Simon Schus

Great!

TangoFive

I travel to the US once or twice a year... the last time took me 2 hours waiting at immigration.

Do you have to be a frequent traveller to get GE? Am I likely to raise questions at the interview if I'm only traveling to the US once or twice a year?

$100 is worth 5 years of less waiting around at immigration.

anothertraveler

Nope, how many times you fly has no bearing on your application.

televisor

Just remember there's also the home office fee, GBP.35 IIRC.

Unlikely to raise questions though, I didn't have many more visits when I applied.

MADPhil

I doubt that they will care, they certainly don't for US citizens who often apply for GE because it includes TSA Pre-Check even if they cross the border less than you do. The UK equivalent is explicitly geared to frequent travellers.

TangoFive

Great, thanks.

In the unlikely event I was refused GE, would it affect my approved ESTA, or upcoming trips to the US?

KARFA

Any reason to think you would be refused?

anothertraveler

I'm a UK citizen, and travel to the US 0-2x per year.

In my interview, the frequency of travel was never brought up. Same for my partner, who was interviewed separately.

A friend of mine who was just accepted into GE has never been to the US at all - and travels to other countries about once every 5 years!

TangoFive

The only things that I think may go against me are

1) Infrequent trips to US
2) Unemployed for 8 months in 2016 while travelling
3) I was at university between 2010 and 2014, so was not employed then. Not sure if this is seen as a negative.

Apart from that, I can't see any reason while I'd get declined. I've never overstayed my ESTA, am employed, never visited any frowned upon countries, no convictions etc.

Reassuring, thanks. I'll send off an application.

KARFA

None of these are relevant to an ESTA or GE/KTN application - I don't remember any stage of the online process or the interview where anything about past work life came up.

If that's the worst you have in terms of possible negative factors I really wouldn't worry about it - you should be fine and get approved.

TangoFive

Great, thanks. I've just applied for the UK clearance, will have to wait 10 days.

Hoping to head to Washington in a few months so hopefully I get GE by then.

anothertraveler

Seriously, don't sweat it. The interview lasted all of 2 minutes. I went in there with binders of stuff, lease agreements, proof of employment over the past 10 years, travel documents, etc -- and got asked for none of that stuff.

He basically just asked what I did for a living, then took my finger prints. My partner didn't get asked ANYTHING - literally just took prints. The rest of the time was just explaining how to use the machine.

The point of the interview is mostly just to take your prints. Much of the actual 'approval' is online.

Just be aware that it can be hard to find a GE appointment. I booked mine for 6 months after I got the conditional approval. There were no appointments available in NY, Boston, San Francisco or Las Vegas for literally 3+ months. Some places I expected to be busy, like San Diego, had availability in a few days, and then big gaps a few weeks later.

The London embassy is currently conducting interviews up until March, but I don't know what their wait time is like (I heard they're conducting 150+ interviews per day!). If you miss the London embassy opening, the other GE interviews are all in the US, Canada or a couple of other countries (I think Singapore does one, not sure.)

I'd advise you to start looking for appointments as soon as you get the conditional approval. After the Home Office step, it can take several weeks/months to get to that point. Only then can you book your interview - which can be many more weeks/months ahead, depending on availability.

TangoFive

Thanks for the info - just to confirm there are no GE interviews in the UK after March?

anothertraveler

I don't think so (unless they've extended it, or made it a permanent thing).

When I did my interview last year, London wasn't an option. It was added as a limited time option that was originally set to expire 60 days after opening on Sept 26, 2016. You can read about it here.

It was extended to March (my friend just had his interview there a couple of days ago), but I'm not sure if it will be extended again.

Best you can do is apply and hope to get conditional approval quickly!

TangoFive

Thanks - fingers crossed, otherwise I'll have to plan my trip to Washington around when I can get a US GE interview. I heard you've got 30 days to book an interview, but I'm assuming you can just reschedule this.