Canadian Nexus centres to reopen in spring along with U.S. interviews at airports
Global News
The deal, reached on the sidelines of the North American Leaders' Summit in Mexico City, is intended to further reduce the backlog of applicants for the trusted-traveller program.
Canada and the United States said Tuesday they expect Canadian Nexus enrolment centres to reopen in the spring alongside a new program allowing U.S.-led interviews to be conducted at Canadian airports.
The deal, reached on the sidelines of the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City, is intended to further reduce the backlog of applicants for the trusted-traveller program between the two countries, which has been caught up in a diplomatic dispute.
Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a joint statement that interviews with U.S. border agents will soon begin taking place at Canadian airport facilities that already provide pre-clearance services for travellers heading stateside.
Nexus applicants, who must be interviewed by both Canadian and U.S. authorities, would sit down with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials for that portion of the process prior to travelling to the U.S., provided they are travelling imminently and leaving from an airport where customs preclearance is an option.
International airports in Canada that offer preclearance services include those in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Winnipeg, as well as Pearson International Airport in Toronto.
“The work reaffirms the cooperative and effective advantages and relationship Canada and the United States share in managing an efficient border between our two countries, to the great benefit of citizens of both countries,” the joint statement said.
The announcement marks the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic that U.S. interviews will be allowed on Canadian soil. But it remains a far cry from how Nexus interviews have traditionally been conducted in both countries, with applicants sitting down for an in-person interview that’s jointly conducted by officers from the two agencies in the same room.
The U.S. reopened its 13 Nexus centres in April to allow that joint interview process to continue as normal. But CBP has insisted Canada grant its agents the same legal protections they enjoy on U.S. soil before returning to Canadian Nexus centres, which Ottawa has refused to entertain.
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