Travelling to US on renewed passport - can I use ekiosks at LAX?

[Jurahn]

Have been to the US several times before (most recently two years ago) and will be travelling on VA1 next week on a recently renewed passport. Is it still the case that I can't use the kiosks at LAX on arrival as I haven't travelled there before on that passport? Just thought I'd check in case this had changed since our last trip. Thanks!

 

[kpc]

Have been to the US several times before (most recently two years ago) and will be travelling on VA1 next week on a recently renewed passport. Is it still the case that I can't use the kiosks at LAX on arrival as I haven't travelled there before on that passport? Just thought I'd check in case this had changed since our last trip. Thanks!

Can't comment on this but based on others' reports, it may be a good idea to bring your old passport as well

 

[Denali]

Last week we tried for ages to get our fingerprint to work at the kiosk with new passport and gave up and had to go to the counter anyway so did fingerprints there.

We took our old passports just in case.

 

[Rallo]

We arrived in LAX last month neither of us had travelled to the USA before despite this we were still instructed by staff to use the kiosk .

 

[Jurahn]

So varying experiences then by the sound of it! Probably best if I just check with the staff when i get there - I've got a 5 hour layover at LAX anyway, so I'm not going to be in a mad rush.

But why are people taking their old passports? We've never done that in the past when travelling - it is just a reaction to all this Trump business?

 

[Quickstatus]

you can still use the ekiosk - ie go through the motions and get a receipt but you will most likely get a receipt with a X across it causing you to line up again at the manual line. It wont reject you and cause a scene (i.e no flashing lights or alarms)

Sometimes doing the ekiosks plus the second line up is faster than lining up at the manual line from the beginning. This is because after the ekiosks the line for the manual secondary is advanced a bit further.

Old passports wont be necessary unless it contains a proper US visa , nor will it expedite the process. The ekisosk will not accept the old passport which will have the machine readable portion cut off.

 

[williamsf1]

I was in the same situation last year with a new passport and was told it would not work as the new passport would not be in the system as yet... the manual lines were actually faster in the end !

 

[Jurahn]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

you can still use the ekiosk - ie go through the motions and get a receipt but you will most likely get a receipt with a X across it causing you to line up again at the manual line. It wont reject you and cause a scene (i.e no flashing lights or alarms)

We both got the "X" on our 2015 trip - not sure why I got it, I assume Mr Jurahn's was because he was travelling on a recently renewed passport - maybe it was because we were travelling together? Unfortunately by the time we were sent off to the manual queue, the lines were VERY slow, a lot of people ahead of us where English wasn't their first language, so took quite some time to get to through.

Might just head straight for the manual queues this time.