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Walking rules for NEXUS

Jerry Jensen, head of passenger operations for Whatcom County’s border crossings, said common sense and consideration for other drivers was the closest thing to a rule his agency had about dropping passengers off and then proceeding through the NEXUS lane.

“There’s not a definitive policy on that but it certainly wasn’t the intent of the program,” he said. “If you drop someone off before you get in the lane I don’t think it’s a problem, but it’s not carte blanche.” At the Point Roberts port of entry inspectors said that as long as cars pulled out of the approach lanes to drop off their passengers before they arrive at the port, they had no problem with the car proceeding through the NEXUS lanes while passengers walked across.

Paula Shore from the Canada Border Services Agency said they had a similar policy. “There are no non-NEXUS members allowed in the NEXUS lane,” she said. “If you’re going to drop someone off it has to be before the lane begins, which can be quite a ways back.”

The proviso for letting passengers walk across is to make sure they take every scrap of their belongings with them. Both U.S. and Canadian authorities concur that having someone else’s stuff in your car – even if it’s a child or a relative, takes you out of the low-risk category and you need to get out of the NEXUS lane to cross.

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