global Entry in any case and it is likely worth the extra $50 to be able to do the Global Entry interview close to home.

Dennis
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I have had TSA-Pre for a couple of years now thanks to my airline status. It has been a nice benefit, as it makes security a bit less burdensome, faster at big airports, less hassle at smaller airports.

I had INSPASS when it was in operation and while it sped up time through immigration, I still had to wait for my baggage, so the end result was still the same. As a result I have never bothered with Global Entry, as my work travel requires lots of gear, so I am always checking bags. If you travel globally with only carry on, then it might be worth looking into.

They now have the Passport Apps, which let you fill out your entry form on your phone, submit it when you land and breeze through immigration by simply having the barcode scanned (a bit faster than the kiosks and much faster than the old talk with an official lines, BUT not available at all international airports yet).

I could be wrong, but my understanding of NEXUS is that it is only for crossing between US & Canada. And while the NEXUS card holders can use Global Entry machines (in lieu of a NEXUS machine), it doesn't provide the same "global" coverage as Global Entry does (ie you can't use it for expedited entry when coming from China, France, etc).

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We travel frequently to Canada and find that they are now accepting Global Entry as equivalent to Nexus in terms of fast security check lines and fast customs processing. About the only difference I can see is that Nexus is the cheaper of the two.

user72116
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Your Global entry card is also a "legal" document in airports. Global entry also has an affiliation with other Countries, I don't know if Nexus does, It is not mentioned

Drew
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