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I've scheduled (some time ago) a trip to Niagara Falls the week after New Years, both as a vacation but also to have our NEXUS Interviews (for my family). Our interviews are a few days after New Years.

With the US Government Shutdown, will these be impacted (either by being cancelled, or by being delayed)? I've read that Department of Homeland Security is one of the affected agencies, but also that TSA and Customs & Border Patrol are still working as normal (see this article for example). I haven't found something more specific, and my emailed question to them was answered with a likely form letter that did not answer the question at all (and focused on a different element of my question, the family part).

Additionally complicating matters of course is that the NEXUS interview is with Canadian folks as well as US. Is it likely to matter if we have it in Niagara (where it's on the US side) as opposed to trying to schedule it in, say, Toronto (firmly in Canadian soil)?

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  • We are renewing our 6yr old daughters nexus. We have an appointment for the interview now at YVR but unfortunately with the US federal gov't shutdown we'll have to come back for the US interview.
    – Khoa
    Commented Jan 3, 2019 at 0:01
  • It would be nice if they would let you do at least just the Canadian portion.
    – tropikaldawl
    Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 4:21

6 Answers 6

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UPDATE 2019-01-24

After more than a month of this political nonsense, the money has basically run out everywhere on the U.S. side and I would not expect any interviews to be taking place. There have been no official posts from CBP since December 21, since funding for their website evidently ran out, but Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) has a government shutdown FAQ last updated January 10 which notes that Global Entry applications are not being processed (even the online portion).

On the Canadian side, CBSA has posted a notice advising

Some of the NEXUS enrolment centres in Canada are open and are completing the Canadian portion of the enrolment process for clients that had appointments. Please contact the enrolment centre prior to attending your previously scheduled appointment.

When the United States government shutdown has ended, applicants will need to reschedule the interview with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to finalize the process.

The Canadian Embassy sent an update today that CBSA will conduct a mobile NEXUS enrollment session in Washington, D.C. from February 5 to 7, replacing the January event which was canceled due to the shutdown.

Original

Cross your fingers and hope that the budget impasse is resolved before your interview. If so, then you should have your interviews as scheduled; interviews scheduled during the lapse are simply cancelled, and are not rescheduled automatically.

CBP is funded through the appropriations process, unlike CIS, for example, which is self-funded through fees. Despite how distressingly frequent appropriations lapses have become, there is still uncertainty in a shutdown because different offices and employees may be designated as essential, and different programs may have been funded through separate vehicles. Living in the Washington area, I have many friends who are federal employees, and more than a few have been told to check the website on a daily basis to see whether they should sign in or not.

Unfortunately, this means that your best for accurate information about the interview will be to contact the interview center. In theory, because NEXUS is a cooperative program with Canadian officials, DHS officials might prioritize it over, say, GLobal Entry (which closed at least one office during the last shutdown), but that is just a hope. There were anecdotal reports of NEXUS interview cancellations posted to FlyerTalk last January.

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  • Okay, thanks - hopefully they'll reopen by the time I'm there, otherwise we'll just have to have another vacation in Canada I guess... :)
    – Joe
    Commented Dec 24, 2018 at 17:32
  • @Joe I do hope for the best that someone with more or more reliable information will post something more informative than "hope for the best" :-).
    – choster
    Commented Dec 24, 2018 at 17:35
  • This answer is kind of confusing. Your first paragraph appears to say definitively (though without supporting evidence) that interviews will not be held during the shutdown, and the remaining paragraphs read more like "nobody knows". The links in the last paragraph don't tell us with certainty whether interviews will be held during the current shutdown or not.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 0:43
  • @NateEldredge The only answer that it is possible to give at this time is "call your interview center."
    – choster
    Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 3:14
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    So then, maybe you want to change the wording in the first paragraph? Because the unconditional "interviews scheduled during the lapse are simply cancelled" seems to exclude all possibility of them happening, which would make it pointless to call the center.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Dec 25, 2018 at 7:05
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I was scheduled to have my Nexus interview on Dec. 24 in Vancouver, BC. When I showed up at the office, I was informed the U.S. officers were not working and that my application would not be processed. I was advised that once the U.S. government is back up and running, I should call the Nexus hotline to re-schedule my interview with the U.S. officers. (I was still able to get my retina scan done, since that was done by the Canadian side.)

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  • Thanks for giving your direct experience - I will keep this in mind as a possibility were this to be a problem.
    – Joe
    Commented Dec 27, 2018 at 17:59
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We were supposed to have our interview December 27th in Toronto. We got an email the day before saying it was cancelled and we should reschedule at our convenience. Not easy to do as a Canadian living in the US! Hope it’s resolved in time for your interview.

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I scheduled an interview for 3 members of our family on the last day of our trip (Dec 31) hoping my husband who was late in applying would get his conditional approval by then. On the 27th, I almost took the three of us for the interview as I saw slots open, but decided to wait. I went to the airport for our interviews and they were cancelled and there were signs indicating this on the NEXUS door in Montreal's airport. Apparently they called and left a message, but my phone didn't automatically download my US messages. I seem to have trouble lining up my interviews with my trips to Canada and it has gotten more difficult with kids. There was a Canadian agent and she answered the door and explained to me but said that I had to reschedule and it was bad luck. They didn't let us do the iris scans or at least canadian part of the interview.

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To tie a bow around this, I'll add what happened for me.

One day prior to the scheduled interviews, I received an email from CBP saying that the interview was cancelled due to the shutdown. I chose to not follow up further as I didn't want to irritate the CBP folks (who may be working without pay anyway) and I'm close enough to Canada to make a second trip when this shutdown is completed (Assuming the shutdown ends before my year is up, but I still have more than half the year left.)

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I booked mine yesterday online for today, as it shows appointments are available. Drove 90 minutes (each way) this morning to the border, to be told they are not doing interviews.

I knew about the shutdown but didn't think if they were showing interview slots that they weren't actually doing them currently.

Shame on me I guess!

The worst part is the US Border Guard says he gets a few each day, as people are booking them online and then coming. Terrible.

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