To apply for a FAST Card, you need to fill out the FAST Card application online (or complete the form), submit evidence of the required documentation, attend your interview at a FAST enrolment centre, and receive your FAST card in the mail.
Be sure you’re for a Fast card eligible first
- First, make sure you have the right documents.
- Then, complete and submit the application, which you can do either by mail or online using the TTP website.
- After you submit your application, you have to wait until it is conditionally approved. One you get that approval, you must book your FAST interview at the closest FAST enrolment centre. If you are ineligible for a FAST Card, you will be notified at this stage of the process as you receive notification of the rejection.
- Next, you attend an interview, at which point you should be fully approved.
- Finally, you will receive your FAST Card by mail.
- You must activate your FAST Card before you make use of it.
Check FAST Card Processing Times
Documents You Need for a Fast Card Application
In order to get your FAST Card, you need to prove your identity and prove your citizenship or status in either country. You should make sure you have your documents when you start your application as you will need them to complete it.
An American or Canadian passport should be used as proof of your identity, your citizenship and your admissibility to the other country. But if the passport is foreign, you can only use your passport as proof of your identity. If you use your American or Canadian passport to prove identity, citizenship and admissibility, you still have to provide your driver’s license.
Proving Your Identity on a FAST Card Application
If you do not possess a passport, you are still eligible for a FAST Card if you are an American or Canadian citizen, though we do not recommend this because you will have to prove your citizenship another way. The normal proof of identity that is not a passport is a provincial or state Driver’s License. The proof must be a government-issued photo ID. Here are your options for proving your identity:
- passport from any country
- driver’s license issued by a state or provincial government.
Proving your Status on a FAST Card Application
Proving your status depends upon your country of citizenship.
Proving Status for Canadian and American Citizens for FAST Card Applications
If you are a a citizen of either country, you can use the following documents as proof of your citizenship:
- Canadian or American passport or American border crossing card
- provincial or state birth certificate
- Canadian citizenship certificate or card
- American certificate of naturalization
- Canadian certificate of Indian status.
If you have status in both countries, you should provide proof of this other status as well, as that will further demonstrate your eligibility for the Free and Secure and Trade program.
Proving Status for Permanent Residents of Canada and the US for FAST Card Applications
If you are a permanent resident of Canada or the US country, you will need to submit your Green Card for the US, or your Canadian Permanent Resident Card, as your proof of status in the country you currently reside in.
Depending upon your country of citizenship, you may have to provide proof of your temporary status in the other country. For example, if you are a Canadian permanent resident and you would require a visa to travel to the US, you need a visa to get a FAST Card.
Temporary Status Proofs for FAST Card Applications
If you are a permanent resident of Canada and require a visa to enter the USA or you are a permanent resident and require a visa to enter Canada, you will also have to provide that visa. If you have a study permit or a work permit in addition to your visa, you should provide that document as well.
Acceptable proofs of temporary status include:
- visitor visa to either Canada or the USA (depending upon your country of permanent residence)
- study permit for either Canada or the USA (depending upon your country of permanent residence)
- work permit for either Canada or the USA (depending upon your country of permanent residence.
Please note that if you are an American or Canadian citizen and you have a study permit or work permit for the other country, you should also include this in your FAST Card application.
Completing the FAST Card Application
You have two choices to apply: apply online using the CBP’s TTP website, or by downloading the paper application and mailing it in to us or another third party company.
Note: CBSA discontinued the processing of mailed applications in 2019. If you still want to submit your application by mail, please use our services as we can then submit the application on your behalf.
Online FAST Card Application
Don’t want to apply online? Use our service.
- First, proceed to the CBP’s TTP website.
- Select “Register” below “New User” only if you have never registered before. If you are unsure if you have ever registered for login.gov and TTP in the past, you should check your email archive for login.gov registration emails, or contact TTP support to see if they have a record of your previous registration.
- Select “Next” only if you do not meet any of the criteria to login.
Creating a login.gov ID for TTP
If you have ever applied for a FAST Card, a NEXUS Card, a Global Entry pass or a SENTRI Card in the past, you probably have a Global Online Enrolment System ID already. However, there is a new system, called login.gov. You will need to create a new login.gov ID. If you create a new profile when you already have a login.gov profile, your new application could be delayed as they try to figure out whether or not you are the same person.
If you currently have a FAST Card, and you are registering for login.gov to renew or just so that you have an account, you will need to provide your PASSID for the TTP site, which can be found on the back of your FAST Card, only once you have your login.gov ID
To create a login.gov ID, you must provide the following mandatory information, your:
- email address
- cellular phone number.
The email address you provide when you set up your profile must be an address which you check often. If you apply directly through the TTP site, nobody will ever call you about your application, and your application will be abandoned if you do not book your interview appointment.
Completing the FAST Card Application Form
Completing the FAST Card application online entails many steps, not including setting up your login.gov profile (see above). However, you can save your information at any time and log back in to complete the application whenever you want, provided you haven’t certified the application (see below). These are the steps every FAST Card applicant has to complete:
- First of all, you must agree to the terms of use for the TTP site, every single time you log in.
- Second, you must choose the program you are applying for, as the TTP site is used for multiple different types of applications. In this case (FAST Card), you must select “Apply for FAST,” which is below the “Trusted Traveller” button.
- You cannot have never applied before. If you have applied before, you must provide your previous information (either your PASSID for your FAST membership, found on the back of your card, or information about your previous application).
- Third, there is a marketing survey they want you to answer. You can select “Other” if you are not sure where you heard about the Free and Secure Trade program, or if you cannot be bothered to tell them where you heard about the program. Once you have answered the marketing survey question, you can proceed to the actual application.
