U.S. Customs and Border Protection today announced changes to the CBP One app to expand the number of appointments available, allow for additional time to complete requests, and prioritize those who have been waiting the longest. Scheduling an appointment in CBP One provides a safe, orderly, and humane process for noncitizens to access ports of entry rather than attempting to enter the United States irregularly.
CBP One will transition to a new appointment scheduling system on May 10 that will address previous volume issues around specific times in the day by making appointments available for 23 hours each day instead of at a designated time, allowing for more flexibility and access to the scheduling system. Noncitizens will receive notification to confirm their appointments after submitting their request. CBP will also increase the number of appointments available to approximately 1,000 each day, and will prioritize noncitizens who have waited the longest.
Specifically, CBP One App will now:
- Allow for additional time to complete the appointment request. Currently, all CBP One appointments become available at the same time each day. With these changes, noncitizens will no longer be required to access CBP One during that one short period of time to schedule an appointment. Instead, the appointment request process will have two steps, so requestors have ample time to make requests and confirm appointments at their convenience over the course of a day.
- Noncitizens will be allowed to request appointments at any point during a full 23-hour period each day and, if allocated an appointment, will have another 23-hour period to confirm that appointment.
- Allowing noncitizens a longer window of time to ask for and to confirm their appointment will reduce time pressure and dependency on internet speed and connectivity.
- Expand the number of daily appointment allotments. CBP will add additional appointments each day, totaling up to approximately 1,000 each day starting May 12, and continually evaluate expanding the number of available appointments as operations and efficiencies allow.
- Cut out smugglers who are preying on noncitizens by prioritizing appointments for those who have been waiting the longest. A percentage of daily available appointments will be allocated to the earliest registered CBP One profiles, so noncitizens who have been trying to obtain appointments for the longest time will be prioritized.
Importantly, these new changes will not change the way noncitizens initially register themselves, their families, or others via the CBP One app, nor does it change the requirements for individuals to confirm their appointments. The enhanced process will give noncitizens more time to navigate the appointment scheduling app, along with prioritizing noncitizens who have been waiting the longest for an appointment.
These changes will provide noncitizens with limited connectivity the same opportunity to schedule appointments to present themselves for inspection at Southwest Border ports of entry as those with better internet connections. CBP continues to advance innovative technologies and improve the delivery of its critical homeland security mission, including to streamline safe and efficient processes at ports of entry. CBP One remains a key part of the Department of Homeland Security’s multi-pronged strategy to address migrant flows at the southwest border. By using CBP One for these appointments, we have increased our capacity to process noncitizens at ports of entry, a critical part of our commitment to safe, orderly, and humane migration processes.
Noncitizens must still be physically located within central or northern Mexico to both request and schedule an appointment via CBP One. Appointments are being offered at eight ports of entry: Brownsville, Paso Del Norte in El Paso, Eagle Pass, Hidalgo, and Laredo in Texas; Calexico and San Ysidro in California; and Nogales in Arizona.
More information on the CBP One mobile application, available in English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Portuguese, and Russian, can be found at https://www.cbp.gov/about/mobile-apps-directory/cbpone. The CBP One application can be downloaded for free from the Apple and Google Application Stores as well from the CBP website.
