Cbp roam

My whole boat is NEXUS. I usually just pick up the cell phone call customs give them my BR #’s, takes about 7-8 minutes all while motoring to my intended destination.

I’m wondering, has any one used CBP Roam app? Is it faster than my 7-8 minutes? One possible advantage might be any time the boat has a non nexus passenger.

We used it the other day heading into Roche. 2 of us had nexus and one only had his passport. Was quick and easy but don't think it saved any time over calling in if everybody had Nexus. Definitely a great resource. I did end up going into the customs office as we had gone over to get our cruising licenses. The customs officers highly recommended using the app as they would like to see it stick around and were afraid it may get cancelled if it doesn't get enough traffic.

tiltrider1 said:

My whole boat is NEXUS. I usually just pick up the cell phone call customs give them my BR #’s, takes about 7-8 minutes all while motoring to my intended destination.



I’m wondering, has any one used CBP Roam app? Is it faster than my 7-8 minutes? One possible advantage might be any time the boat has a non nexus passenger.

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We used it coming in from port Sidney B.C. over the holidays. It was great. Couple of things. First they are starting to push people to the app to save on manpower. Second, you do have to be connected to a US carrier when you check in with the app. We checked in too early while still connected to bell Canada and we got an email stating our request to clear into the US was rejected. When we called they asked us to try again when we got ATT service and it all worked perfect. I think once you hit the US cellular coverage it will save time because unless they call you to ask some specific questions you will simply get a clearance number via email and you are done.

See a write up on our experience about half way down this post.

Marsh Harbour To Home, and Seeing Our Nation’s Finest At Work! | AtAnchor.com

I believe CBP is now the only way used on the east coast

Its too bad there isn't a similar APP for doing the opposite; entering Canada. NEXUS certainly helps but I believe if you go back and forth, say you're in the Great Lakes, you can use CBP ROAM entering US... but still have to call a phone # entering Canada.

We had the same experience

menzies said:

See a write up on our experience about half way down this post.

Marsh Harbour To Home, and Seeing Our Nation’s Finest At Work! | AtAnchor.com

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With the navy a few years ago after leaving St. Augustine on our way to Charleston outside.

Off Jacksonville, we heard a security call telling us that live fire was about to commence and to come no closer to USS navy ship x than five miles. We were in our sailboat the and the ship mentioned was a mile ahead of us.

I kept going straight. Some thunderstorms were forecast for Jacksonville area and I needed to make tracks north. The naval vessel left and two hours later we hear same radio message about a live fire exercise. The boat in question was again about a mile ahead.

The vessel hailed us and told us to turn west for five miles before heading north. I replied I would not, and that because storms were forecast I would maintain speed and heading. Navy didn’t like it, but I out ranked everyone aboard those vessels.

A few minutes later the ships weather gurus came back and confirmed weather issue. The shipped asked me to turn west 30 degrees for two miles and then continue north. The weather person assured me I would miss the storms.

I turned and we had no other issues. Makes one wonder with naval vessels that can turn 30 knots, why 5hey choose to exercise in the spring, in a route used by so many cruisers.

Gordon J said:

Makes one wonder with naval vessels that can turn 30 knots, why 5hey choose to exercise in the spring, in a route used by so many cruisers.

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Our question exactly - why do live fire exercises on a late May Sunday afternoon in an area which was a direct line from the Abacos to one of the most popular entry inlets - Fort Pierce.

Somebody wasn't thinking or didn't care .

tiltrider1 said:

My whole boat is NEXUS. I usually just pick up the cell phone call customs give them my BR #’s, takes about 7-8 minutes all while motoring to my intended destination.

I’m wondering, has any one used CBP Roam app? Is it faster than my 7-8 minutes? One possible advantage might be any time the boat has a non nexus passenger.

Click to expand...

I used the app last summer. Turns out it was the first day it went live here in WA. The CBP officer had not done it before so it was a learning experience for both of us. It worked well. I still want to get NEXUS, but until I do the app works well.

Gordon J said:

With the navy a few years ago after leaving St. Augustine on our way to Charleston outside.



Off Jacksonville, we heard a security call telling us that live fire was about to commence and to come no closer to USS navy ship x than five miles. We were in our sailboat the and the ship mentioned was a mile ahead of us.



I kept going straight. Some thunderstorms were forecast for Jacksonville area and I needed to make tracks north. The naval vessel left and two hours later we hear same radio message about a live fire exercise. The boat in question was again about a mile ahead.



