No need to start sounding alarm bells yet. At the end of my GE appointment a few weeks ago, I was specifically told, "I will be recommending your approval", as opposed to, "I have approved your application". I thought nothing of it at the time, but then got impatient about three or four business days later when I logged into GOES and didn't see my approval notice. I thought, "But the officer welcomed me to the program and shook my hand, so what gives?"

I called the GE office and was told that CBP officers cannot approve a GE application on their own. They do the interview, take fingerprints, picture, etc, but then put a "recommendation" into the system that another CBP officer (chosen at random) must then countersign and approve. Sometimes there can be a big backlog with this process, especially at border ports [where I went] where they get swamped sometimes. The person I spoke to said, "if the officer told you that you would be approved, just wait and it will most likely be approved". I did just that, and my GE approval notice eventually arrived seven business days after my GE interview.

I was told that the GE number that I got in my conditional approval notice was valid from when the GE interview took place, so I immediately gave it to all the airlines that I fly with. I got TSA Pre when I flew yesterday. \o/