Kiosks Gone

 

In 2022 the US Customs and Immigration Service did away with those Self-Service Passport Kiosks.

These Kiosks forced Americans, Canadians and Select Others to fill out their Customs and Passport Information (as well as scanning their own Passports) and getting a printed receipt before standing in the regular line to give your Passport and the Receipt to the Immigration Officer.

It was touted as making things faster, but in reality it just forced you to wait in line for the Kiosk, use the Kiosk then wait in line for the Officer and answer the Officer – so it was anything but faster.

I had to use it in Boston in October 2017 coming back from Israel. Boston’s Logan Airport isn’t a good Airport to begin with and the US Immigration and Customs there has always been slow whenever I used them (with or without the Kiosk) not to mention the fact that they only have an escalator and stairs after Immigration – there are elevators, but you have to be an Employee to use them and having traveled with someone in a Wheelchair through the Immigration at that Airport many times it is near impossible to find an Employee willing to help you.

You may think these Kiosks were done away with because they didn’t make things faster, but the only reason they stopped using them is because now the Immigration Officer takes your Photo using Facial Recognition at their desk so it can be verified with another picture when you leave the US (even though the US doesn’t have Exit Immigration like many other Countries do.)