The vessel hailed us and told us to turn west for five miles before heading north. I replied I would not, and that because storms were forecast I would maintain speed and heading. Navy didn’t like it, but I out ranked everyone aboard those vessels.



A few minutes later the ships weather gurus came back and confirmed weather issue. The shipped asked me to turn west 30 degrees for two miles and then continue north. The weather person assured me I would miss the storms.



I turned and we had no other issues. Makes one wonder with naval vessels that can turn 30 knots, why 5hey choose to exercise in the spring, in a route used by so many cruisers.

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I’ve been on the other end of this issue. It sucks when live fire exercises are delayed because some self righteous boat won’t clear the advertised area. Navy ships shouldn’t schedule live fire quals in the spring? Your personal cruising plans are more important than their pre-deployment training?

The worst part - it appears you are proud of yourself.

Mikala said:

I’ve been on the other end of this issue. It sucks when live fire exercises are delayed because some self righteous boat won’t clear the advertised area. Navy ships shouldn’t schedule live fire quals in the spring? Your personal cruising plans are more important than their pre-deployment training?

The worst part - it appears you are proud of yourself.

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No pride. As captain of my vessel I made a safety decision. My point was not that the Navy should not exercise when it wants, only that it could easily exercise further from shore so as not to involve lanes or used by boats returning north. In 30 minutes the exercising boats could have bee far enough from shore not to involve most traffic.

Nothing self righteous about keeping my vessel and crew safe. Were I the operations officer planning exercises I would ensure my exercises were in little used waters. With an entire ocean at its disposal I find it difficult understanding why the Navy would exercise so close to shore.

I just used CBP Roam when returning from Bahamas to Florida. It took a few minutes to input all the info in advance, but the actual submittal and approval was quick and easy. I did it on the way into Lauderdale and got an approval number in minutes. Very easy and efficient.

Gordon J said:

No pride. As captain of my vessel I made a safety decision. My point was not that the Navy should not exercise when it wants, only that it could easily exercise further from shore so as not to involve lanes or used by boats returning north. In 30 minutes the exercising boats could have bee far enough from shore not to involve most traffic.



Nothing self righteous about keeping my vessel and crew safe. Were I the operations officer planning exercises I would ensure my exercises were in little used waters. With an entire ocean at its disposal I find it difficult understanding why the Navy would exercise so close to shore.

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As captain of your vessel you placed your boat and your crew in harms way. This is an excerpt from the most recent Notice, similar to the Notice in place during your [more-important] cruise:

ATLANTIC OCEAN - GEORGIA - FLORIDA - JACKSONVILLE: U.S. NAVY EXERCISES HAZARDOUS TO SURFACE VESSELS
The following areas will contain exercises hazardous to surface vessels in the Jax/Chasnoa during 11-17 March, 2019. Mariners are advised to avoid these areas:
Date: 11 -17 MAR 0000-2359 (LCL) 30-45N2 80-56W9 GUNEX AREA 30-45N2 80-30W1 W-137L

You don’t get to decide where these vital exercises take place. It is a logistic challenge for the USN/USCG to schedule.

Oh please

Mikala said:

As captain of your vessel you placed your boat and your crew in harms way. This is an excerpt from the most recent Notice, similar to the Notice in place during your [more-important] cruise:

ATLANTIC OCEAN - GEORGIA - FLORIDA - JACKSONVILLE: U.S. NAVY EXERCISES HAZARDOUS TO SURFACE VESSELS
The following areas will contain exercises hazardous to surface vessels in the Jax/Chasnoa during 11-17 March, 2019. Mariners are advised to avoid these areas:
Date: 11 -17 MAR 0000-2359 (LCL) 30-45N2 80-56W9 GUNEX AREA 30-45N2 80-30W1 W-137L

You don’t get to decide where these vital exercises take place. It is a logistic challenge for the USN/USCG to schedule.

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Get of your high horse. I did not place my vessel in harms way. Just the opposite. If the Navy, with its vast resources can not find a space less used by recreational boaters, we seriously have bigger problems.

Using such language as “vital exercises” obfuscates the issue. As a retired officer I can tell you that not all exercises are vital. I can tell you that planning mistakes and conflicts happen. The fact that the Navy came back and found a solution that worked for everyone Is evidence enough that we could both accomplish our missions.

I never said I get to decide when, what I did say is that holding a live-fire exercise on a heavily traveled route was perhaps not the best choice. I said that if the ships had travelled 30 minutes further east, the Navy could have been more certain that it would not encounter tourists.

