TWA884

A recent post about renewing an expired Global Entry card was moved to the following thread:
TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

travelnearandfar

Arrived one hour early prior to my appointment. There's only 3 of us are at the waiting area and after a few minutes we are called in. There was another waiting area inside, 3 windows and was called immediately.

CBP: Can I have your passport and drivers license?
Me: (Hands off passport and DL
CPB: (checks in her system...seems to cannot find my record)
Me: I'm an hour early from my appointment. Is that OK?
CBP: Oh there i see it. It's fine. (proceeds to check my passport) So you were born in XXXXXXX?
Me: Yes
CBP: How did you come to the US?
Me: Thru H1, 20sum years ago.
CBP: Are you still working with them?
Me: Not anymore.
CBP: Where are your working now?
Me: Blah
CBP: How long? What do you do?
Me: Blah
CBP: Are you dual citizen?
Me: Yes.
CBP: Can I see your other passport?
Me: (Hands passport)
CBP: I'm glad you brought it with you, other applicants usually don't.
(Scans passport and hands it back)
Me: Can I use my other passport to gain entry to US (my other passport requires visa to enter US)?
CBP: No, you need to use your US Passport. What is your name?
Me: blah...blah..blah
CBP: You have too many names (laughs). What is your address?
Me: Blah...blah..blah..
CBP: Have you ever been arrested, convicted...blah blah
Me: No
CBP: Have you been to Mexico/Canada within the last 5 years?
Me: I have been to Mexico a couple of times.
CBP: I'm gonna take your picture now and fingerprints. Look at camera please.
Me: (Looks at camera)
CBP: You can smile (grins)
Me: (smiles a little)
<Proceeded to take my fingerprints>
CBP: Here are some documents for the Global entry and how to use them.
Me: (Takes a few seconds to read it)
CBP: Do you have any questions?
Me: I don't think I have
CBP: You will get your email notification a couple of hours from now. The card should arrive within 3-6 weeks which is used for land crossing from Mexico or Canada but you can start using global entry kiosks on airports already.
Me: Thank you.

Overall, the officer was friendly and the actual interview lasted less than 10min. I got the email approval 2.5 hours after interview ended.

Majuki

Thanks for the info. I'm a bit curious too why they want to enter the non-US passport into the system even though you'll never use it upon entry.

greglvnv

I feel like they just want to log it in to ensure you will NOT use it to enter the US.

Ophelia

I applied 4/7, got conditional approval 4/19 - originally scheduled my interview for 5/7, but a slot opened up on 4/26 (when I happened to have a flight booked).

Interview took less than 5 minutes, he only asked why I applied (passport was new, hadn't left the country in 10+ years, except for the trip taken between applying for, and receiving, conditional approval - I recently got a job that will have me traveling internationally ~4x year). No issues, fingerprints and done. They didn't actually explain any of how it works - though my international trips will pretty much always be with at least one other coworker who has GE, so he should be able to walk me through it. (I also already had pre-check - so theoretically, I should have been in the system already)

I arrived at my appointment pretty much right on time (actually meant to get there a few minutes earlier but got held up at work). Appointment was 10:45, I was walking out at 10:52.

hsandhar

Not sure if I've shared this before, but here it goes again.

* Applied Jan, 2016; interview end of Feb, 2016.
* I'm from Toronto but booked an appointment in Fort Erie for an earlier appointment.
* No criminal record
* Never had any issues crossing border
* Arrived an hour earlier for the interview

They were able to take me in for interview before my scheduled time. Went with the American guy, got the IRIS scan done, went to Canadian guy, got fingerprints done, walked (15 seconds) to an adjacent building for the formal "chat".
He asked me a few quick questions along the following lines:

* Citizenship
* Where I was born
* How many times I travel to US
* If I ever had any trouble crossing the border
* If I had any criminal record
* Where I work
* How long I've been employed with my current employer for

Mood of the interview was calm, but still authoritative (I didn't mind; he was very polite).

My take on it: don't ramble, answer the question, be to the point, DON'T LIE, and don't treat it as a joke.

