Logged in, says status approved. That was fast. I just left CBP a half hour ago.

Yeah, I think the approval message is sent out pretty much instantly. The CBP officer I interview with said after you leave, they just hit a button and it's done.

Yup. I concur. After I left CBP in LAX, I got the approval letter on my iPhone as I was walking to the parking garage.

I go for my interview at LAX on 4-22, on my way to Italy
 

I'm looking forward to the process, except the fingerprinting part, you know like "Dragnet" the bad guys getting it done.

:rolleyes:

I Made It!
 

The interview was about 20 minutes, and I scheduled it the day of a domestic flight I was taking. Conditional approval came about 2 weeks after applying.

After my last experience of waiting in immigration for an hour at EWR I decided that Global Entry was an absolute necessity. I travel next week and return to the US on 3/31 and am looking forward to skirting the line and quickly passing through the kiosk.

The reason I am writing is to acknowledge the very informative and pleasant immigration officer that conducted the interview. She was very efficient and helpful, and made the entire experience somewhat enjoyable.

I agree, we do enough bashing on this site (not that it is not wholly deserved) so it doesn't hurt to give praise once in a while to show appreciation for a job well done.

The CBP officer who conducted my interview in FLL was pleasant and did not swagger with any kind of authority or attitude. The process was quick and efficient. I wish he would go over to the airport and do some TSA "retraining."

It's a lot more pleasant than that - they just use a little scanning box. Easy as pie.

I think you might be confusing CBP and TSA, for the most part CBP is not bashed that much (they, like anyone have their moments of course). OTOH, TSA is dirt and treated as such :p

Has anyone else been experiencing 'enhanced' Global Entry?

Used to be kiosk, wave receipt at guy in the box, get in GOES line after baggage claim and hand receipt to the guy. Done.

Last two times at LAX, kiosk, go to guy at desk and let him inspect passport, line up with the masses at exit to baggage claim and show passport and receipt again.

So, they've scanned my passport, scanned my fingerprints, run my passport through the reader, visually checked passport photo against my appearance, matched it to the GOES receipt, then second guy checked my passport and receipt against their list.

I have just been checked more carefully and often than any other traveler clearing customs. Tempted to ask for my money back if this continues.

FYI, no such thing as a "GOES line" or "GOES receipt".. It is Global Entry Line or Global Entry Receipt. GOES is the online enrollment system.


To answer your question, no, I have not had this happen. Used GE at ORD on Sunday. Guy took my receipt, and said "Welcome home, Sir!" :)^

emphasis mine

:rolleyes:

GE is a trusted traveler program. It means that they trust you, but does not exclude you from ALL checks. If you get your money back, then that's one less GE member that is in-front of me in line...

The list is the spot check. Lili, can't wait to hear your reaction (not) when the stars don't align and they check luggage in full customs sweep on you as part of the random check.

+1

It may make two of us that "gets it !" Everyone else thinks that GE is a free ticket past immigration and customs.

--J

I had the same thing happen to me back in February in LAX. It's never happened to me at any other airport. I've seen some reports of people going through LAX that didn't run into this. So, I'm thinking it might be limited to a single terminal. I really hope they fix this so LAX doesn't join BOS on my list of airports never to travel through

IAD Global Entry experience..
 

Last month I came through IAD from LHR. Two of the 5 machine (I think) were
broken with a note on it saying "DO not use this". I used the one that was
supposed to be working. Took all my information in but would not print the
receipt. The US citizen line was at least 60 deep with One guy manning
the booth from CBP. I tried telling him about the issue and he tells me to go
to the back of the line. I was not happy ! I argued but went to the end of the line. Within a minute or so one of the line handlers came to me and
took me back to the front of the line. Good ending to the story but not
before some aggravation, arguments etc.. The guy even told me to write
to my congressman for short of CBP personnel !!

Wonder if others have had similar experiences...

Thanks for clarifying. I knew that but didn't want to type Global Entry Receipt or Global Entry Line and didn't think of "GE line", was stumbling around with GEL and GER which no one would understand. :)