Preclearance to Cut Foreign-Travel Hassles in 2015 Ed Perkins - Smarter Travel | |
go to original January 13, 2015 |
International travelers this year can expect to see some reductions in the usual red tape and general hassles. Some important gains are already in place, and others are coming.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced last year that, "Beginning in 2015, the United States intends to enter into negotiations in order to expand air preclearance operations to new locations." That's great news for U.S. travelers who like to visit foreign countries - and to come back to the U.S. with minimum hassle. The basic idea is simple: Instead of going through U.S. formalities on arrival, CBP places agents and facilities at foreign airports (where you typically have to arrive early and wait around anyhow), so that when you arrive back in the U.S., you're treated as a domestic arrival, without any processing at all.
Preclearance originated at Toronto Airport in 1952 and is currently available at 15 airports: Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto/Pearson, Vancouver, Victoria, and Winnipeg in Canada, plus Freeport and Nassau in the Bahamas, Dublin and Shannon in Ireland, Aruba, Bermuda, and, most recently, Abu Dhabi. [Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and Cabo are obvious future choices for Mexico]
In addition to easing the way for travelers on heavy-traffic routes, preclearance allows airlines to fly nonstop from preclearance airports to smaller airports in the U.S. that don't have their own CBP facilities.
Read the rest at Smarter Travel
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