[Rick Gardner]

Hello Steve, I will answer as much as I can. We have had multiple meetings with CBP in Washington and have made 10 eAPIS submissions thus far. Right now we are in Costa Rica headed back to the USA and will be making another submission. I will be the first to agree with you that the rule does not make much sense in many ways and that the performance of eAPIS thus far has been far from stellar. Also, the changeover of the on-line CBP decal ordering process has been an outright disaster.

DEPARTURE window. What CBP has told us is that for DEPARTING the USA for a foreign destination, as long as you leave in the same calendar day, you do not have to update your DEPARTURE TIME.

ARRIVAL time: CBP still expects you to call prior to arrival and respect the same 15 minute window. However, what we were told is that changes/updates to the arrival time different from what you filed with eAPIS can be done directly with the CBP officer when you make your call. VERY IMPORTANT: CBP still expects you to call the port and speak to an officer EVEN THOUGH you filed the correct arrival time with eAPIS. This is somewhat absurd as you have already provided the notification with eAPIS but that is still what they expect you to do. DO NOT rely soley on your eAPIS filing to notify the port, you still need to call them. If your ETA changes by more than 15 minutes you still need to notify them as well.

DEPARTURE/ARRIVAL DATE: If your deparure or arrival date is different from what you submitted you need to advise CBP via another eAPIS filing. This is different from what we and AOPA were originally told whereby the port could be able to help the pilot make the change. The reality is that CBP officers at the port have no way of changing your eAPIS filing, to make matters worse, neither can you. Therefore, the only way to make a change is to completely refile EVERYTHING all over again. As far as what happens to the original submission, what I was told by CBP in Washington is that they have a way of checking that and correcting it.....

FORM 178: We were told by CBP Washington that if you file with eAPIS, you do not need to present a Form 178. However, we have found a number of ports still requiring a 178. We have been advising Washington and it does appear that some progress is being made and ports are starting to drop the 178 if you file with eAPIS. If anyone knows of ports still requiring Form 178 in addition to an eAPIS filing, please let me know and I will be happy to forward to CBP in Washington so that they can address it. I should be back in the office next Monday.

EMAIL notificaiton: There have been numerous problems with the email notification with eAPIS. We were told about a week ago that this has been corected so if anyone is still having problems PLEASE let CBP, AOPA or myself know as this MUST be fixed.

Lastly....

I have proposed to AOPA that they should build a new "front end" for eAPIS that stores your personal for your family/passengers, common addresses, alerting you to passport expiration dates used, etc. This will greatly expedite the filing process. A number of people have begun developing their won and making them available. Many have good features but I think that it is a great risk to depend on a system when you are not really sure who has developed it and how much support you could receive. If any of the readers also think this is a good idea please call AOPA and voice your interest. AOPA has the internal resources to do this and help make it easier for the members.

I hope that this helps answer your questions.

Best regards