SFO on arrival?
 

I went to the effort to plan a 4 day LA stopover (KIX-DEN) in order to interview in Long Beach. With this "on arrival" option, a flight via SFO looks possible.

I wonder if this desk is always open, and if so, how much time I need between flights in order to be assured I get it done.

Found this comment from July 14th: When you get off an international flight, RUN, don't walk, to the interview line. It fills up fast and there was only one lane doing interviews at a rate of 15-20 minutes per person. At one point there were 12+ waiting but some gave up after being told they'd be waiting hours. Unfortunately, it was all extremely inefficient and not much of a time-saver.

Okay, I have done it on Sunday morning after arriving on UA2 at 9:00AM. The SIngle Counter is actually, between the Global Entry Lane and the Crew/APEC Card Channel. Since there was no one , I had to wait for him to setup. You need to fill up a customs form as there is no automatic machine to fill it up. The Officer processed my entry first and then proceeded with the Interview. It will take about 10 to 15 minutes, plus some time if you are the first for him to setup.

Thank you for sharing. Since there are earlier flights arriving SFO prior to 9 am, I wonder if this counter would also be available prior to 9 am.

Having returned to the UK yesterday, I thought I would update this thread with some useful information for fellow travelers.

The good news is that I have my Global Entry status after a few issues.

On arrival at SFO, I followed the line marked 'Global Entry On Arrival' as instructed in the mail I was sent, only to be turned around and sent to the normal immigration arrival line for International travelers! It appears that you physically have to see a CBP Officer and be admitted to the US before you can complete Global Entry.

Once I had been processed, I was allowed to return to the 'Global Entry On Arrival' line where I was asked a series of questions about my application by a CBP Officer. After that I was approved but my finger prints came back as poor from the FBI (See other threads here on that problem.) The CBP Officer said that a supervisor would need to look at this but didn't work at SFO and I would receive an email in due course with the outcome.

So I left! Fortunately I still had my scheduled appointment at LAX two days later and having not heard anything from SFO, I went for that appointment too. Was seen straight away despite being 40 minutes early and processing took around 10 minutes. Again the finger prints came back as poor but this time the CBP Officer was able to deal with this and I had my approval email later that morning.

When I related the SFO story to the CBP Officer, he remarked that 'Global Entry On Arrival' is relatively new.

Hope this helps other people applying and doing 'Global Entry On Arrival.'

Yes. See my post above for my experience. I can add that there was only one desk open at SFO and one person in front of me. My interview took a while too.

Is there operating hours for the on-arrival interviews? I landed at 2pm yesterday and attempted to do the on-arrival interview but was informed that they were closed since the officer doing them was going to take his break. Guess I will have to try next week but it seems a little ridiculous that they don't list hours and then when you get there, they tell you you can't do it.

According to the CBP website:

Just out of curiosity, was this flight planned for a while?

If so, did you consider trying to make an appointment for, say, 3 pm-ish or 4 pm-ish instead of trying for Enrollment on Arrival?

It seems like it might actually be less effort to repeatedly check for newly-opened appointment slots than dealing with a lack of certainty about officer availability, sudden lines, and random break times.

No, flight was booked 4 days prior to arrival. I checked before but the earliest is still March '18. I will try again next week.

Trick is to check very frequently when your desired Global Entry office is open. Usually in a few days, you will find something suitable. What you are looking for is a last minute cancellation, which can be in 24 hours. Good luck and please come back and let us know what you end up with.

Moderator's Note: Topic Drift
 

Folks,

The subject of this thread is Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival. We are straying into a topic that should be discussed in the following thread:
TWA884
Travel Safety/Security co-moderator

Enrollment on Arrival -PHL
 

Has anyone completed their Global Entry interview with the new "enrollment on arrival" program at PHL? Just wondering where you go, how it works, etc. I'll be coming back from an international trip at the end of December, and that weeks ahead of when I'd otherwise be able to get an appointment.

Thanks for the help!

Looks like the number of available locations has expanded again, LAX is now on the list!

So, the Mrs. needs to do the interview, and we have a flight scheduled to land at 8:20pm. They show their hours for enrollment on arrival as being until 9:00pm. Does that seem doable, or would that be pushing it? Does anyone know what happens if I were to schedule an appointment the following day at SEA (just in case the office is closed or our flight is delayed) would they let her do enrollment on arrival anyway?

It should be fine. Hopefully her flight will arrive on time and Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival is still open. She can then ask interviewing officer to cancel her next day SEA appointment.

If Enrollment on Arrival is not open, she will go to her scheduled appointment the next day in Seattle.

Great news!
We just applied for Global Entry (thanks to Amex for picking up the $200 in charges) and setting up an interview for LAX or LGB would be a pain in the middle of the work week as I work.

With LAX open for Global entry on arrival, we will now be taking advantage of this when we return from Japan at the end of the month!

Thanks @hannibal for letting us know!

I received my conditional approval and have an international flight in a couple weeks landing in ATL with an hour and 55 minute layover. Would that give me enough time to complete my interview and make my connection (I'll be carrying on and using mobile passport to clear passport control at ATL). Delta changed my flight time since booking the ticket so I maybe able to connection changed to the next flight two hours later.

There is an interview slot available at DTW a half hour after I'm scheduled to land but I am nervous about my flight being late and missing the interview.