Canada, U.S. promising new Nexus interview option in attempt to clear application backlog | 24CA News
Canada and the United States are promising a brand new interview choice for Nexus candidates in an effort to handle a backlog of hundreds of purposes.
The Nexus program, which eases the move of individuals throughout the Canada-U.S. border, stalled when places of work on each side had been closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A dispute over authorized protections for U.S. border officers working in Canada brought about a delay within the reopening of Nexus places of work on this facet of the border — leading to a backlog of 300,000 purposes.
A press launch from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on Tuesday mentioned that the backlog has been decreased to roughly 100,000 purposes however that the new choice will probably be made accessible this spring to additional cut back wait instances.
The new course of would permit air passengers to finish an utility interview with a CBSA officer at places of work close to sure Canadian airports. The candidates would then conduct an analogous interview with a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer at U.S. Customs earlier than boarding a flight to the United States.
Previously, interviews had been in a position to be held on the similar places of work in Canada.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden mentioned the Nexus program throughout a gathering on the North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico City on Tuesday, in response to a readout of the assembly supplied by the Prime Minister’s Office.
A disproportionate quantity — 80 per cent — of the 1.7 million individuals who use this system are Canadian.
Dispute over authorized protections
Nexus centres within the U.S. reopened in April. But Canada did not instantly observe go well with over considerations about extending authorized protections to CBP officers working on Canadian soil.
Washington had been calling for the extension of these authorized protections to its officers working at Nexus centres — protections that those self same officers already take pleasure in at pre-clearance websites at Canada’s airports.
That dispute seems to stay unresolved with the announcement of this new enrolment choice.
The same compromise was reached in December when Canada started reopening its places of work close to land border crossing for applicant interviews. A brand new two-step interview course of was launched the place CBSA officers would conduct the interviews in these Canadian places of work and their U.S. counterparts would full a secondary interview on the U.S. facet. In the previous, Canadian and American border brokers collectively carried out interviews in the identical room.
