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Global entry interviews

Janis_Augustine

My husband, adult children, and I are trying to get global entry. Scheduling an interview in advance seems impossible. I see that we can get interviews upon arrival from an international flight, but that seems to defeat the purpose of getting through passport control quickly. Does anyone have any advice on what to do?

Comments

MikeHenderson

A friend of mine did the interview as she arrived at LAX. It went very quickly. Consider that if you get an appointment, you'll have to go to some office and wait, have the interview, and then come home. It was much faster for my friend to do it when arriving from a trip.

British

There is no way round getting an appointment if there are non available before you are due to go on a trip. I guess you have to plan months in advance before a trip these days as more and more people sign up.

Sussan

My husband and I got our Global Entry earlier this year and found that a closer location for the interview had no spots open prior to our trip. But if we drove about 3 hours to another location, they had spots available. We made a day of it and it went very smoothly. So if you have time and don’t mind a little road trip, you may want to check out other locations.

British

Crikey! No way. As the aim is to shorten the time getting back into the country, the loss of three hours and cost of gas for that trip would take me quite a few vacations to get that time back. But good tip anyway 😀

Goddess

British - Sussan was probably referring to an interview site 3 hours from her home, not three hours from the airport she was at getting back into the country! I had a similar option if I needed an appointment in a hurry.

kfnknfzk

We did what Sussan did and it worked out fine. I dread LAX and did not want to have to spend any more time there if I didn’t need to. We had a weekend getaway planned in San Diego, CA, and had our global entry interviews at that time. I think that was about fifteen (15) years ago.

1058 - typographical error corrected.

British

Ah, I know she meant three hours from home. That’s six hours of time and gas money. I was trying to say how that compares with an extra wait at the airport for a regular line. Our problem is that we often get through Global Entry and then wait for a long long time for our luggage. We don’t very often travel with just carry on which would admittedly eliminate that wait.

BKMD

I did the interview t EWR while connecting there. No fuss, no muss.

kfnknfzk

I think doing what BKMD did was a brilliant idea, especially if you have the time between flights.

Sealord

We did the interview at SFO. It took several months advance planning, but it was a pretty simple process. We have had it for around seven years, and have of course renewed it once … no interview. The Global Entry card by the way is a “real ID”, so you can avoid jumping through hoops with your DMV. Of course we have military ID’s and passports, so we have all the ‘real’ IDs that we need.

Kathy0529

I would suggest stalking the website where you would schedule your interview. When I did my application, Boston's Logan airport said no availability for a year, but when I rec'd my approval, appointments opened up and I was able to get a quick appointment. If you have time, just keep checking the site to see if anything becomes available. Good luck!

MS78

There’s a web site where you can pay to help find an appointment near you rather quickly. Once you sign up, pick your preferred locations, you’ll almost immediately get text messages telling you of openings which are in a week to ten days. It’s called Global Entry Spotter. Worked like a dream for me when I needed an appointment near me and also my brother and SIL, when they needed one.

MikeHenderson

@MS78 - That's interesting. I had never heard of that. I don't need it, but it's nice to know about it to be able to help a friend.

Janis_Augustine

thank you for your advice. Last night I was able to book interviews for my husband and me in Charlotte in January. Suddenly there were lots of openings. Maybe it has to do with the beginning of a month and things open up then for the following month. Now our children have to schedule interviews when they are approved. They live in Richmond, VA, and the schedule there is only one day a week in the morning, but I have seen openings, so we'll persevere.

AlanS

Janis_Augustine
December 2 edited December 2
. . . .Suddenly there were lots of openings. Maybe it has to do with the beginning of a month and things open up then for the following month.

Yes. After our fist unsuccessful attempt to schedule our interviews online, I found a number, called the facility, and managed to reach a helpful agent who said they release blocks of dates/times for an entire month on a certain date(?). He also gave me the release date.

We started the process early enough that we could wait another month. The next time, I went online when the slots were released (It was like getting tickets to the Eiffel Tower ) and had no problem getting scheduled. For us in NC, there is only one location- Charlotte (CLT) which is a 4 hr. + drive!!! Unbelievably, they didn't, and still don't, do regular or Enrollment on Arrival (EoA) interviews at Raleigh (RDU) our regular feeder, which is only 2 hours away. For us, it was shorter (< 3 hr.) to drive to Richmond, VA (RIC) than to Charlotte. RIC only does interviews a couple days a week, has a small facility- only 1 or 2 interviewers, and a tiny waiting room. We combined our interviews at RIC with a trip to see our daughter.

If I had only Googled it?!?!?! "Global Entry interview appointments are released in a large batch on the first Monday of each month at 9 a.m. local time, but you can also find appointments at other times due to cancellations and reschedulings."