- The first question regards your US citizenship.
- This answer determines whether or not you’ll be able to apply for programs other than FAST. Since this is a FAST application, you do not need to worry about these other programs. Select “FAST” and agree to the condition that you must attend an interview in order to continue with the application.
- After selecting the Free and Secure Trade (FAST) program, you must provide personal information about your appearance, including your height, weight and eye colour.
- After you submit your personal appearance information, you must provide any previous surnames you’ve had, or used, or any nicknames you’ve ever had that aren’t common short-forms of your given name(s). If you did not include your middle name(s) in your profile, you must include them here.
- Once you have added any additional names you’ve used in the past, you must enter at least one phone number, whether your home phone, your cell/mobile or a work number. Please note: CBP and CBSA will never call you but you must provide this information as part of the security check.
- Once you have provided a phone number, you must prove your citizenship: first select your country of citizenship (if you’re American, this will be pre-selected) and then select the proof of citizenship you intend to use. Your:
- US naturazliation certificate
- certificate of Indian status
- Canadian citizenship certificate (or card)
- passport (if you provide a Canadian or American passport you will not have to provide proof of admissibility later on)
- state or provincial birth certificate
- certificate of retention of Canadian citizenship.
- Once you have provided proof of citizenship, you must declare whether or not you are a Permanent Resident of the United States.
- If you are not a US citizen, you must now prove your admissibility to the USA. If you used your Canadian passport to prove your citizenship, you can save time and use your Canadian passport for proof of admissibility to the USA. If you used a different piece of identification for your citizenship, you must provide appropriate proof of admissibility to the US (Canadian passport/US Green Card/US visa).
- Once you have demonstrated you are admissible tot he US, you must prove that you reside in Canada or the USA by providing your driver’s license. Your driver’s license is the primary way CBP and CBSA can verify your residence in North America. A commercial truck driver’s license is mandatory for a FAST Card.
- Once you have provided your valid license information, you must provide your current residential address.
- If you have a different mailing address, you must provide it because if you do not provide your correct mailing address, your FAST card cannot be successfully delivered to you.
- You must provide your complete address history for the last 5 years, if different than your current address. Any gaps will result in delays or the refusal of your application.
- Once you have entered all your previous addresses for the last five years, you must provide your current employment status. If you are unemployed, that is okay – there is an option for that.
- After submitting your current employment status, you must provide your past employment status for the last 5 years, if different from your current employment status.
- Once you have provided your employment information for the last five years, you must provide your travel history to countries other than Canada, the US and Mexico. Please note: some dependent territories are listed as separate items on the list while some are omitted from the list. If you cannot find the territory you visited on the list, you will have to select the sovereign country that has dominion over that dependent territory. If you omit any territory or country from this list, your application could be delayed.
- After you have provided your travel history, you must answer four questions about your criminal history. Please note that if you answer “yes” to any of these questions, your application will not necessarily be refused. But, if you answer “yes” to one or more of these questions, you must prepare an explanation for the your answer. You must provide supporting documentation for your explanation. Answer these questions honestly as the CBP or the CBSA (or both) will have access to your criminal record and your travel history between Canada and the US and will know whether or not you are lying.
- Once you have finished the application, the TTP system will show you what you entered. The TTP, such as gaps longer than a month in your address history or gaps longer than a month in your employment history. The TTP system will not catch typos and it will not catch anything that you missed that wasn’t mandatory. Review this page extremely carefully. The system will ask you to “Certify” that everything is correct as the final step of the application. If you fail to submit the correct information it could be grounds for refusal of your application.
- Once you certified your application, you must accept privacy statements from both governments to attest that you agree to your information being shared according to the laws of both Canada and the US.
- Once you have accepted the privacy notices, you are given one final chance to cancel this FAST Card application.
- The next step is to pay the fee, but first you must agree to the fee.
- In order to complete your online FAST Card application, you must pay by AMEX, MasterCard or VISA only. You must provide your Credit Card information at this point. If you do not wish to submit credit card information through the TTP system, you will have to apply through a third party such as Border Cards. What payment methods the third party company accepts depend upon the company. We normally only accept credit cards but call us if you need to pay some other way and we’ll see what we can do.
- Once you pay the fee, you will receive a confirmation of your payment. Print your payment confirmation for your records.
Submitting the FAST Card Application
If you chose not to submit your application through the TTP site you have only one choice as of 2019: Use a third party such as Border Cards. CBSA discontinued paper application processing as of 2019.
Mail-in FAST Card Applications
Border Cards strongly recommends using the TTP site or our service to apply for your FAST Card. We cannot vouch for other third party companies which accept mail-in applications.
Want to submit by mail without delays?
To submit by mail:
- Complete the pdf form available from this website in your browser, on your computer, or in pen by downloading it and printing it.
- Print the completed version of the pdf if you completed it in your browser or on your computer
- Once you have filled out the paper application, you must add your credit card information (VISA, MasterCard or AMEX only) and sign the form.
Double-check the application. Once you are sure all the information is correct, mail the paper application form to our office:
Border Cards – FAST
57 Westchester Drive
London, Ontario
N6G 2K6
We will check your paper application for accuracy and contact you if anything looks out of place.
What’s Next for Your FAST Card Application?
Once you have submitted your application, your application will be reviewed by both the CBSA and CBP. This process can take some time and there is no way to speed it up.
Once you are conditionally approved, you will have to book an interview:
- If you submitted your FAST Card application using the CBP’s TTP website, your TTP account will be updated and you will receive an email notification to check your account.
- If you submitted your application by mail to us, you will receive email correspondence from us to follow up about your application. If not email address is provided we will contact you by phone.
Learn How to Book Your FAST Card interview
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