Thanks for all the advice. Just spoke with her and she is keeping the earlier MIA appointment since she planned to be down there anyway

In that case, it is a no brainer. MIA is also great for cruise passengers.

I agree it's great for cruise passengers that's why I am so surprised the availability is so wide open at MIA!!!

Maybe they do not know. Most people think of center/s near where they live.

May not help a lot of us, but as of this morning MCI has a lot of openings on Saturdays and Sundays in May. They didn't have these yesterday.

Update: As kklems pointed out, this could be an error in the calendar, as the Customs web site shows MCI only open Tues-Thr. After reading other posts in this thread, I would not book on these days.

Update #2 : Agent at MCI on 4/18 confirmed the Saturday and Sunday interview times in May are accurate. You can sign up without worry (and I did!)

Just got my conditional approval.

Coming to US end of August, departing mid Sept. Glad to see there are options that fit. Then again I have 4 cities I may visit, so not a real surprise I guess.

My first choice, Denver, had a big " nothing" message. Not even a calendar to look at.

LAX had one date in Sept that might fit depending on my flight schedule and I jumped on it. If I end up stopping over in LA, Long Beach is a good option, as it is wide open.

SeaTac works too for my dates.

Vegas showed nothing after June.

Suggest keep checking every hour or so after the offices open as they tend to get the cancels in the system on people who may have walked in elsewhere or canceled online. Found LAX for 4 days later doing this.

Weird the Goes site showed MCI only being open on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday when my wife applied last week. Still awaiting approval and was hoping to go down in May so a weekend would be a bonus.

I agree. I was able to get a Saturday in May several days ago, but rescheduled today so entire family is at the same time or next to it. Makes me wonder if it could be a mistake. Has anybody encountered dates that were mistakenly available on the GOES site? If so, what happened?

Yes, LAX mistakenly had Weekends on the list - they were all cancelled

Well I got approval notice for my wife today and booked a Saturday in May at MCI. I will update what happens. I also noticed other towns not listed as being interview sites had dates available. (OMA, LNK) The OMA was a full serve Marriott even. Points and an interview ^


For the LAX cancellations do you know how far from the appointment date they cancelled? Would hate to lose the chance to book another local appointment if they were cancelled.

Good news re MCI - my son went for his appointment at MCI today and asked about the Saturday and Sunday openings in May. Agent who interviewed him confirmed they will be interviewing on those days.

SeaAc timing
 

Do you think I can get the interview done with just a 90 minute Delta layover on my way to DEN? GE is wide open for my dates passing through.

Arriving from ICN but hopefully getting out at front of plane. Not sure how far the Global Entry office is from immigration. I remember SeaTac is not a huge place, but if it is more than 15 minutes walk I might rethink the routing.

Thanks for the update.

Thanks for the link.
The note about the Delta counter makes it much clearer.

From the link in the above post:

500 interview slots are available at a Global Entry enrollment event at the Oshkosh Air Show. The temporary Enrollment Center will open July 24 through July 30, 2017, between the hours of 9:00 am and 5:00 pm.

chance of BNA cancellations?
 

BNA is booked up until early September. Yesterday, August time slots were still available.

Has anyone experienced openings (within the current month/week) at BNA by refreshing every 30 minutes?

I feel like I may waste my time doing that.

You are not wasting your time, refresh when BNA GE office is open, 12:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m., Tuesday - Thursday. I refreshed every 5 to 10 minutes for SFO and YVR while these offices were open. I found something acceptable in about two days. So you need to double or tripple your effort:) or find an alternate location with more available slots.

Are you flying to/through any location soon with a Global Entry office? If you are going to Miami, they have plenty of available slots. Or come to SFO for a short vacation, SFO GE office accepts walk-ins with no limit.

Good luck and let us know what you found.

I already scheduled an interview in MEM 3 hours away that I am comfortable with. My husband's is scheduled in DCA because he will be flying in and out of it that day (he's a pilot), but he will have to leave the airport to go to the interview and then come back. Traffic could be an issue. It would be optimal for him to do one in Nashville on the days he is home. I will be on the lookout Tuesdays-Thursdays.

I thought about flying to Miami, but a Saturday was open in Memphis in May so that worked. Otherwise Miami is anyone's best shot if they want an interview ASAP and are willing to get themselves there.

Yes you should have no trouble as long as you make it through customs quickly....when you get through DO NOT re-clear security in the customs area..that will be a waste of your time because the GE office is outside security and you'll have to re-clear after your interview. Treat your situation as a SEA arrival so you can exit faster.

The GE office is located on the mezzanine level in the southern part of the main terminal (outside security) very near where international arrivals come out from the train. Once you're out of customs and take the train to the main terminal you'll exit and you then take an elevator up to the mez.. you will then need to clear security after your interview. The walk itself is under 5 minutes after you arrive at the main terminal (which is also a short train trip).

There are signs on the mez and in the elevator to direct you to the GE office. Since you're on Delta your departure gate will be in S, A, or B to DEN.. all of those are in the southern part of the airport nearest the GE office so distance wise you don't have an enormous amount of walking.

Update
 

Checked a few times today - there are JFK skeds opening as close as 2 days from now. Was able to move mine another week earlier.

PHL Availabitlity...
 

Hello all,

Getting ready to pull the trigger on GE and wanted to find out if anyone has recent experience with Interviews at PHL.

By recent experience, I mean within the last few months in terms of getting an earlier time than given initially.

