Setting Up the App

I already knew that our return airport, Fort Lauderdale, was on the list of airports that use Mobile Passport Control.  (Not sure if your airport has Mobile Passport Control facilities?  It’s currently in use in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago,  Dallas, Denver, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Minneapolis, New York JFK, Newark, Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington Dulles.  Houston will also soon have Mobile Passport Control at both Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports.)  My next step was to download the app.  I use an Android phone, and I easily found the Mobile Passport Control app in the Google Play store. The app is free, and downloaded quickly.

When I opened the app for the first time, I was prompted to create a 4 digit PIN number for security.  I made sure to choose one that was easy for me to remember! The next step was to set up our profiles in the “Passports” tab.  The Mobile Passport Control app allows you to add one primary user — that would be me — and three additional members of the household.  That worked out perfectly, since I was traveling with my husband and two sons.  A larger family could have both parents set up the app on their phones.  To set up our profiles, I had to type in our passport details: full name as listed in the passport, date of birth, passport number, and date of expiration.

Selfie Time!

The profiles also require a photograph, which can be taken selfie-style with the front camera or with the phone’s rear camera.  This is where you can improve on the job I did.  I could have set up our profiles well in advance of our trip, but instead I waited until the morning that we were flying home.  The photos I captured of our family that morning in our hotel room were not our best looks — me with no makeup, my husband pre-coffee, our older son with an epic case of bedhead.  The baby looked cute, at least! The app allows you to go back and edit your information or take new photos.  I’m planning to take better pics before our next trip.

In taking the photos, I tried to have plain backgrounds, as this is the standard for passport photos.  My husband’s photo included a piece of furniture off to the side, but this didn’t cause any problems when we landed.

On The Plane

During our flight back to the US, the cabin crew distributed paper forms for US Customs declarations.  We didn’t bother to fill ours out.  Instead, I took a couple of minutes to log in to the app and open up the “New Trip” tab.  In no more than two minutes, I’d answered all of the questions.  Once we were back on the ground and back on the 4G network, I clicked “submit.”  Done!  Our confirmation was now available in the “Receipts” tab.

In The Airport – Immigration

Getting through US Immigration and Customs is a multi-step process.  After disembarking the plane, all the passengers filed in to a room with long lines to access Automated Passport Control kiosks.  I had my phone in hand, and was able to wave it at the security officer controlling the area. We bypassed the line and went through the first of several Mobile Passport Control express lanes into the next room.  There, we faced more lines of travelers waiting to be cleared by immigration officials, separated into multiple lanes.  My family was able to go into the designated lane for Mobile Passport Control users.  Several international flights had landed at once, and the immigration lines were long.  In the Mobile Passport Control line, there were only a few people ahead of us, and we quickly were seen by an immigration official.

The process to go through immigration was simple.  We handed over all four passports to the USCIS officer.  I opened up the “Reciepts” tab of the app, which had a separate QR code for each one of us.  One at a time, I had to tap the QR code image to open up a larger version of the code, and then I held the phone steady over a scanner to have the QR code read.  This took a few moments for the machine to scan the image and flash a light to indicate we’d been cleared.

Clearing Customs

The only step of the process that the Mobile Passport Control app couldn’t speed up for us was getting our checked luggage!  We had to wait for our luggage to come around on the baggage carousel, just like everyone else.  We entered our final Mobile Passport Control express lane to clear Customs after retrieving our bag.  We zipped up to an officer and scanned the QR codes on our receipts again.  That’s it!  Welcome back to the USA.

Our Review

The Mobile Passport Control app gets an enthusiastic thumbs-up from my family.  It was easy to use and allowed us to skip several very long lines.  If we traveled overseas more frequently, we’d consider getting Global Entry, which also allows you to use designated express lanes to clear immigration and customs.  However, Global Entry has a fee to join, and the Mobile Passport Control app is totally free to download and use.  It was a perfect fit for our family’s traveling needs.

The post We Road-Test the Mobile Passport Control App appeared first on G3Passports.

You’ve probably already pulled out your smartphone a thousand times during the course of your trip. You’ve used it to snap photos and record videos. You’ve called cabs and made hotel reservations on it. You’ve researched restaurant reviews and the opening times of museums. You’ve whiled away the time on the flight home using your e-Reader app and playing a round or two (or twenty) of Candy Crush. But once you land in the US, if you are at an airport that offers Mobile Passport Control, you’ll be glad to whip out your smartphone one more time to expedite your re-entry to the US.

The Mobile Passport Control app is a free application you can download onto your iPhone, iPad, or Android device. When you arrive at a US port that uses Mobile Passport Control, you just open your app and enter some details about yourself and your trip. You can then go through a “fast lane” rather than standing in the long lines for Customs and Border Control.

Mobile Passport Control first debuted at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in August 2014, and has been added to more and more airports since then. Most recently, the Mobile Passport Control lanes were added at the international airports in Denver, Orlando, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and San Jose, California. There are currently thirteen airports in the US that use Mobile Passport Control. Officials say there will be twenty airports offering the service by the end of 2016. The airports that now offer Mobile Passport Control are:

• Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL)
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
• Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)
• Denver International Airport (DEN)
• Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
• Miami International Airport (MIA)
• Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)
• Newark International Airport (EWR)
• New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
• Orlando International Airport (MCO)
• San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
• San Jose International Airport (SJC)
• Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)

The latest development is that Mobile Passport Control is coming to cruise terminals, too! Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, FL will be the first cruise port in the US to offer Mobile Passport Control. They plan to launch the service in late July 2016.

What are you waiting for? Grab your passport and your smartphone and get traveling!

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