eAPIS experience

[SteveG]

The crew data is saved on the eAPIS web site. When you fill out the notice you can pick from a drop down list of your previouly entered crew members which ones will be included on that manifest. The only crew data to be manually filled out is the "address while in the US". Aircraft data is not saved and must be reentered with each submission. Also, note that your departure airport and your departure location are not necessarily one and the same. The departure airport is apparently the nearest CBP port to your border crossing location while your departure location is the airport of takeoff. The Receipt of Transmission for departure states "based upon the information submitted, you are cleared for departure" while the same reciept for arrival states "notice of arrival must be coordinated directly with the CBP destination port". I am assuming the later implies that the one hour phone notification is still required. It appears that different flight planning sites are developing applications to create an XML document which can be uploaded to eAPIS and that these applications will allow more of the repetitive data to be saved but I am not aware of any of them being operational yet. Good luck with this bureaucratic rats nest.