Global Entry Changes

[RetireBy90]

I applied in July and was initial approved within 24 hours. Scheduled my interview and earliest I could get was 4 Nov, yesterday. I went to the Dulles airport and felt like first day in basic training. Gimme your passport, drivers license and sit there. After a few minutes I had a quick interview, mostly warnings about not trying to cheat customs when I return to US. Later yesterday I got email that I was fully approved.

I did application in July for DW, perhaps 5 minutes after mine and she is still waiting "Pending Review". Of course they didn't pending taking our application fee. So I guess we just wait and wait and wait. They are even worse than IRS.

 

[RetireBy90]

I applied in July and was initial approved within 24 hours. Scheduled my interview and earliest I could get was 4 Nov, yesterday. I went to the Dulles airport and felt like first day in basic training. Gimme your passport, drivers license and sit there. After a few minutes I had a quick interview, mostly warnings about not trying to cheat customs when I return to US. Later yesterday I got email that I was fully approved.

I did application in July for DW, perhaps 5 minutes after mine and she is still waiting "Pending Review". Of course they didn't pending taking our application fee. So I guess we just wait and wait and wait. They are even worse than IRS.

Well, now Feb and DW application still shows pending. We will travel next month (March) and almost a year nothing at all. Mine has been approved and I’m in the program for 5 months or so. Sigh

 

[5Miler]

Well, now Feb and DW application still shows pending. We will travel next month (March) and almost a year nothing at all. Mine has been approved and I’m in the program for 5 months or so. Sigh

I'm in that same boat as DGF applied for her renewal Jan 2 and I applied an hour or so after her. She was approved with no interview required within 24 hours and has already received her new card. I am still pending.

Similar results occurred when we initially applied 5 years ago as she quickly received approval for interview and it took me almost two months to be approved.

I love government agencies.

 

[EastWest Gal]

DH let his global entry expire, which was disappointing since he loves TSA precheck and had to fly for a job a week ago. He set up his renewal online and they renewed it within 48 hours. He was able to use his old card and the email to get through TSA precheck fast.

His card arrived yesterday. I renewed due to an expiration date in September (the website said it could take 9 months). My card arrived within a week. We did not need to re-interview.

 

[neihn]

Well, now Feb and DW application still shows pending. We will travel next month (March) and almost a year nothing at all. Mine has been approved and I’m in the program for 5 months or so. Sigh

I applied June/2022 and in pending mode until I recently traveled overseas and just 1 day before I come back the US I received an email saying it was conditional approved and I can get an in person interview when I enter the US port (if the port has global entry interview boot). Same thing happened to my sister on a different trip and date. So looks like the global entry folks do monitor if you go out of the country and try to catch you when you come back to complete the application.

Good luck.

 

[audreyh1]

I applied June/2022 and in pending mode until I recently traveled overseas and just 1 day before I come back the US I received an email saying it was conditional approved and I can get an in person interview when I enter the US port (if the port has global entry interview boot). Same thing happened to my sister on a different trip and date. So looks like the global entry folks do monitor if you go out of the country and try to catch you when you come back to complete the application.

Good luck.

Wow, that’s amazing that they know when you are returning. Or maybe the 1 day before was a coincidence.

 

[neihn]

Wow, that’s amazing that they know when you are returning. Or maybe the 1 day before was a coincidence.

Looking back, both me and my wife applied in June/2022. My wife traveled overseas without me Sep 2022, she also received an email saying her application was conditional approved a couple days before she came back to the US. But she did not check her email at that time (Sep/2022), therefore, she missed the in person interview at the port. She tried to make an appointment for the interview afterward, but it is at least 6 months away in PDX or SEA office. In the end, she and I got the in person interview few weeks ago at LAX when we came back from Costa Rica. We already received our cards.

So yes, they do monitor us .

Folks, if you are waiting for your conditional approval during your traveling, make sure that you check your email before coming back to the states.

 

[rodi]

I hear all the complaints and long timeline for getting GE. I applied in Nov 2021. Was quickly conditionally approved. San Diego's Otay border crossing was not taking interviews, nor was Tecate boarder crossing, San Diego airport wasn't. LAX was 9 months out. SFO was about 3 months out but would have the added expense of flying there and back..... I checked periodically but made the back up plan of doing the interview on return from a planned trip to Italy that we were starting with a transatlantic cruise in March 2022. The cruise was cancelled so we cancelled the trip. Started looking for appointments and found that Otay and Tecate had reopened for appointments but were more than a year out. Instead we did it a Miami airport on returning from Quito this past November.