I leave for ANC and YVR in July and would like to have everything wrapped up by my 5 Jly departure date, presuming that I get my Conditional Approval quickly.

TIA and Safe Travels - bo1953

Thank you for the description. This info was hard to discern from the maps I saw.

Sounds doable but tight. Now I am playing with the idea of Long Beach, CA if I can add in a stopover in LA.

I think it's all a matter of being persistent at checking for timeslots to open up. I applied on 5/1/2017 - got conditional approval on 5/7/2017. Since I'm in OHIO I check both locations as well as Cincinnati airport (which, oddly enough is in Kentucky across the Ohio river!)... Earliest appointment was July..... Later the SAME day I saw a 5/9/2017 slot open up! Going tomorrow for my interview!

Congrats... I planned on taking the 'refresh your browser frequently' approach as I Am closest to PHL.

Not too many recent reports on PHL from what I can see, so it will be an experience for sure...

Let us know how you make out.

Safe travels....

I arrived for my interview 20 minutes early (appt was 12:15). They took me at 12:05 and I was on my way home by 12:10. Had email about 20 minutes later that all was approved - card in 3-4 weeks.... The local agent was very friendly and said that many sites are trying to open up extra slots to help clear backlog.

lo - Congrats... you are on your way for sure!

Safe travels...

I had been trying to get an interview for Global Entry in DEN...earliest available in December. Tried doing a walkin on 5/13 at 1pm in the afternoon. I was pretty beggy/persistent, but they still said no walkins. (They have a sign outside their office stating the same). The guy claimed their office record is that some millennial kid once got an apt in 2 weeks by checking the website every hour.

Agent had a lot of time to talk, and say how they were too busy to do the screening interview, without an appt.

I'm going to try SFO next.

I applied at the beginning of this year and received conditional acceptance, however, the first availa ble interview appointment I was able to make is in July. Appointments take months in advance in Hawaii.

Welcome to FT. If you are looking for a sooner slot, have you tried to log into your GOES account and do a new search several times a day? Best time to try is when your local Global Entry office is open. If you do that, in less than two weeks, you should be able to find something much closer, possibly the very next day.

GE HNL office hours are: 6:45AM - 8:00AM and 12:00PM - 3:00PM, Monday - Saturday

Good luck and let us know what you end up with.

Moderator's Note:
 

A recent post discussing the best strategy to successfully get a walk-in interview at PHL was moved to the following thread:
TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

I'm near MSP - signed up in early may and got conditional approval after about 2-1/2 wks, but first available interview was september, and I've got two international trips in the next 30 days.

For me, it worked out that the Grand Portage, MN site was wide open and had great hours. It is about 5 hrs north of the twin cities metro on the canadian border, and the drive along the north shore of lake superior is fantastic. I made appt for mid afternoon, took that day off and drove up. Was done and approved in about 10 minutes. I got there 40 minutes before my appt but I didn't have to wait.

Was home a bit after 6 pm and had a nice relaxing drive with incredible views

I think that site is open 7 days a week. Most of the other sites on the canadian border aren't nearly as flexible. Realize that is a remote area though, the closest airport is Duluth and that's 3 hrs away.

I did this in the middle of the week to avoid traffc and because my flights are next week, and one of them has a short Layover @ ohare, which probably is not posible without global entry.

Maybe there are other sites like Grand Portage, MN that are along the canadian border that have hours like this, but it probably needs to be a larger volume border crossing. Was a good experience for me, and the officer said they do get a fair number of people who drive from the twin cities to get that done.

As stated in the wiki to this thread, Grand Portage is open seven days a week.

You were smart to avoid weekends when traffic upon to Duluth and along the North Shore can be bad.

BTW, if someone is up there, it's worth a visit to the Grand Portage historic site maintained by the Naitonal park Service. It's several miles from the border crossing and GE interview site. IIRC they close at 4 pm and are closed one day a week during the summer.

I think the border facilities may be the best kept secret when it comes to GE interview availability. I did my interview at the facility by the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit - I got my conditional approval about a week or two before I had to be in Detroit for a business trip, and availability was wide open for the days I was there, I chose something in the evening and was in and out in a few minutes. Better than waiting months for an appointment at my home airport.

Can someone do me a favour please? Can you go to reschedule appointment for the cbp appointment and tell me what the availability is like in HNL 3rd Aug => 18Th Aug or jfk 2nd August or 19th August?

Its annoying you cant see appointments unless you have a booking and although I have global entry I am about to apply for my wife but not wanting to start the process unless there is decent availability for the next time she is in the USA

Thanks

Here's my story from the UK.

Like so many others have said finding the appointment is difficult. This morning (10th June) I have been conditionally accepted.

I am in California on vacation in October and can't find anything during my stay. SFO nothing till December and LAX has nothing at all. I have though found an appointment in Chicago during my stay so looks like a day on a plane for me.

Haven't given up hope of a Californian appointment yet as both Las Vegas and Long Beach have appointments up to September then nothing in October. Seattle was also the same too. I wonder if the appointments haven't been loaded yet?

Guess I'll need to keep checking for openings.

Welcome to FT. If you see appointments available up to September and nothing in October, most likely October slots have not been loaded yet. Keep checking. Good luck and let us know what you found.

Thank you and that has reassured me. Long Beach would be my first choice as it is a short drive from where I am staying.

Will be checking often as don't really want to waste a vacation day going to Chicago.