Introduction
I had a 2 hour international to domestic connection in LAX, and my first flight was delayed an hour. I thought I had zero chance to make my connecting flight. What made matters worse was when we landed in LAX, we didn’t have a gate. We had to get bused to immigration. Luckily for us, while waiting on the bus, I looked up and saw an ad for mobile passport. I remembered someone once blogged that it could potentially be faster than Global Entry, so I tried out the app.
Using the app
When you first launch the app, it wants you to take a picture of your passport. It then auto-fills in the necessary information. Then you take a selfie of yourself and type in your customs information. I had my wife do this too since each person has to do it separately. Once you are done, the app creates a QR code that is good for something like 4 hours. We decided to take a screenshot of the QR code versus trying to re-pull up the app in immigration. We did all this before the bus even got to immigration.
Immigration
At LAX immigration, we followed the signs for Mobile Passport. It should point you towards the Global Entry area. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I went up to a GE kiosk and tried to scan the QR code. Eventually, I found a separate line for Mobile Passport with only 1 person in it. He got through it extremely fast. We then walked up to the counter, scanned in the QR code for each of us and was told, “Okay go.”
Here’s the thing – the reason why Mobile Passport is faster is because you are filling out all the information on the app. If you approach a GE desk, you still have to wait for the kiosk to take your picture and then you have to fill out the customs form at the kiosk. With the app, all of that is already filled out. With that said, if the mobile passport line has over say 5 people per agent, then the GE kiosk may be faster.
Customs
The one downside of MP is that you don’t have that 1 customs form that encompasses the entire family. When we left customs, the agent was asking us for a form. We told him we did MP and don’t have one. He then told us to walk down 3 agents since their desk had the QR scanner. My wife and I then scanned our QR forms in there once again and we were done. Hopefully in the future, all of the agents will have QR scanners; in the meantime, look for desks with the scanners when you exit, especially at LAX.
I used Mobile Passport last month at LAX. Not everyone in my family has Global Entry, so we had to use Mobile Passport as the immigration line was L-O-N-G. Going through immigration with Mobile Passport, as you pointed out, was a breeze. However, we had to wait in the the long and slower moving line for customs, as we couldn’t use the Global Entry customs lanes. You were right about not every agent having the scanner to accept Mobile Passport QR code. Overall, I’d prefer Global Entry because of the lesser hassle at customs. However, if you don’t have Global Entry for your entire travel party, Mobile Passport is a close second in my book.
Mobile passport allows you to enter your whole family on one phone. I have used this many times with my wife, kids and myself all entered on my phone. I usually get a special paper (big laminated and yellow, i think) after immigration to let customs officials know that I have used mobile passport.
Ah I didn’t see that option Matt. I’ll try that next time. Thanks.