The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced plans to encourage countries and airports to install US customs and immigration facilities in the next decade.
The Dominican Republic had completed almost all the paperwork for pre-clearance 10 years ago, a requirement that JetBlue encouraged at the time in order to expedite flight turn around, when the US stalled on granting new permits.
Pre-clearance facilities operate in Canada, the Bahamas, Bermudas and Aruba, in the Americas.
At the time though, local airport operators did not insist, preferring to not taint the Dominican travel experience with the often-negative experience of clearing US immigration and customs. It is estimated that passengers would have to arrive at the departure airports earlier in order to accommodate the extra procedure.
The agreements enable travelers to undergo US immigration clearance prior to arriving to the United States.
However, the DR airports that are all privately operated could now enter into these agreements given the new flexible model being offered. New areas would need to be constructed in the terminals for pre-clearance.
Now, US Customs and Border Protection acting deputy commissioner, Kevin McAleenan says there are plans to double the pre-clearance capacity across the globe over the next decade. The announcement was made at the 20th World Routes Development Forum that took place last week in Chicago, USA. McAleenan is promoting a new pre-clearance “flexible model” that would bring security and commercial benefits to host governments. He said as part of the expansion plan the CBP’s goal is to pre-clear 33% of all US-bound passengers by 2024.
McAleenan said that the CBP will “administer a process to evaluate and prioritize potential new pre-clearance locations” in October 2014, and interested airports are to then be invited to submit a letter of interest by the end of November 2014.
The US Department of State will prioritize applicant airports in December, before conducting site visits and working with gateways to develop their pre-clearance model, specific to them.
The CBP then intends to start negotiations for new locations in January 2015, with agreements reached between the host governments and the CBP to establish operations 24-36 months after negotiations.
The agency currently permits pre-clearance at 15 locations in Canada, Ireland, UAE, Bahamas, Aruba and Bermuda, and last year, 29% of commercial aircraft and 18% of commercial air travelers arriving in the US were pre-cleared.
http://routes-news.com/world-routes/20-world-routes/2894-world-routes-us-cbp-reveals-pre-clearance-expansion
Read about the pros and negatives of pre-clearance:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1612468-us-pre-clearance-german-airports.html