The danger areas are clearly marked on the NOAA charts which refer a prudent captain to Notice to Mariners for further information. Obviously ignored, thereby placing your vessel and crew at significant risk. In your initial post you stated “Navy didn’t like it, but I out ranked everyone aboard those vessels”. Who is on the high horse?

I have used CBP Roam app three times in the last year (19 and 20) with mixed results. First use in Puerto Rico in 2019 was advertised. Information was completed on an Apple device.

Second use was recently in St. Croix. I got one acknowledgement with instructions on disposing of “foreign” trash. Thinking I needed a real clearance I called and CBP discovered one of the agents failed to close out my request, so it just sat there. Once the problem was identified and corrected I got my clearance email.

CBP Roam in Puerto Rico 2as, how shall I say, a disaster. Unfortunately I filed on my Pixel Android Phone with no video conferencing capability. Although my wife gas an iPhone with Facetime CBP refused to use any telephone number other than I filed in the CBP Roam app. This meant a CBP Officer (they are seem very polite and cordial) had to come to the marina to interview us. Next time I will ensure my device used with CBP Roam app has videoconferencing capability.

The other problem was I had completed and signed up for the CBP Roam in 2019. Unfortunately the 2019 CBP Decal on file was different from the 2020 CBP Decal number, so when I used the current 2020 number it flag an error and problem for CBP. Again this necessitated an onsite interview. In the future I will only sign on and in as a Guest so previous information that is no longer current is not accesses.

Geeesh, it looks like we have a couple of guys on here who are guilty of dick knocking and that takes away from the OP's intent.

Why don't both of you quit and leave this thread for those of us who come to it to learn about CBP Roam.

I’m wondering how this will impact PNW cruisers coming up to Alaska. Ketchikan has always had a 100% officers on-board check in policy in the past. I had the app. On my ipad when we came up in November, but the weather was shitty enough that we wanted to go into town anyway so just checked in normally.

Gordon J said:

Get of your high horse. I did not place my vessel in harms way. Just the opposite. If the Navy, with its vast resources can not find a space less used by recreational boaters, we seriously have bigger problems.

Using such language as “vital exercises” obfuscates the issue. As a retired officer I can tell you that not all exercises are vital. I can tell you that planning mistakes and conflicts happen. The fact that the Navy came back and found a solution that worked for everyone Is evidence enough that we could both accomplish our missions.

I never said I get to decide when, what I did say is that holding a live-fire exercise on a heavily traveled route was perhaps not the best choice. I said that if the ships had travelled 30 minutes further east, the Navy could have been more certain that it would not encounter tourists.

Click to expand...

Mikala said:

As captain of your vessel you placed your boat and your crew in harms way. This is an excerpt from the most recent Notice, similar to the Notice in place during your [more-important] cruise:

ATLANTIC OCEAN - GEORGIA - FLORIDA - JACKSONVILLE: U.S. NAVY EXERCISES HAZARDOUS TO SURFACE VESSELS
The following areas will contain exercises hazardous to surface vessels in the Jax/Chasnoa during 11-17 March, 2019. Mariners are advised to avoid these areas:
Date: 11 -17 MAR 0000-2359 (LCL) 30-45N2 80-56W9 GUNEX AREA 30-45N2 80-30W1 W-137L

You don’t get to decide where these vital exercises take place. It is a logistic challenge for the USN/USCG to schedule.

Click to expand...

Gordon J said:

No pride. As captain of my vessel I made a safety decision. My point was not that the Navy should not exercise when it wants, only that it could easily exercise further from shore so as not to involve lanes or used by boats returning north. In 30 minutes the exercising boats could have bee far enough from shore not to involve most traffic.

Nothing self righteous about keeping my vessel and crew safe. Were I the operations officer planning exercises I would ensure my exercises were in little used waters. With an entire ocean at its disposal I find it difficult understanding why the Navy would exercise so close to shore.

Click to expand...

Mikala said:

I’ve been on the other end of this issue. It sucks when live fire exercises are delayed because some self righteous boat won’t clear the advertised area. Navy ships shouldn’t schedule live fire quals in the spring? Your personal cruising plans are more important than their pre-deployment training?

The worst part - it appears you are proud of yourself.

Click to expand...

Mikala said:

The danger areas are clearly marked on the NOAA charts which refer a prudent captain to Notice to Mariners for further information. Obviously ignored, thereby placing your vessel and crew at significant risk. In your initial post you stated “Navy didn’t like it, but I out ranked everyone aboard those vessels”. Who is on the high horse?

