RumPatrol

Identical to my experience at MIA. Got a next day appointment after the conditional approval, made the hour drive and then spent more time walking back and forth to my car in the parking garage than I did in the CBP office. I was both fascinated by the efficiency and a little bummed I had to bother with the hour drive each way for an "interview" where I said maybe 10 words.

Would recommend MIA to anyone needing a GE interview, even if you have to fly here to do it. The calendar is wide open, the office is open 9 to 9 and they're ridiculously efficient. Make a mileage run out of it, give yourself a few hours in MIA and you're all set.

Alyssa Astran

My husband and I both have Nexus....my son is 5yo and I signed him up for it on 3/10

He is still showing as pending review. Seems like people are getting approved in less time. Of course our 5yo has no record and my husband and I have already been cleared. Wondering why the delay....

mnbp

If "it" is Nexus, per the Nexus thread current processing time is approximately 50 business days from application to conditional approval.

forumpersona999

Friend of mine just applied with UK passport and some UK pre-clearance code he obtained separately beforehand.

His app was straightforward with nothing notable to declare and a reasonably tame travel history.

Sunday March 19 Created GOES account and submitted app
Monday March 20 Amex charge posted.
Wednesday March 22 Amex GE Benefit refund posts
Tuesday March 28 Conditional Approval

9 Calendar days start to finish. He booked himself into IAH Terminal E for his trip next month and is pretty excited to get GE. He flies in and out of MIA often and GE can make a difference of 90 mins there.

liverpoolfc

My experience if it helps

Applied 11/02/16
Conditional approval 11/11/16
Interview/Final: 12/31/16 at EWR

Got the email with approval within maybe 2-3 hours of interview, even on a "holiday" of sorts. Wanted US Customs House in NYC as it's down the block from my office but interviews were booked up until March 2017 at the time.

Got there a bit early so had to wait until interview time (maybe 20 minutes?) as they took bunches of 5 at a time. Asked me my job title/how long I had been working there and if I had any travel planned I believe. Out within 10 minutes.

NickP 1K

Signed up our 5 year old also - Day 6 and still pending - The older 18 year old got approved in 72 hours. Any change on your end?

JapanFlyerT

So I submitted the application and paid. The instructions say to check back often. Does that mean they will not send a notice by email? Logging in every day for a month is not difficult, but pointless if an email notice also coming.

Most posters here seem to indicate it take a week to a month to get conditional approval, which is a pretty broad range. I'd like to know right away, as I need to arrange my award ticket stopover to match the interview slot (assuming I find one).

1KChinito

Most of us received an email saying "your GE status has changed". Some did not receive an email. You can start checking in a week to ten days. Let us know your result.

NickP 1K

You normally get an email from one of the following addresses: [email protected] or [email protected]

I've been getting the status change actions on my account but noticed on the kids that (using the same email address) - not always getting notified

zoned_post_meridiem

About 9 days (including weekend) between application and conditional approval for me (GC holder, which may or may not speed things up, as they already have a recent background check on file).

Lucked out with interview. My nearest regular interview location is a few hours' drive away, and all the airports with GE offices that I would fly through over the next few months were booked up through August. But I noticed an interview site in my town listed under the 'Invitation only' section of the schedule screen. A quick google search showed that CBP was doing a two-day popup interview stint 5 minutes from where I live -- starting the day after I got my conditional approval. So time between conditional and final approval was something like 15 hours.

serpens

Agreed on the email notification. I wonder if the "not always getting notified" (is it sometimes or never?) for the kids is related to the multiple accounts having the same email address. I can easily imagine a programmer not anticipating this out-of-the-ordinary situation.

Same here, except there would not have been a recent background investigation.

The only part of my experience that was different from what most people report was an almost hour-long interview. There was no problem (other than with the officer's computer and fingerprint scanner), and the officer spent much more time discussing the program compared to what other people have reported. In retrospect, it appeared that the officer was waiting for some acknowledgement from the computer (maybe related to the fingerprint scanning) before letting me go. On the upside, the officer said I was approved before I walked out the door, so there was none of this "I got the approval email in the parking lot" business.

NickP 1K

Well I altered the kid account profile as using Gmail - just added a "." period to somewhere in my gmail address. Gmail ignores these and just sends it to the text portion of the address. e.g. if you are: [email protected] you can use a [email protected] address - looks like to GOES as an un-used address but gmail will just route it to [email protected]

EDIT: For the 5 year old on her application - 30 mins after posting above got conditional approval

INITIAL APPLICATION: 4/2/2017
CONDITIONAL APPROVAL: 4/10/2017
INTERVIEW: 4/13/2017

Original Appt was a not so bad 6/21 at San Diego Airport - Looking one hour later was able to get ONE open LAX slot this week

Note: I logged in and saw the interview setup and conditional approval - the LETTER which you need for the interview didn't show up for an hour and a half after i noticed the change. Got the email 10 mins after the change but letter took another hour or so

zoned_post_meridiem

Same here, although it wasn't anywhere near an hour (maybe 20 min.). The fingerprint scanner was slow to accept one set of prints, so time had to be filled while waiting for a confirmation. Fortunately, the officer said mid-interview that "now that you're approved, you can start using ...", so I knew that the length of the interview was more chit-chat than assessment. Overall, very pleasant process.

Staci2646

How long did it take you to get your 5 year old approved? My 2 year old son and I went to PHL on March 29, I was approved right away but still waiting for his. Went with my 5 year old on April 6 and the officier said she was approved but we haven't received approval letter yet. So frustrating bc we r flying out of country next week. Tried to have everything done prior.

NickP 1K

Appt isn't until this Thur - so can't tell you. From looking at other threads if fingerprints are not able to be pulled they go into a queue for approval waiver on the prints. That seems to be a day to a week or so for most. I"m hoping my daughter's prints are OK, she will be 6 in the next week - so not too young and I've had her prints work on a test AFIS system at work.

Assuming the 2 year old didn't get prints attempted.