NEXUS Card for Baby

When I first moved to Canada, I applied for the NEXUS program which pre-approves certain travelers for expedited processing at the border crossings between Canada and the U.S. It has come in handy, especially when there are long line-ups at the customs area. Plus, at least at the Calgary airport, there are NEXUS lines for security screening too. So the fastest time I’ve ever gotten through customs and security at the Calgary airport was 8 minutes, which normally it can take up to an hour if you’re going through at high traffic times!

I eventually convinced my husband to get one as well, so needless to say when we had our daughter we needed to get her a card as well. In fact, you can’t go through the NEXUS line if everyone in your party doesn’t have a NEXUS card. Initially, I tried to see if there was a way I could get her card faster than going through the normal approval process since we both have a card or pre-apply for “baby”, but that wasn’t possible. Also, it’s not possible to apply until you have the birth certificate so I had to wait the extra time for the birth certificate to be processed – but by that time I had her passport too so I was able to use that.

The application process is pretty straight forward. You just go to the Global Online Enrollment System (GOES) create an account and then fill out the forms, which ask about basic information, work information, citizenship documents, and past places of residency for the past 5 years or so. Typically there is also a $50 fee for the application and card, but for children under 18 there is no fee. The card is valid for 5 years. 

After submitting the application, you receive a notice that you have conditionally been approved (it took approximately 3-4 weeks), at which time you schedule an in-person enrollment center – there are several located through the U.S. and Canada. This was the most time consuming part of the process — waiting for the interview. It is especially the longest part when you’re trying to set up an interview at the Calgary Airport Enrollment Centre. I received the notification to schedule the interview at the end of March and the earliest interview time was sometime in October. However, I was checking the website several times over a couple of weeks and there was one that popped up earlier in August – so we didn’t have to wait as long as normal. However, if you went to the Sweet Grass, MT border crossing you could schedule an interview a week away, but they were only open two days a week for interviews. 

We had her interview last week, and it was relatively simple. In fact, there wasn’t much for them to do because she was a baby. Normally, you would get a retina scan and fingerprints, but she was too small to get that done. They said that in five years when the card expires she might come back in at that point to get those done. The only thing that we did was provide the actual documents for them to review and enter into the system, as well as provide them with the her second passport to add to her file, and they took her photo for her card. Now we just await for the NEXUS card to come in the mail in approximately 2-3 weeks.

Now that she has her NEXUS card, we’re looking forward through breezing through the custom and security lines when traveling! Having this ‘speedy pass’ is especially helpful since getting things ready with a baby always seems to take longer than expected. 🙂