Hope it helps someone.

HofstraJet

I just took my sister for her GE interview at MIA. I told her to be honest and answer everything fully (she rarely travels and has no history to be concerned about, but I didn't want her to overthink things).

When she came out, she told me that the CBP officer asked why she wanted GE. I immediately thought of this thread and said "oh no, what did you tell them?"

She said her response was "I hate taking my shoes off so I want precheck and figured it was worth the extra $15 for GE."

Thankfully, the officer chuckled and approved her. ^

Cat Man Do

Close. My Nexus interview included CBSA asking me why Nexus. I said something along the lines of overseas travel including stopovers in CA and possibly departures from YVR. She started to argue with that, implying that I must not value my time wisely if I'm willing to drive from PDX to YVR for a cheaper ticket. I replied that while that might normally be true, I had, been seeing RT TATL tickets at $6-800, compared to 12-1400. Given that disparity, I would happily spend an extra day or a stopover in YVR for those savings - I'd rather spend my money on the ground while traveling if at all possible. It goes farther that way.

magnitude

A friend of ours had her interview and it was brutal. The guy kept asking her if someone visited them some years back. She listed every person she can think of that visited in the last few years, even though non fit the description he kept asking about. After the long interview, he took her picture, fingerprint and said they'll let her know. When I did mine at the same airport (PHX) last year, it was pretty quick and painless.

TWA884

A recent question about whether any documents other than a passport and a drivers license need to be brought to the Global Entry interview was moved to the following thread:
TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

ginmqi

My data point on my GOES interview.

Me and a woman were greeted by 2 CBP officers. They were joking around and flirting with her (she was fairly attractive). They asked us why we didn't bring any beer to help them close out the day (it was 630pm and we were their last people)

Sat down at desk. Confirmed my address. Gave my passport. He changed my mailing address to my perm address since I had a couple of apartment addresses in between.

Finger print. Photos. Done.

I was in and out of there in less than 5 minutes. We waited in the waiting area longer.

Only odd thing is they seemed way TOO friendly/jokester. I'm not sure if its just their personality...or if its a psychological tactic used to try to bring down any defenses in applicants to....be more honest or expose any issues?......

braceyourself07

Just contributing our datapoint to this question since reading through this thread helped me realize how easy it was. Wife and I went in an hour early for our 3pm appointment to the enrollment center at CLT. It was a very pleasant and the two officers who greeted us said that most people have issues finding the conditional approval letter. No one else was there so we were immediately seen and they took our driver's licenses and passports.

Wife's interview was first, she said that they mostly talked about travel plans and eventually discussed photography (wife is a photographer). Her interview lasted just several minutes.

On my turn, I went in and went straight to fingerprinting and photo and was asked if I had any violations with CBP. We then started talking about southern bbq. Turns out there's an annual event in Charlotte (Mallard Creek BBQ) that attracts nearly 20,000 visitors and some of the best bbq. Good to know for next year. I was done in about 7 or 8 minutes.

Our background is pretty clean. No arrests or trouble with the law. No issues with CBP. We've only been recently travelling internationally (past 5 years) and started doing more, hence going for Global Entry. Overall I would say it was a pleasant experience. We were in and out so fast that the hourly parking was free because we were only there a total of 20 minutes or so. Even so, it's just $2/hour at CLT hourly parking garage.

1KChinito

Welcome to FT and thank you for sharing your experience. Your experience is very typical.

Points Scrounger

Just mentioning again that I was told that if you have an appointment they can access your records without the letter; I had printed the wrong email by mistake.

bitterproffit

My data point: Had the interview in Nashville. The interviewer picked a country I had listed as having travelled to recently and asked" What was your favorite thing about Iceland? Easy to answer. I am sure it was just to get a response and see if it was genuine.

Meanwhile, at the desk next to me, apparently the gentleman being interviewed had a gun conviction. So the interviewer asked what happened and he explained how he shot and killed his neighbors dog because the dog 'treed his grand babies'. He did not get GE during that interview.