Global entry interviews
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?
0
Comments
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.
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.
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.
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 😀
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.
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.
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.
I did the interview t EWR while connecting there. No fuss, no muss.
I think doing what BKMD did was a brilliant idea, especially if you have the time between flights.
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.
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!