Downside of doing the airport re-entry interview:
- Need time. Our experience was similar to Trailwalkers - taken back to a room full of people with complicated customs problems - only 1 person doing GE interviews and he went on lunch so there ended up with 5 of us waiting. Total time was over 2 hours. (fortunately, I'd planned for this and had a long layover).
- Your picture will NOT be good if you have just flown an very early morning flight internationally and are sleep deprived. My GE card has probably the worst picture I've ever taken.

The GE customs agent commented that he was surprised how long it had been since I'd been approved to doing the interview. Apparently the Miami area did not have a backlog on appointments... that was apparently a west coast issue. The good news: the 5 year clock starts with the interview approval, NOT the conditional approval. (That is good since it took a full year from conditional approval to interview.)

 

[neihn]

I guess we were lucky. At LAX, they have 4 booths for the global entry interview. Just only one person was in front of us. The whole process only took 20 minutes, the longest part was fingerprinting, I had to adjust my fingers on the reader a few times before the agent could take an acceptable fingerprint. Yes, the picture is ugly .. I look very much like Quasimodo

 

[donheff]

DW and I both filed for renewals about a year ago. I got my renewal approved about three weeks later. DW stayed in processing until she was finally approved yesterday. They extended the earlier approval in the interim. What is weird is that others here have reported applying for renewals in the interim period and quickly getting approved. The only thing I can assume is that once an app gets past some metric for appropriate processing, they throw it in a delayed group with automatic extensions and give a low priority to processing them. That way they can try to keep the "normal" processing time for new apps and incoming renewal reasonable. Seems sensible to extend some renewals to redirect the workload to new apps. No harm, no foul.

 

[audreyh1]

Looking back, both me and my wife applied in June/2022. My wife traveled overseas without me Sep 2022, she also received an email saying her application was conditional approved a couple days before she came back to the US. But she did not check her email at that time (Sep/2022), therefore, she missed the in person interview at the port. She tried to make an appointment for the interview afterward, but it is at least 6 months away in PDX or SEA office. In the end, she and I got the in person interview few weeks ago at LAX when we came back from Costa Rica. We already received our cards.

So yes, they do monitor us .

Folks, if you are waiting for your conditional approval during your traveling, make sure that you check your email before coming back to the states.

Wow, that’s kind of amazing coordination but of course they can see when you have left the country, via your passport and airline passport control, but they don’t know when you will return.

 

[Luvdogs]

I applied for Global Entry renewal November 2022. It's still pending approval. My husband applied for renewal four days ago and has already been approved.

 

[braumeister]

I applied for Global Entry renewal November 2022. It's still pending approval. My husband applied for renewal four days ago and has already been approved.

And people give me grief for being a procrastinator.

 

[zinger1457]

Just came back from an overseas trip and it was a breeze going through LAX using Global Entry, no wait at all, walked straight up to a terminal that uses face recognition to ID you, no need to scan your passport or ID card, took maybe 15 seconds then off to baggage claim.

 

[Koolau]

Just came back from an overseas trip and it was a breeze going through LAX using Global Entry, no wait at all, walked straight up to a terminal that uses face recognition to ID you, no need to scan your passport or ID card, took maybe 15 seconds then off to baggage claim.

Sounds easy. I realized my Passport expired. I guess Global Entry isn't in my immediate future, but so glad it w*rks well for you.

 

[audreyh1]

Just came back from an overseas trip and it was a breeze going through LAX using Global Entry, no wait at all, walked straight up to a terminal that uses face recognition to ID you, no need to scan your passport or ID card, took maybe 15 seconds then off to baggage claim.

I look forward to this. I just have to remember to take off my glasses and mask. I liked the fingerprint ID method.

 

[RetireBy90]

One final post for me on this thread.

I had posted that we applied in July 22 and I received my interview and final approval in November 22 (if I remember the date correctly). I applied for DW same day, 10 minutes after my application but she had heard nothing for 8 months. Alas we did our travel early Mar 23 with my approval and no word for DW. Last week (about 23 Mar 2023) while we were out of the country on our travel she received her email for conditional approval that she needed to schedule her interview. So on our return 25 Mar at SFO she did the interview at the customs area in about 10 minutes. She is now approved and should get the card later this week.

