Our U.S. Customs & Immigration experience – On an average year we pass through Customs & Immigration almost a dozen times. Years ago, when returning to the United States, there weren’t a lot of choices getting through Customs & Immigration. You fill out your custom declaration form before arrival, pick a line (always the slowest moving) and wait for your turn with an agent. Rarely did things go quickly. Today there are a number of options for speeding up the process of getting through Customs & Immigration.

Currently The Options To Speed Through Immigration Include:

• TSA Pre-Clearance – Costs $85 and gets you through airport security with a faster screening. Doesn’t apply to Customs & Immigration.
• Global Entry – Costs $100 and gives you a fast-pass through immigration and includes TSA-Pre-Clearance.
• Nexus- Costs $50 and allows Americans and Canadians fast immigration checks at airports and boarder crossings.
• Sentri – Costs $122.50, is similar to Nexus and includes Mexican citizens.
• Mobile Passport an app for your cellphone that allows you to clear immigration and customs before you enter the customs facility and use a special fast lane where generally you show a bar code on your phone and walk through.

Of these the Global Entry and Mobile Passport are the most practical for personnel international travel.

A couple of years ago we applied for Global Entry since we would be leaving and re-entering the United States at least six times and would also be flying with a number of airlines that did not normally provide us with TSA Pre-Clear. In January of 2020 we applied for Global Entry and while delayed because of the pandemic, we both now have it.

When we went for the Global Entry interviews with Homeland Security we spent some time talking with Customs and Border Patrol agents and they had a number of surprising suggestions and some good advice. First, they highly recommended the Mobile Passport app even if you have Global Entry. While it doesn’t provide for TSA-Pre it often gets you through immigration faster than even Global Entry and at $15 a year it’s well worth it for frequent international travelers. One confession they made was often the Global Entry system at their booths don’t work, but they still just wave Mobile Passport people through. A couple of years ago we started using Mobile Passport and added the app to our phones and it really did work. It does exactly what it claims and quickly gets you through immigration.

While we were excited a number years ago with the new self-service kiosks that were being installed at CBP locations, after a few times using the system it was obvious this wasn’t the answer to most travelers prayers. It just didn’t go that fast. You had to scan your passport and everyone had to do it – not just the head of household. You had to get your picture taken by the kiosk than respond to CBP inspection questions and submit biographic information, whatever that was. After that you were given a printout strip and than you still had to go stand in line again anyway.

How Global Entry Works

When you get to Customs & Immigration go to a Global Entry kiosks, present your machine-readable passport or U.S. permanent resident card, place your fingers on the scanner for fingerprint verification and complete customs questions. The kiosk issues you a transaction receipt and directs you to baggage claim and the airport exit.

Unfortunately the United States has not been a leader in making CPB easier and faster. While traveling we have come to realize that some countries have figured out how to speed people thru the process. Our favorite is Australia – scan your passport at a kiosk, tick off a couple answers and show the receipt to the nice person as you exit. Probably the online visa Australia makes you get helps them with this process. Worst of all going through our CPB process doesn’t make us feel any safer coming into America than I felt entering Australia or a dozen other countries.

With Global Entry and Mobile Passport things are now getting better.

Starting three years ago we started using the U.S. CBP approved app Mobile Passport. First you have to download the Mobile Passport App on your iPhone or Android device, the basic one is free but for $15 per year the Mobile Passport Plus version will save you images and information to the app’s system.

Using Mobile Passport

Here’s how it works arriving back in the U.S. using the Mobile Passport website.

• Once you arrive at your port of entry (airport or sea port), open the app and connect to cellular wireless or local wi-fi.
• fill out the information including a customs declaration using your phone and click to submit your data to CBP. Remember: when you submit, you are confirming under penalty of law that your information is correct.
• Within a few seconds, you will receive a CBP receipt with an encrypted barcode. Your receipt/barcode will now be valid for 4 hours.
• Follow the Mobile Passport Control signs to the designated Mobile Passport Control line.
• Show your passport to the CBP officer, they scan the barcode on the digital CBP receipt.

And that’s it! You’re in in a matter of seconds.

The system is currently active at twenty-seven U.S. airports and six cruise ports and counting. Often the system isn’t up and working but the agents will tell you and that doesn’t slow you down. If you have the app and are displaying the bar code, CPB has captured your information and they just wave you through (when it’s down – it’s even faster).

While there is still a free app, pay the $15 annual subscription fee for Mobile Passport+ in order for Mobile Passport to store your passport and additional information and that’s a small price to pay.

