I am primarily business/trade anyway so no issues for me

Paid the $70 yesterday and did the application and got near immediate accept from GOES; it WILL ask you to schedule an appointment but it seems based on wording you can also go in earlier (CBP employee load pending) and do it as "walk in" as long as you have active Global Entry. They need to get a digital signature and notify you of T&C's

Will advise if I get a chance to go to LAX this week and complete

I logged in to GOES today and saw the button to apply for ABTC. it only asked for my US passport info and I was conditionally approved within 10 min like everyone else reported. thanks guys!

Offices not accepting signatures just yet
 

Got conditional approval for APEC card - went to sfo office location today and they said they were not set up to take signatures or process APEC card yet..said I should call the office end of June to check and most likely will have to make appointment as they awe really busy

Is any office accepting signatures at the moment?

Went to sfo office ands was told that they had no set up to process APEC signatures - said I should call in at the end of the money to check if they were set up...

Figured this may be the case.... I booked an appt for July 12th in case but will try to do walk ins at LAX, SFO or DFW when connecting through any of those.

Shame the invite letter didn't state "please wait till June XX" to book as local offices may not have process in place to assist.

Officer at sfo said he did not know when exactly they would implement it - good luck keep us posted

So do I need to go to an office in the US to get this done, or can I do while I'm in Asia?

I look foward to setting up an interview, but I would hope someone can give feedback that's it's possible. I don't want to fly to US to get the card only to find they're not setup yet.

Recently I have found the immigration lines in Asia is absolutely terrible, so this card would definitely expedite things.

This has NOTHING to do with processing in Asia. The US is a member of APEC which means as a US Citizen you get an ABTC card in the US.

Only way to apply is through GOES (looks like you need to be a Global Entry or Nexus or Sentri Member first): https://goes-app.cbp.dhs.gov/main/goes

The US is solely responsible for processing and completing your application and generating your ABTC card.

If you have citizenship from another country that is an APEC member then you can apply via them: http://travel.apec.org/apply.html

NOTE: APEC members are applying reciprocal entries. So example, since China ABTC members cannot get visa free to the US (but can use expedited crew lanes in the US), China does NOT allow visa free travel for US ABTC members. You still need a proper China visa but you can use the ABTC lane in Chinese airports.

Hopefully China will make getting a visa easier for ABTC holders like US Embassies and Consulates do.

The Chinese consulate websites in the US still state this.... Looks like some folks may try to show up with an ABTC card and get turned away (well at least you have a 72 hour landing visa these days now anyway for China)

http://losangeles.china-consulate.or...sa/t907679.htm

I don't see this being the case for US ABTC cards if US is not doing reciprocal for Chinese ABTC holders.

Main reason for me is shorter line control in PVG, PEK and also NRT - I would live visa free to China but can live without it as I generally get 12-24 month multi entry each application time

Yes . . . found that out only at the end of the application process!

FWIW, [the below posts] reported that the CBT facility at both SFO and Terminal 4, JFK did not have the software installed yet to input the electronic signature and finish the application fee.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23038773-post250.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/23027874-post246.html

Conditional approval is pretty fast but the jury is still out re how useful ABCT will be for the business travel.....appears you get fast track on immigration line but no visa exemptions!

The US gives priority to ABTC cardholders when applying for visas. I was wondering if China would extend the same courtesy.

So as a follow up, I was able to get my signature collected at JFK today. So I can happily report that atleast the JFK facility is now completely setup to process this application. (atleast on one computer, as they only have a single e-signature pad.)

Cheers

We don't yet know what CBP will be doing at the enrollment center. It does say on my approval confirmation that "the CBP officer will verify ABTC eligibility" and collect my signature. Maybe they will ask some questions about a person's employment to weed out leisure travelers and obvious ineligibles.