This program is only good for re-entry back into U.S. Waters. I explained our situation and he suggested the NEXUS program.
You're talking two different things here. The Customs sticker is a requirement for a private vessel or airplane entering the US. It has nothing to do with the people on the boat or plane; it applies to a specific boat or plane and you have to have one displayed on the boat or plane when you re-enter, even if you re-enter by telephone using a Nexus pass and don't go to a Port of Entry at all. If you don't have the sticker on your boat or plane you will have to clear at a POE so you can buy the sticker on the spot.
The Canadian Nexus pass replaces two things and it has to do with people, not the means of conveyance.
One, it replaced the old Canpass system which boaters could use to clear customs into Canada by phone with no need to go first to a Port of Entry. Initially a Canpass was good for anyplace you wanted to arrive in Canada (for us, someplace in the Gulf Islands). After 9/11 it was changed to a list of designated points. The official Port of Entries were on the list of course, but over time they added other locations (bays, harbors) that were not POEs. As I recall it was not required for every person on the boat or plane to have a Canpass so in this respect, too, it was different than the current Nexus pass system.
Two, the Nexus pass replaced the old "PIN" system used by US Customs for phone clearance into the US. After 9/11 the PIN was replaced by a specific immigration form the number of which I can't remember. The application for this form required a personal interview in the appropriate office (for us it was in the King County terminal building on Boeing Field). While my wife and I got these forms a number of years ago I doubt it they are still valid and I don't even know if it's still an active program.
The US eventually recognized the Nexus pass system and so today this pass is good for re-entry into the US as well as entry into Canada (Canadian pass holders can use it the other way round). The border crossings have special lanes for Nexus pass holders entering Canada or the US by vehicle, and boaters can use the Nexus pass to clear into Canada or back into the US by phone. However, the customers officer you're talking to can still require you to clear at a POE if they want you to; the Nexus is
not an automatic clearance into either country.
Unlike the customs sticker, the Nexus pass applies to people, not the means of transportation. So if entering Canada via boat, every person on on the boat must have a valid Nexus pass. If even one person on board does not, the vessel has to clear customs and a designated POE. The same is true of re-entry into the US.
So far my wife and I have not gotten Nexus passes because most of the time in recent years we've had guests on board when we've taken the boat to Canada. And the times we haven't the POEs we use are pretty much on the way up and back so it's no big deal to stop at them.
But a Nexus pass would certainly be convenient as we drive into Canada more often than we boat or fly into it. But it requires an in-person interview and these so far have been very inconvenient to set up so we keep putting it off.