A Final Note: Recently we were in Chile and before we boarded the plane I realized that I had changed phones from an iPhone to an Android and hadn’t loaded the app. Even with the slow 3G at the airport it only took five minutes to download the app, take my picture (it was terrible), scan my passport and register in the system. I would recommend avoiding that panic and make sure you have the app working before you travel.

Free Desktop Wallpaper

This map is available to download as a jpg file that can also be edited as a travel pin map (instructions below).

TERMS OF USE – Our wallpaper images are copyrighted and use is limited to digital device wallpaper or printed for personnel use. They are not to be printed for distribution or published without the express permission of The Intentional Traveler.

By submitting your name and email address you agree to receive notices of new posts and special announcements from The Intentional Traveler and its associated entities. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in any emails.

How To Use This File – On clicking the “Download” button above you will be redirected to a new page containing this image in an open jpeg format available to download.

• To download drag and drop the image or option click to select download location.
• Transfer the image to your desktop image folder.
• Select the image from your desktop options.

Using Wallpaper As A Pin Map – Depending on the operating system for your device you can edit this map in a number of jpeg editing apps.

Creating A Wallpaper Pin Map

For Macintosh users it’s easy using Preview. Under tools select Annotate and Text. Our preferred method is to select a bold text, select a color and type a Period. After that you can move the dot around the map and copy and paste to add more.

For Windows users download Photo Marker, a simple and effective way to mark-up your images. It will allow you to take notes on a photo or our map.

A Beautiful Mistake

Not all mistakes made by man turn out to be serious disasters. Two hundred years ago in Southwest Georgia poor farming practices helped create a “natural” wonder.

Providence Canyon is a network of gorges, gullies and a plateau created by erosion through multicolored layers of clays and soils. Referred to as “Georgia’s Little Grand Canyon,” Providence Canyon consists of an area of plateaus, cliffs, and narrow pinnacles where erosion has exposed a geologic record going back several million years.

Historical accounts show that the canyon was formed initially in the early 1800s as the result of poor farming practices. The original forest cover was cleared so it could be farmed. Gullies formed and soon grew deeper and by 1850 eroded pathways as deep as a dozen feet crisscrossed the area. From there additional runoff dramatically increased the erosion.

The area gets its name from Providence Methodist Church, established in 1832. By 1859 the church building and a schoolhouse were relocated and where they originally stood the land has washed into the canyon. The second church building still stands just northwest of the canyon.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources now operates Providence Canyon State Park. The 1,109-acre park encompasses the canyon rim and 16 separate canyons, as deep as 150 feet. From a trail along the rim, several overlooks offer views of the canyon walls, in which forty-three different colors of sands have been identified. Inside the canyon are a number of hiking trails.

Geology

Providence Canyon, lies in the Georgia Coastal Plain region, and is composed of sediments deposited by ancient streams, seas, deltas, and coastal beaches some 65 million years ago. The sediments forming the canyon form four geologic formations: Baker Hill, Clayton, Providence, and Ripley.

The Baker Hill formation is the youngest and forms the uppermost part of soils in Providence Canyon State Park. Deposited during the Paleogene period, this formation sits just under the the canyon’s rim.

The Clayton formation, in the top of the canyon walls, was also deposited during the Paleogene period, 65 million years ago,at the end of the age of the dinosaurs. It’s composed of coarse reddish sand colored by iron oxide. At the base of this formation, iron oxides have precipitated into a thin, dark layer of iron ore, which was mined in areas outside the park.

The Providence formation makes up most of the canyon walls. One hundred and nineteen feet thick, it was deposited during the Cretaceous period, about 70 million years ago. The upper layer of this formation consists of very fine sand mixed with a white clay called kaolin. The middle layer is coarser-grained and more colorful, with crossbeds stained yellow by limonite and purple by manganese. The lowest and oldest layer is a black and yellow mica thick clay deposit. This part of the formation is known as the Perote member and is visible at the bottom of the canyon.

The canyon floor is the Ripley formation deposited during the Cretaceous period, about 75 million years ago, it is orange in color with a composition of clay sand. This formation includes layers of fossils.

Providence Canyon is still eroding and from water runoff and is being undercut by the force of groundwater. The clay content of sediments in the floor of the canyon makes it more resistant, and the growth of pine trees, laurel bushes, and other vegetation helps to stabilize the soil, reducing the rate of vertical erosion.