How to Apply for Your NEXUS Card

1. Be Sure You're Eligible
2. Gather Your IDs and Documentation
3. Complete and Submit the Application
4. Book Your Interview
5. Attend your Interview
6. Receive Your NEXUS Card
7. Activate Your NEXUS Card

Get Your Documents Ready

You will need proof of your identity and proof of your citizenship (or your permanent residence status). You should make sure you have all your documentation before you begin the application.

An American or Canadian passport is acceptable as both proof of identity and citizenship. If you have one, you should use it. If you do use your passport for both proof of citizenship and identity, it's still a good idea to bring with you a second ID to be safe. If the passport you have is not an American passport nor a Canadian one, the passport may only be use as proof of your identity.

Proof of Identity for a NEXUS Card

If you do not have a passport, you are still able to apply for a NEXUS Card, but you will only be able to use your NEXUS Card at land or marine crossings, not at the airport. The most usual proof of identity if you do not have a valid passport is a valid Driver’s License but you can use many a government-issued ID. Here are all your options for proof of identity:

• passport
• provincial or state driver’s license.

Proof of Status in the US or Canada for a NEXUS Card

Proof of Status for American and Canadian Citizens

If you are a Canadian Citizen, or if you are an American citizen, you can use one of the following documents as proof of your citizenship:

• American passport or Canadian passport
• provincial birth certificate or state birth certificate
• Canadian citizenship card (wallet-sized) or certificate (letter-sized)
• American certificate of naturalization or citizenship.

If you are a citizen of one country (example Canada) but have status in the other country (the USA), you should provide proof of this to the authorities. What you use to prove your status depends on your status: citizenship, permanent residence or temporary residence.

Proof of status for Permanent Residents

If you are a permanent resident of Canada or the United States of America, you must submit your Canadian Permanent Resident Card or your American "Green Card" as proof of your permanent residence status in the country you currently reside in. If you are a permanent resident of one country and not a citizen of the other, you will likely be required to provide proof that you are allowed to enter the other country.

Proof of status for Temporary Residents

If you are a permanent resident of Canada or the United States of America and require a visa for the country you don't reside in, you will also have submit that visa as part of your application. If you have a work permit or study permit from the country you are not a permanent resident in you need to provide that too. Acceptable proofs of temporary status include:

• valid visitor visa to either the US (B2 visa or other type) or Canada (Temporary Resident Visa)
• work permit for either Canada or the United States
• study permit for either Canada or the United States.

Remember: if you are not a citizen of either country, you will likely have to provide proof of permanent residence status in one country and temporary residence in the other in order to be eligible for the NEXUS Program.

Complete the NEXUS Card Application

As of 2019, you can ONLY apply online using the USA's TTP website (there is no Canadian site). If you want to submit a paper application, as of 2019 you must use a third party such as Border Cards.

Completing the Online Application Using TTP

If you don't want to apply using TTP, submit this application to us.

1. First, create a US government login.gov account unless you have one already.
2. Second, use your login.gov account to access the US government's TTP website.
3. Click on "Get Started" unless you're renewing your NEXUS Card or you've created a TTP profile but not finished applying.

Setting up Your login.gov Account

If you already have a NEXUS Card, and are just registering for your login.gov, you will need to provide your PASSID, which you can find on the back of your NEXUS Card.
In order to create your login.gov account, you will have to provide:

• Email address
• Phone Number

The email address must be an email address you have access to. And the phone number should be a cell phone. You will need both in order to access your login.gov account in the future.

Completing the NEXUS Application

There are over 30 steps to completing the NEXUS Card application online through the TTP site, not including setting up your login.gov account. Don’t want to apply online? You can save your information at any time and log back into TTP and finish the application at a later date.

First,you must select your situation:

• “Get started” if you've never applied for a NEXUS Card before
• “I’ve already started” to resume an application you began on the site but gave up on.
• “I’m already a program member” for NEXUS Card renewals and replacements.

