Global Entry or Mobile Passport Control at JFK

I believe JFK has the new face scanners. In my experience with the scanners at O’Hare, this was super quick. And free.

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/biometrics/environments/airports

Global Entry might be quicker, depending on the number of flights arriving at the same time.

We went through Global Entry at JFK last month. From arriving at the camera kiosk to walking through the gate with the officer was probably about 3 minutes for our family of three.

Global entry kiosks at JFK terminal 4 are touch-less and use facial recognition. Once scanning is complete an officer greets you with a welcome.

I also did Global Entry recently (August). It was super easy and super quick.

I'm in and out of JFK a few times a year. I use Global Entry.

One time....there was a line at both. Each was seeing the same CBP officer. The person at the front directing people was saying "Global before Mobile." Meaning, Global Entry had priority. (We paid for this and had to go through screening. We should get priority.)

Lately, at least at Terminal 8 for GE, the procedure has been: have face scanned by kiosk, get called up by name by the CBP officer, get asked if you have anything to declare, waved on. No showing of passport.

My record from stepping off the plane to exiting the terminal--and going through immigration and customs in between--is five minutes.

If for some reason the computers are down and you can prove you have GE you will be escorted to the front of the line. (That's why I always have my GE card with me.)

I last went through a month ago.

Use the Global Entry app and bypass the kiosk.

Use the Global Entry app and bypass the kiosk.

Is Global Entry an app?

No, it’s not.

If you have Global Entry, you can use an app to bypass the GE kiosk.

I tried it once. When I got to the CBP officer, he called me up by name and mentioned I had something to declare. (The app asks this.)

It didn't really seem to save much time. In fact, trying to do everything in the app after the plane landed and was taxiing to the gate was a pain.

I did Global Entry and it was so fast that I didn’t realize I was done.

To be honest, if you do not travel internationally several times a year, and JFK is not your final destination, then the free, quick, Mobile Passport Control app is much easier and quicker than jumping through the hoops to pay for and arrange for Global Entry.

At least in my experience, I get through quickly, and am standing by all the global entry people waiting for our bags after immigration, so no gain for them.

This is tangential to your specific question, but we came back from London last year with layover at JFK. Didn't have global entry yet, nor pre-check. Used the mobile passport app and passport control wasn't too bad. What was a giant pain was through regular security at JFK to get to our domestic flight, we ended up in a 2 hour line. I got GE after that in part for the precheck privileges it comes with for situations like those.

We used Global Entry for 5 years to reenter the US several times a year. Now we enter the US once a year at the most, so have moved from Global Entry to Mobil Passport and found it just as efficient. I was concerned about not having TSA pre-check when leaving the US would make TSA difficult, but at JFK they had some sort of new system that was very easy.

I don't have any of these things (global entry etc), but I entered NYC thru JFK last week and got through in about one minute. The terminal I was at (eight) used the face scanners. Funnily enough the global entry gates had a queue but the regular one did not- I suppose a lot of people have global entry now so it's not as fast as maybe it was previously. But the key takeaway is you can get through almost instantly even without signing up for any of these things.