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Courtesy Mucia Dovalina,

LAREDO, TEXAS – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is reminding international travelers planning trips across the border during the upcoming Fourth of July holiday weekend into the United States to make sure they have their proper documents and to plan ahead by monitoring wait times and choosing alternate bridge crossing locations accordingly. Traffic volumes are expected to peak during this period.

“To avoid unnecessary delays, CBP strongly encourages international travelers to obtain any necessary travel document, including their I-94 tourist permit, well in advance prior to their upcoming travel,” said (A) Port Director Adriana Arce, Laredo Port of Entry. “We will be monitoring the traffic throughout the holiday period and plan to fully staff all inspection lanes during peak periods in order to maintain the flow of traffic.”

CBP also encourages travelers to utilize our Ready Lanes and obtain a radio frequency identification (RFID)-enabled travel document such as a U.S. passport card or Trusted Traveler Program card (NEXUS, SENTRI, Global Entry or FAST/EXPRES) to expedite their entry and make future border crossings more efficient.

Processing in Ready Lanes is 20 percent faster than normal lanes and provide a time savings of up to 20 seconds per vehicle. Those who have renewed their entry documents within the last 24 months already have RFID-enabled documents and may not know it.

CBP also advises the public to utilize the smart phone Border Wait Times (BWT) App to monitor the border wait times, which are updated on an hourly basis. Members of the traveling public can monitor Border Wait Times via this link or also obtain the BWT app on their smartphone via Apple App Store and Google Play so that they can observe the wait times and make an informed decision on which bridge to use.

CBP reminds the public that they may utilize the Colombia-Solidarity Bridge as an alternate route to avoid heavy traffic.