I guess you could say all well that ends well. Our customs was smooth (although we were very early in the day so that may have made it easier) so my bitterness is a bit better now that the process is completed for both of us. Still have to wonder why it took couple months for me and 8 for her. No reason she couldn't have been processed much earlier but like I said it is done. I should be happy and not waste cycles being bitter about something in the past.

 

[USGrant1962]

Just came back from an overseas trip and it was a breeze going through LAX using Global Entry, no wait at all, walked straight up to a terminal that uses face recognition to ID you, no need to scan your passport or ID card, took maybe 15 seconds then off to baggage claim.

Came into IAD from Zurich yesterday. IAD has new machines, the old machines are roped off. Latest process is:

1. Walk up to machine - it looks at you and says proceed to GE agent. There is really nothing on the machine, no image of yourself so you don't have to futz with the camera any more, no printed receipt. Just a status screen that says something like Welcome, then Wait, then Proceed.

2. Walk up to the CBP agent at the desk (we had a short line, 3 or 4 people so literally a 20-30 second wait). They look at you on their console, say "Mr. BLANK, anything to declare?" You say no, they say good day.

3. There is no longer a customs check after you pick up your luggage. There is an officer there if you have anything to declare but you don't even speak/stop if you don't.

Also for folks that travel through Dulles, I was shocked that our checked bags were out before we were. IAD historically could take up to an hour to get checked bags out - so sometime during Covid they got their act together.

 

[RetireBy90]

Just came back from an overseas trip and it was a breeze going through LAX using Global Entry, no wait at all, walked straight up to a terminal that uses face recognition to ID you, no need to scan your passport or ID card, took maybe 15 seconds then off to baggage claim.

My experience Saturday, 25 March was about the same. I placed my hand on the screen to start and then matched camera to outline on the screen (had to move back to fill the outline), one touch to accept picture I think and then off to agent. He asked if any declarations and sent me on my way. Entire process was just few minutes. Then had to wait on DW to get her interview (see above post).

 

[USGrant1962]

My experience Saturday, 25 March was about the same. I placed my hand on the screen to start and then matched camera to outline on the screen (had to move back to fill the outline), one touch to accept picture I think and then off to agent. He asked if any declarations and sent me on my way. Entire process was just few minutes. Then had to wait on DW to get her interview (see above post).

Those are the old machines, it looks like they are being upgraded per my post above.

 

[BrianB]

DW's and my Global Entry expired in 10/22. We thought we would get a head start by applying 6 months early in April.

DW ( who had her Real ID driver's license) got her renewal in two weeks.

I didn't have my Real ID then (I do now!) My renewed Global Entry card arrived in February - 10 months processing time!

At least, for renewals you don't have to do another in-person interview.

BrianB

 

[braumeister]

At least, for renewals you don't have to do another in-person interview.

Actually, some people do. It seems to be random.

 

[audreyh1]

Yeah, DH had to do do another interview. I did not. Appears to be random. Fortunately we live near an international bridge and can make appointments in a few days.

 

[Lewis Clark]

DW's and my Global Entry expired in 10/22. We thought we would get a head start by applying 6 months early in April.

DW ( who had her Real ID driver's license) got her renewal in two weeks.

I didn't have my Real ID then (I do now!) My renewed Global Entry card arrived in February - 10 months processing time!

At least, for renewals you don't have to do another in-person interview.

BrianB

My wife and I had a similar experience. My renewal took about 2 weeks. Hers about 8 or 9 months although they cashed her check in 2 or 3 weeks. We both had Read ID driver's licenses.

 

[Koolau]

One final post for me on this thread.

I had posted that we applied in July 22 and I received my interview and final approval in November 22 (if I remember the date correctly). I applied for DW same day, 10 minutes after my application but she had heard nothing for 8 months. Alas we did our travel early Mar 23 with my approval and no word for DW. Last week (about 23 Mar 2023) while we were out of the country on our travel she received her email for conditional approval that she needed to schedule her interview. So on our return 25 Mar at SFO she did the interview at the customs area in about 10 minutes. She is now approved and should get the card later this week.

I guess you could say all well that ends well. Our customs was smooth (although we were very early in the day so that may have made it easier) so my bitterness is a bit better now that the process is completed for both of us. Still have to wonder why it took couple months for me and 8 for her. No reason she couldn't have been processed much earlier but like I said it is done. I should be happy and not waste cycles being bitter about something in the past.

Many years ago, my mom's passport arrived the day after my dad left without her for Italy. He got his passport in no time. Hers took months without explanation though many calls were made to see what was going on. No reason for it, it's just the gummint.