holbie18

You should schedule and then keep checking back for open appointments.

dustman81

Considering that it is taking a little less than a month for GE approval, I can see why it is taking so long for my Nexus approval. I wonder how much of this is due to an uptick of applications (People hearing about GE or applying to get Precheck) and how much is due to sequestration.

gobluetwo

Show them your GE card? I just renewed my passport a few weeks ago and stopped by to get a sticker at ORD enrollment center. Guy told me they don't do that anymore and just to update GOES. I'll find out next week on a return from AMS if they ask to see my non-existent sticker.

Also, do you mean they ask at Immigration, or Customs?

ogilicious

Approved in 5 minutes, fingerprints "went through" immediately.

brocklee9000

I wasn't surprised by the conditional approval time (it is a government program, after all, and it seems to be getting more notoriety). Mine was about three weeks as others have said. I was, however, surprised at how many appointments were booked already for SLC (I guess I just didn't expect it to be busy); but I checked several times after my approval and was able to move up to a better time than my initial appointment. I was expecting it to be busy so I headed out early to avoid any delays in traffic so that I wouldn't miss my appointment.

However, I ended up arriving at 11:30 for a 12:00 appointment. The CBP office was quiet and there were only a few people there. They got me in around 11:45 and about 5 minutes later I was out the door. Interestingly enough, I overheard the couple behind me mention that they were from Florida but were interviewing at SLC since they were spending some time at their condo in Park City. Also, the closest enrollment centers are Denver and Las Vegas, so I can also see why people from far away would come here, or that are on vacation, business, or transiting.

ESpen36

At the Customs exit.

Dianne47

I submitted my application today after discovering there is now an interview office "only" 100 miles from home at ABQ. There is no pre-check in ABQ, but there is at SLC where I'm traveling soon. I will be returning from SLC to ABQ on July 17, 21 days from now.

I hope to be able to schedule my interview before I leave on this trip on July 10. Since the ABQ interview station is so new, I'm thinking I will be able to schedule an interview immediately upon conditional approval.

My question is, I imagine I will already be on the trip by the time the GE card is received in the mail. If my husband (who is staying home) opens the envelope and phones me with the GE number, can I validate the number online, then register the number with DL, then have access to pre-check for my return trip?

chiefkays

Your GE number should be available in your online profile as soon as you are officially approved. You shouldn't have to wait for the card.

brocklee9000

I was told by the CBP officer that since I was approved, all I had to do was wait for the number to populate in the system and it was valid, a process that would only take several business days. Then you can put your KTN on your Delta (or other airline) profile. They send a card in the mail after approval, but he said it's not necessary for GE or precheck. Now let's say you're visiting Canada and you don't have NEXUS. When you're coming back to the US you can use the card to enter the expedited lanes before leaving Canada.

Also, your number is the 9-digit PASSID number. When you are approved, the system assignes that number to you and you use it as the KTN. Here is a link to the CBP website as well

Dianne47

Thank you very much for the responses to my question. I'm now much more confident that I'll be able to use pre-check on the DL flight. I have avoided flying for years due to the gropes and obnoxious TSA agents. GE and pre-check will make traveling easier. Now I'm waiting for pre-check to be implemented at my nearest airport, ABQ.

holbie18

Dianne, I am not sure if you should get your hopes up for your upcoming trip. Hopefully I am mistaken. It took about four weeks for my application to be approved. I submitted May 21 and was approved June 19th or around then.

You cannot schedule your interview until you are conditionally approved.

Anyway, I am like you. I can't stand TSA and anything I can do to make the TSA process potentially easier on me I am willing to pay $100 for. I'm actually going to Europe next month but my husband and kids don't have global entry. Part of me is hoping for large lines so I can tell my husband that if we all had global entry we could have avoided them. Anyway, I think that in the next year more and more airports will implement Pre-check and more and more airlines will join as well.

Dianne47

Thanks for your comment. I've read several current threads where people received their conditional approval within a week or so. I realize I cannot count on that happening, but thinking that it can makes me not fret so much about the upcoming trip. I'm like you, paying $100 for five years of only sometimes being able to avoid the opt-out and shoe carnival is well worth the expense.

mengram

It's been 3 weeks and I am still waiting for my conditional approval.

met152

Applied 6/3 and still waiting for conditional approval. My hopes are improved that I might be approved this week or next after seeing a few people who applied on 5/30-31 and were approved this week.

For those of you who were recently approved, did you check the approval status incessantly? I'm curious if the online status updates once per day, or if I should check it multiple times throughout the day (yes, I'm that impatient).

brocklee9000

I enrolled on the 23rd of May, and on the 13th I received my conditional approval. I used to check it once a day because I had a trip the week after I first enrolled and hoped to be able to a.) kill two birds with one stone by arriving early the day of my departure and interviewing at the airport (since it's about an hour drive each way just to go to SLC for the interview) and b.) be able to use it on my return leg (it was an international trip.

Alas, I was't approved before I left on the 29th so I stopped checking once per day (the website suggested checking every few days, so I checked once or twice on the trip, in the event I could schedule an interview during my 3 hour ATL layover or when I arrived back home). On the 13th of June I got a new email from GOES and the subject was "Account Status Change." I didn't even read the message, and went straight to my profile and saw the conditional approval and scheduled an appointment for a week later when I would be up in Salt Lake anyway. I stopped checking it all the time, and (relatively) the time passed by. I guess it's like when you counted down the days until Christmas, only making the days go by slower. The do send you an email pretty instantaneously (my "Account Status Change" email after I got approved in the interview arrived in my inbox before I could even walk across the street to the parking lot), and the only reason to check every day or two is in the unlikely even that your spam filter quarantines the email.