You must agree to the terms of the TTP site every single time you log in. The fine print says that they will share your personal information among various agencies belong to both the Canadian and US governments.

If you chose “Get Started,” above, the next step is to review the steps required to submit an online application for a NEXUS Card.

The first actual step of the online application process is to fill in your “personal information”:

1. your full legal name
2. your date of birth
3. your location of birth (town/city, region, country)
4. your email address
5. your phone number

Once you have provided this information, you are must indicate whether or not you have ever applied for a NEXUS Card or a Fast Card or the Global Entry program before.

Click "Continue". You will then be asked to confirm the personal information you already submitted.

A feature of the TTP process that wasn't present on the old site is a progress chart. At this stage it indicates that you have completed the “Account” stage and now must complete the “Application” section.

The first step of the “Application” proper is to select your citizenship so you can see which programs you are available to you. Anyone who is not an American citizen will have to prove they can legally ented the United States.

Select the program you want to participate in.

Once you have selected your program you must agree to the process the entire application process. Give your consent for a personal background checks on both sides of the border and agree that the CBSA or CBP has the right to refuse your application at their discretion. If you don't agree you can't get a NEXUS Card. Consent to the interview, next, or you will not be able to get the Card.

It's time to provide your personal information again::

1. Surname
2. Given name
3. Middle name
4. Date of Birth
5. City of Birth
6. Country of Birth
7. State or Province of Birth
8. Phone Number
9. Email Address.

After you have provided your personal information this time, you need to provide information which will help the CBP and CBSA physically identify you:

1. your gender (male or female only)
2. your eye colour, which you can select from a list of of options
3. your height in either metric or imperial

Next, you’ need to declare whether or not you’ve ever used another name (such as a maiden name). If you have ever done so, you’ll need to list any previous surnames you’ve used. At this point you also need to provide any nicknames you have used or currently use officially (i.e. on any documentation with your name on it). So if your name is William but you go by Bill, list "Bill" as a nickname.

Next, confirm your citizenship. The TTP website will guess you are Canadian if you indicated you were not American at the previous citizenship screen. If you are not a Canadian or an American citizen, you will have to prove your eligibility for a NEXUS Card by the following ways:

1. proving you are a permanent resident of one country or the other (with appropriate ID) and
2. proving you are admissible to the country you are not a permanent resident of (with the appropriate immigration documentation).

Now enter at least one phone number (a home and/or cell and/or work number). You will NEVER be called by CBP or CBSA. These phone numbers help verify you are who you say you are.

Next, you will have to prove your citizenship you stated previously: if you haven’t yet stated your citizenship you will have to and then you can choose which proof of citizenship you will provide among the options:

1. naturazliation certificate (US)
2. certificate of Indian status
3. Canadian citizenship certificate (or card)
4. passport (recommended)
5. state or provincial birth certificate
6. certificate of retention of Canadian citizenship.

If you are not a citizen of the US, you will have to declare whether or not you are a Permanent Resident of the United States.

If you are not an American citzien or permanent resident, you will next have to prove your admissibility to the US. If you used a Canadian passport to prove citizenship, you can use it to prove admissibility. If you used a document other than a passport, you will have to provide a different document. If you are not a Canadian citizen you will have to prove your admissibility with an immigration document.

In order to be eligible for a NEXUS Card, you must live in the US or Canada. In order to prove that, you need a driver's license or some other proof of address. If you don’t have a valid driver’s license, you are still eligible for a NEXUS Card, but you’ll have to prove your residence using some other proof of address, such as mail.

Once you have added the information from your valid license information, provide your current residential address.

If you have a different mailing address because you live in a development or for some other reason, you must provide this. If you do not provide an address in Canada or the US that mail can be successfully delivered to, you will likely never receive your NEXUS Card.

Additioanlly, you must provide your complete address history for the last 5 years, if different than your current residential address or mailing address. If there are gaps in your address history, your application will be delayed or outright rejected.

The next step is to provide your current employment status. If you are retired, or a student, or applying for a child, this is the step at which you enter that information.

