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I have Global Entry. For $100, the time it took to fill out a detailed form (an hour), and a twenty minute interview at an international airport, I can skip the immigration and customs lines every time I land in the United States for five years. Plus getting Global Entry enrolls you in TSA Precheck, which saves time at security on all flights in the United States.

The $100 is a great price for all the time I’ve saved, and you can easily avoid the $100 fee. Both the Citi Prestige® Card and the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite™ MasterCard® refund the $100 fee as a statement credit if you use the cards to pay for a Global Entry application. (This benefit can only be used once every five years.)

But if the $100 is prohibitive or you don’t have a card that refunds it or maybe you don’t live near an international airport, there is an app that looks like Global Entry Lite.

I just heard about Mobile Passport for the first time. It is basically an app that allows you to fill in the Customs form.

Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 11.43.11 AMYou fill out the form, submit it over the internet, and get a barcode that allows you to use a dedicated Mobile Passport line.
Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 11.43.26 AM

 

There are Mobile Passport lines at the following airports.

Screen Shot 2016-04-08 at 12.20.15 PM

What I don’t understand is whether you also have a dedicated line at Immigration. In my experience, that line is usually longer, so skipping both lines would have more value than skipping the Customs line alone.

Here is a first hand account of using Mobile Passport.

Have you used Mobile Passport? What was your experience?