Originally Posted by
Hank Moody
Please explain CBP?
At LAX, please walk me through the difference with GE. We come to arrivals and skip immigration and go straight to customs and agricultural? Is it a significant time savings?
I've seen GE 20 minutes to the street (I usually travel carry on only), no GE 1~2 hours to the street, at some US airports. You go to a kiosk, take a minute or less, get a receipt, have it verified in a fast lane by Immigration, proceed to the GE dedicated Customs exit, turn in your teceipt and you're done.
GE gets you a Known Traveler Number - I put it in my (US) airline profile and get PreCheck over 95% of the time.
Some credit cards pay your GE app or renewal every five years.
Originally Posted by
Hank Moody
any idea how flexible the appointment times are?
You set your interview up online, so you get lots of possibilities. I can't recall, but there may be more than one L.A. interview center.
Some locations are fairly liberal about walk ins if it's not busy (ORD when I applied and was first interviewed) and some not (IAD where I was reinterviewed this month - I'd retired, traveled to Cuba, Turkey and Ukraine within the last couple of years - they were checkers and had a sign walk ins are not accepted. (Major changes or potentially suspicious travel gets a conditional approval and a reinterview - mine took about ten minutes.)
If you're squeaky clean, no problem. If one is not, disclose fully - lying to or concealing from a Federal officer is a Federal crime (ask Martha Stewart how that can go) and likely no KTN.
Some credit cards pay the fee for GE once every five years.