Just like with your address information, you must provide your employment status for the last 5 years, if different than your current occupation.

You must then provide your travel history to countries other than Canada, the US and Mexico. Please note that some territories of other countries (such as some islands in the Caribbean) are listed as separate countries while some are not. If you cannot find the territory you visited on the system's list, you will need to look up the sovereign country that has dominion over the territory you travelled to. (Try Wikipedia when in doubt.)

Last but not least, you must answer a series of questions about your criminal and travel history. Answering “yes” to any of these questions will not result in an automatic refusal, but if you must answer "yes" to one or more of these four questions, make sure that you can explain the situation at the interview by providing supporting documentation of your claims that this should not disqualify you.

Once you have finished the NEXUS Card application, the TTP site lets you view your application. The TTP system will only catch certain errors, such as month-long gaps in your address or employment history. The system cannot catch most typos, aside from some street and city names, you cannot rely on it to catch any omissions on your part which fall outside any of the questions you answered. Review this page extremely carefully or pay someone to do it for you. You must confirm that everything is correct. Failure to submit correct information is grounds for refusal.

After you have confirmed that your information is correct, you must accept privacy statements by both the US and Canadian governments.

You then have one last chance to cancel your application. This page also states the fee (for adult applications).

If this application is for an adult, you must then agree to the fee.

In order to complete the process through the TTP website, you will have to pay the fee by AMEX, MasterCard or VISA. If you do not want to provide credit card information on the TTP website, you will have to apply through a third party.

The last page is confirmation of your fee payment. Print this information for your records.

Submitting your NEXUS Card Application through TTP

After completing the above application, TTP asks you to check your information and correct any errors you find.

Once you've double-checked your application, you must pay the fee of USD$50 by credit card. You can only pay in US dollars and you can only pay with one of the three approved credit cards (AMEX, MasterCard, VISA). Don’t want to apply online?

Submitting Your NEXUS Card Application by Mail

As of 2019, you must use TTP or a private company if you wish to mail your application.

Want mail in your application? Click here.

1. First, you will have to print the pdf application form which is available from websites such as this one.
2. Second, you must complete the paper application. If you filled out the pdf application in your pdf viewer on your desktop or using a pdf plugin in your browser, you’ll have to print off the completed version and make sure there is nothing missing.
3. Third, you must include your credit card information (AMEX, VISA or MasterCard only). Don't forget to sign the form. Forms without payment information will not be processed.
4. Finally, you should include photocopies of your identity and citizenship documents you intend to produce at the interview. and include them in the application.

We will double-check your NEXUS Card application to make sure it's accurate and contact you if any information appears to be missing or contradictory

Once the application and photocopies are in the envelope, mail it to our office:

Address:

57 Westchester Drive
London, Ontario
Canada N6G 2K6

Booking Your Interview

No matter whether you submit a paper application or submit your NEXUS application online you must book your interview through the TTP system. A few enrolment centres still accept interview bookings by phone, but you can only find out if this is still true at the enrolment centre near you if you call that enrolment centre.

Don’t want to book your appointment online? Call 1-855-760-0888 and let us help you.

Booking Your Appointment through TTP

You can only book your interview once your application has been "Conditionally Approved." Conditional Approval can take from 2 weeks to 3 months, depending upon the time of year and the backlog.

1. First, you must login your to your TTP account using your login.gov profile which you set up at the beginning of this process. If you do not know what that is, call us for help at 1-855-760-0888.
2. Then, you must confirm that you are Conditionally Approved. You will not be allowed to book an appointment if your application is not yet Conditionally Approved. NOTE: If your application is a renewal, you're not always required to attend an interview. In that case, there will be a notice that you were Approved, as opposed to "Conditionally Approved" and your NEXUS card will already in the mail.
3. You must pick the enrolment centre you want to attend. You can see a full list on this webpage. NOTE: If you are able, it is best to be flexible about where you will attend your interview so you can get an appointment sooner.
4. After you choose your location, there's a calendar with available dates and times. These times are available during the opening hours of the location you choose. What you see in the calendar are the times when there are no appointments booked as yet. NOTE: You can only book an appointment up to a couple of months in advance.
5. Once you booked your appointment, you should make sure to note the date and time of your appointment in a calendar you will check. CBP and CBSA will NOT remind you of your appointment except by automated email once before the date.

