Flying soon? U.S. Customs adds surprise checks while speeding process
A new process from U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun at several airports to “screen” American citizens returning to the country.
“It confirms who you are before you even reach an officer, saving time for you and allowing us to focus on real threats,” the agency said on social media.
The agency promotes the new process as a way for some passengers to save time at Customs and speed up their entry into the United States.
What is Enhanced Passenger Processing?
CBP refers to the new system as Enhanced Passenger Processing, or EPP, which it describes as “tech that gets you through the airport faster.”
According to a Customs and Border Protection update on Aug. 6, EPP helps organize lines for U.S. citizens entering the country. On arrival, travelers are photographed through automated capture technology that allows for a full customs evaluation — biometric confirmation, eligibility verification and compliance checks — before they even reach an officer.
Customs says that “this enhanced technology ensures better allocation of resources, allowing officers to focus on higher-risk travelers, in line with CBP’s national security mission.”
The new process relies on facial recognition software that matches a traveler’s photo taken at Customs against their passport or government-issued ID.
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While EPP promises faster processing and requires no physical contact, Customs and Border Protection officers remain available to instruct passengers on the process and assist at any point. Travelers who don’t want to participate in EPP must notify a CBP officer and instead follow the standard entry process, the agency notes.
More airports join EPP
Nashville International Airport in Tennessee is the most recent to start EPP.
“It recognizes who the passenger is, and it eliminates a lot of the manual administrative stuff that the officer would have to normally just kind of input into the computer,” Michael Neipert, CBP’s area port director for Tennessee and Arkansas, told WSMV.
Nashville becomes the 14th airport to incorporate the technology. Other airports using EPP include Orlando, Atlanta), Charlotte, Dallas Fort Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, Chicago O’Hare, and Seattle-Tacoma.
Miami International Airport has not yet introduced EPP for U.S. citizens.
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At the end of June, CBP announced that Minneapolis–St. Paul International Airport had also rolled out EPP ahead of the busy summer travel season in order “to safely process U.S. citizens.”
“Travelers arriving at MSP will feel the benefits of this new technology — shorter wait times, faster processing through Customs, and the improved ability to make connecting flights,” LaFonda D. Sutton-Burke, CBP’s director of field operations in Chicago, said in a statement.
During fiscal year 2024, Customs processed more than 420 million travelers at U.S. ports of entry, a 6.6% increase compared to the previous year.
This story was originally published August 19, 2025 at 3:23 PM.
