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| - If you travel frequently at all, then getting a NEXUS is the best thing you can do. As someone that flies to the US frequently for school, nothing can beat strolling past the snaking queue for US customs pre-clearance, turning a half-hour wait into a breezy few seconds. Especially if you have airline status, having NEXUS rounds out the priority experience, allowing you to bypass customs lines as well. There's dedicated NEXUS priority security lines at YYZ as well, complete with expedited procedures (no removing laptops, shoes, or jackets). And when returning to Canada, NEXUS lets you beat the crowd to the baggage claim.
Membership is $50 for 5 years, and comes with automatic Global Entry enrollment, which is really useful if entering the US without pre-clearance. Although there can be a long wait to sign up for an initial interview slot, the process is pretty smooth afterwards - both US CBP and CBSA agents are in the same office to interview you one after the other. Making appointments to update information is easy as well, and the wait is typically no longer than 10-15 minutes once you get to the office and sign in.
The only complaint I have is that many of the NEXUS machines seem to be getting old. The iris scan can be finicky sometimes (I always hate hearing the dreaded "Please move back a little. Please move to the right a little. Please move to the left a little"). The wait time to proceed to the questions is often quite long, and sometimes you'll be informed that the iris capture has failed sometimes. That being said, you can always use the Global Entry machines which scan your fingerprints and passport instead, and using the machines is definitely still much faster than waiting in line.
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