Having trouble booking your appointment? Call us at 1-855-760-0888 and we'll book your interview for you.

Getting a Different Interview Time or Date through TTP

The way you change the time or date or your interview depends upon how soon the appointment is:

• If your interview is scheduled for 24 hours from when you want to change it, you have to contact the enrolment centre by phone as a change made online will not be registered in time.
• If your interview is schedule for more than 24 hours from when you want to change it, it is easier to change your interview through TTP, using the same calendar you used to book it. The TTP system lets you change the time of your interview, the date or the location.

If you want to change the location of your interview, you will have to change it more than 24 hours in advance, and you can do so through TTP. If your appointment is in less than 24 hours, you will have to:

• cancel your appointment with the current enrolment centre by phone
• book a new appointment at the preferred enrolment centre using TTP.

Need help changing your appointment? Call us at 1-855-760-0888 and let us help you.



Urgent Interviews


You can attempt to call the enrolment centre to request an urgent appointment. However most NEXUS enrolment centres no longer allow you to book your interview by phone. Some enrolment centres will let you combine interviews if you and your family are all coming to the centre on the same day, but only after you booked the initial interviews through TTP and you must call to get the combined couple or family interview.

If the enrolment centre won't let you make an urgent appointment by phone, the only way to try to book an urgent interview is to constantly sign in to the GOES site to check if there are different appointments available, because cancellations cause new interview slots that weren't available when you last checked. Sometimes a really busy enrolment centre, such as the one at Pearson, will open up a temporary second enrolment centre to handle backlog, but you cannot rely on this happening. The only way to find this out is to constantly check the system.

Let us look for cancellations for you. Call us at 1-855-760-0888 to do it for you.

Attending Your Interview

Unless you are renewing your NEXUS Card and your personal information has changed, an interview at the border or a participating airport is mandatory.

There are enrolment centres at nearly every major international airport in Canada and along the border. You can pick which enrolment centre you want to attend when booking your interview.

You can expect both the CBSA officer and the US CBP officer to ask you questions about you and your application including questions about:

• why you want a NEXUS Card;
• how often you plan to use the NEXUS Card and where;
• your name and any previous names or aliases;
• how many times you've changed your address recently;
• whether or not you use drugs;
• whether or not you've ever been convicted of a crime;
• your purpose of travelling to the country you're not a citizen of;
• and any other question related to the information you provided on your NEXUS Card application.

Receiving your NEXUS Card

Provided you are approved, you should receive your NEXUS Card 10 calendar days after you are approved. The date of your approval is normally the date of your interview, but you can check the date by logging back into GOES to confirm the date.

If you do not receive your NEXUS Card after 10 calendar days from the date of your approval, you must report it lost by calling the enrolment centre where you had your interview.

Activating Your NEXUS Card

To activate your NEXUS Card use GOES by following these four easy steps:

1. First, sign in to your account by returning to the GOES site.
2. Next, you must accept the Terms and Conditions of utilizing the GOES system, as you usually do when you login. If you do not accept the terms and conditions, the system will not let you proceed.
3. Next, select the “Activate Membership Card” button. You can find this button below the text that says "Program Membership." If you cannot find the button, hold down CTRL and F at once, and, once the box appears at the bottom or top of your browser, type in “Activate.” You will have to press enter after typing in the word and your browser will “Find” the button for you.
4. Lastly, enter the required information from the opposite side of your NEXUS Card and submit it.

If you experience any trouble you will have to speak to GOES support or travel to an enrolment centre to activate the card.

You cannot use your NEXUS Card until you activate it.