If you’re a U.S. citizen flying into SFO from abroad, you may notice a new process at Customs.
On June 16, 2026, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) officially launched Enhanced Passenger Processing (EPP), a contactless biometric program developed in partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that uses facial recognition to verify returning U.S. citizens at international arrivals. Since CBP deployed EPP nationally, average wait times for U.S. citizens have dropped by 25%.
The program is now active across 25 airports and 8 seaports, including six international locations, making SFO one of dozens of ports of entry where travelers can move through customs without stopping at a traditional inspection booth.
How EPP works
When U.S. citizens enter the passport processing area at SFO, an auto-capture camera — staffed by a CBP officer — takes a photo of the traveler. Within seconds, the EPP system cross-references that image against passport photos already stored in CBP’s database, confirms identity and citizenship status, runs law enforcement checks, and logs an entry in the travel record. The entire sequence happens before the officer asks a single question.
If the system cannot verify a traveler for any reason, a CBP officer redirects them to a standard inspection booth. No traveler is processed without a CBP officer present at every step.
What changes for travelers
The main shift is administrative: tasks that previously required officers to manually review documents are now handled automatically, freeing CBP staff to focus on direct interaction with passengers. For travelers, the experience is closer to walking past a camera than stopping at a booth.
The technology is available exclusively to U.S. citizens arriving at participating airports, preclearance airports, and seaports. A full list of active EPP locations is available on the CBP’s Enhanced Passenger Processing page, including a location-by-location breakdown.
Mike Nakornkhet, Airport Director at SFO, confirmed the launch as part of a broader effort to streamline the international arrivals experience. The airport has not released SFO-specific wait time data separate from the national 25% average reported by CBP.