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Start a new thread. This is about Clearing customs on their new app, not navy exercises. Thank you

Ventana said:

I’m wondering how this will impact PNW cruisers coming up to Alaska. Ketchikan has always had a 100% officers on-board check in policy in the past. I had the app. On my ipad when we came up in November, but the weather was shitty enough that we wanted to go into town anyway so just checked in normally.

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Last year, I was cleared without an officer coming on board. Surprised me. However as soon as we were cleared by CBP we were boarded by the USCG.

Later on our way home and checking in at the San Juan Islands I was asked if I knew about the app. I said yes, but we were NEXUS card holders. I was told I wasn't mandated to use the app. I was asked for my specific position (Lat/Long). That was new.

GFC said:

Geeesh, it looks like we have a couple of guys on here who are guilty of dick knocking and that takes away from the OP's intent.

Why don't both of you quit and leave this thread for those of us who come to it to learn about CBP Roam.

Click to expand...

Ah folks - that all ended last March!

Alaskan Sea-Duction said:

Last year, I was cleared without an officer coming on board. Surprised me. However as soon as we were cleared by CBP we were boarded by the USCG.

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I probably wasn’t suppose to laugh at that....


So you cleared without a boarding via Nexus or via the Roam app? Seems like either should be a possibility, just wondering what the reality is.

I've used CBP Roam several times in the PNW. One time early on, the agent forgot to hit the "finished" button and it just sat there as I slowly motored towards the customs dock. I docked, walked up and showed them the iPhone screen and they said, oh, must have forgotten to finish it, sorry. They did fix it and wanted to know that I received the clearance (which I did). "Its a new system for us too..."

Since then, no problems. On the decal, you need to go into your settings in the program and update the decal number when you get a new one. If you do it as guest you have to put in all that and your passport info anyway every time, might as well do it just once.

We crossed from Rupert towards Ketchikan, thinking we'd have to stop there before backtracking into the Misty Fjords, but got on CBP Roam as soon as we picked up Ketchikan cell towers and cleared in, no stop necessary. Really very convenient.

What is not very convenient at ALL, is the new requirement for 2 step authorization on signin using an authorization app or dongle.

We've been using the CBP Roam App since last year travelling between WA and Canada without issues. Super convenient and don't have to waste time going into a port, really happy they have this available to us.

It was some what funny. CBP cleared us, but did not meet us at the dock. But the USCG met us coming into K-Town. We tried the the new app but you have to have a good cell signal and at that time if you were NEXUS holder CBP did want us using the app. I think times have changed.

Ventana said:

I probably wasn’t suppose to laugh at that....


So you cleared without a boarding via Nexus or via the Roam app? Seems like either should be a possibility, just wondering what the reality is.

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If you are a CBP Roam user, and haven't used it in awhile, you might want to try to log in ahead of the actual need. They've changed the login rules to make it more complicated. I'm not sure when it happened, last time I used it was last October, so sometime between then and now. Used to be you'd try to login, they'd text you a number and you'd put that in to complete the login. Now requiring a second device 2 step auth, so you have to have an authorization app set up on your phone (like Authy or GoogleAuth), or a dongle, or another phone (number). You can still get codes but it is complicated. All in the name of security.

For now I will just call in using my NEXUS

We have only used it once and that was this past Aug 2019 from BC to WA. Used an i-Phone. Total time until the agent came on about 12 minutes. It was quick and convenient.



At the time we had applied for Nexus, but had not gotten our interview appointment; the appointment was in September. Hence, we will be using Nexus from now on since it's always just The Admiral and myself on board for long trips.

I've been using it coming back from the Bahamas for a a few years now, we somehow got picked to be early testers of the app. It's worked flawlessly for me so far, though last time I had to wait over 30 minutes for an officer to pick up.

No second device for code

DDW said:

If you are a CBP Roam user, and haven't used it in awhile, you might want to try to log in ahead of the actual need. They've changed the login rules to make it more complicated. I'm not sure when it happened, last time I used it was last October, so sometime between then and now. Used to be you'd try to login, they'd text you a number and you'd put that in to complete the login. Now requiring a second device 2 step auth, so you have to have an authorization app set up on your phone (like Authy or GoogleAuth), or a dongle, or another phone (number). You can still get codes but it is complicated. All in the name of security.

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I just tested on my phone and the text message with the log in code came to that same phone. So yeah I also get tired of the many layers of security but thank goodness it did not require a second device.