MPH1980

I'm not sure I'd say it defeats the point at all. You queue up once and then don't have to again.

If you're travelling regularly to the states - this shouldn't be a hardship. If you weren't registering you'd stand in the queue - so in this case you're standing in the queue to make it easier next time.

This I agree with. I was looking all over the place to see how it was and was really surprised the different availability levels.

I was also really surprised how quick it changed. Watching my centers (I think I said this above) - in the space of 4 hours (checking every 20-30 minutes) I saw it jump from Feb to Jan to December to Feb to December to Jan.

In the end I did my interview yesterday at YYZ (which was blind luck on the appointment and timing it with a trip) - it went smoothly, really nice guy who wanted to see my passport, letter and driving license. Kept telling me it would have been better if I did Nexus too and I kept reminding him I couldn't because it's Canadian and US residents only.

Xordan

Yep, seen that myself today. I'm hoping something opens up in SFO this/next month (nothing til March/April right now).

If I book in say LAX, can I just change to SFO online if something opens up? Or am I better holding out booking anything until I have to?

hcuk94

Have just had conditional approval... mention on here of Canary Wharf and other London locations.. how did you all find those?

The list I'm looking at has Singapore and Doha, but no UK. Is this just because there's no availability at the moment, or have they pulled the London location(s)?

It's no huge issue for me as there's availability during my next US trip - but it'd be much nicer if I could have the interview in the UK so I'm done already!

Thanks

Xordan

The enrolment centre in London has just been dropped apparently

hcuk94

That's a big shame. Guess I'll go for NYC then as I'm there in the new year.

Thanks for your help anyway!

techie

OK, defeats the point may have been too strong a word, but having to queue in order to not queue again is a paradoxical catch-22. It's not the end of the world but given how big of a deal USA-UK relationship is purported to be, the fact that there is not a single location available is definitely disappointing. They probably considered US embassy, but those people may have been overloaded. After all, if you cannot trust people in your own embassy to verify individuals, you're up a creek with no paddle...

NWIFlyer

This misrepresents the process, which has nothing to do with trust, but competency. The people doing the interview are CBP officers. They know the system, the questions to ask, and how to process and approve the applications. I doubt a junior diplomat would know where to start!

The fact remains that a very tiny number of people from the UK will actually bother to apply. For a once-a-year visitor to the US, it's simply not worth it, particularly given the roll-out of other automated entry machines.

It costs money to send CBP officers over to a foreign country and setup a system to process applications. There is absolutely no way whatsoever the States will continue to fund that for any more than a minimal period during initial applications given they would doubtless prefer to have those same CBP officers working back in the US to help their own residents. US CBP does not have an infinite budget - so the most natural use of what they have is in their own country.

Moderator2

A legacy thread going back to 2013 has been merged with one started a few months ago, for housekeeping and search algorithm purposes. Readers who are not interested in the build-up to the formal implementation of the program, may want to start perusing roughly around post #779. Thanks

BAflyer90

I had my interview today but it didn't go quite as expected!

I'm currently in the US as a business visitor (B1) but the officer couldn't seem to get past the fact that I didn't have a US address. I had proof of my home address in the UK but he wasn't really interested in that.

He was just saying "how are we going to send you a Global Entry card if you don't live in the US?"

I tried to explain that I make regular trips between UK <-> US, but I'm a British citizen with a UK home address although admittedly I spend a lot of time on the US on business. Actually, because I'm single, my company know that I'm happy to be traveling more often than I'm not.

I was told they would contact me in due course to discuss the next steps, but I was not approved at the interview.

I'm a little worried

golfmad

I don't see why having a B-1 visa would cause a problem other than the fact that they've perhaps not come across it very often.

Out of interest though, why are you complicating things with a B-1 visa if you make regular trips between the UK and the US? You could simply use the visa waiver program provided that your stays are not longer than 90 days.

BAflyer90

Thanks for the reply. In fact he did say "I don't see many of these" when looking at the visa so that's an interesting point.

My company decided to apply for a B1 visa instead of just using the VWP. I believe this was on the advice of an immigration attorney. We are quite a small company so don't really have any in house experience with regard to these things.

EDIflyer

As you say the main issue seemed to be the lack of US address for the card to be sent to - however non-US citizens don't receive a card anyway! It looks like the officer didn't realise this however I can appreciate it's difficult to raise this at the time. Another officer would probably have approved things fine but now they've not approved things you're left in a holding pattern. Did they say what will happen next? Ideally they'll speak to a colleague, realise you don't receive a card and ask you to come back in to complete things...

Please let us know what happens.

BAflyer90

Thanks for the comments. He took down various notes about my status and my reasons for being in the US. He took my phone number and told me he'd call me next week, but wasn't clear exactly what he was going to do between now and then. In hindsight I should have asked for clarification but it the situation was getting a bit flustered and I felt like nothing I said at that point was going to help. He was clearly frustrated that he didn't know "what to do with me" !

jms_uk

Where did you have your interview?

NWIFlyer

There have been occasional reports of applications getting stuck in the system. Once a reasonable time has elapsed, I would call the location you had the interview at and ask them for a progress report - it might well be something as simple as getting an approval icon clicked which has been overlooked, and possibly explaining your circumstances to a different officer when you're a little less flustered and have everything in front of you might do the trick.