Why don't you call a GE enrollment center and ask them? They might be able to amend your record. Mistakes happen. During my Nexus interview, for example, they hit a wrong button and my GE did not go active (even though I got the coveted sticker in my passport). All it took to rectify the situation was a single phone call (and check of the GOES system afterwards).

I suspect the problem is not with GE. You put your passport on the window and the kiosk scans it - the likely problem is that the system is kicking the person out since the date being read is expired. Getting a new passport seems to be the obvious solution.

I would be surprised if any other information than the passport number is used to pull up the GOES database entry (some other information, like the name or date of birht, might be used to verify). And the database should allow for exceptions like passport extensions. But if it really can't be fixed, a call should clear that up as well.

When flying internationally, I generally fly in and out of SFO. Generally, SFO is well staffed and immigration lines are short, but I love the idea of circumventing the queue when the lines are long. Here are my most recent Global Entry experiences:

#1: Flawless
#2: Had to wait in line to get to Global Entry. Would have been faster to use a live agent.
#3: GE OK, then random customs inspection. Full bag unpack/pack.
#4: GE OK, then random customs inspection. Full bag unpack/pack. Agent found an apple in my laptop bag that I got on board the Virgin Atlantic flight and forgot to dump. Gave me an extended shaming about how I could lose my GE. Fair enough, I was trafficking in non-GMO UK apples, who knows what this could do to Cargill's valuation.
#5: Line at Global Entry. Then I got the random secondary screening, had to wait in line to get reprocessed. Would have been faster to use a live agent. Also I had to go customs inspection. But this time they only scanned my bag, then didn't fully dump it out.

So I'm beginning to lose interest in GE. While I know that officially there's no connection between GE and customs, my hit rate for customs in previous years was closer to 1 in 10. It feels like "Hey Mr. earlybird off the plane, not so fast, we've got a lot of customs employees with nothing to do!"

In future, I'm going to make out the immigration form on the plane and skip GE if the immigration lines are short.

Probably not a bad idea for the time being. That apple could have put you on some kind of list that will result in regular searches for a while each time you enter the country.

You need more than an apple for that....

--J

If you have GE, you could get NEXUS.

More like thrice too often

I loved that show!

Any misdemeanor conviction is an automatic rejection.

To my knowledge the State Department doesn't do passport extensions anymore so this issue should be going away. The expired passport has to be replaced in full now.

.....

When you get (a non-X'ed) GE slip and you present it to the "customs" agent, unless it has some special "apple infraction coding on it" how would the agent know about it? I doubt that they have memorized a list of such people?

If the agent did not know about GE, he would be expecting the pax to present a blue customs form with the passport inspecting agents "official stamp" on it. So if he allowed the pax to continue, he must have known about GE.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ESpen36
Probably not a bad idea for the time being. That apple could have put you on some kind of list that will result in regular searches for a while each time you enter the country.

You need more than an apple for that....

--J


Not true. My wife, a FA, brought an apple from home to snack on, worked an int'l flight, just a quick turnaround, no layover, never ate the apple, forgot it was in her lunchbag, and lived a nightmare of secondary screenings for over a year. She was in her FA uniform and working when she was caught with the apple. For an entire year, she was sent to secondary after every int'l flight she worked. Not just a baggage check mind you, but the whole deal. They sit you in a room and you wait about an hour. After voluminous calls and complaints to CBP, the blemish was finally removed from her record. Oh, and the apple in question had a sticker on it identifying it as being grown on a US farm. So yes, fear the apple.

Fast forward another year, we're both members of GE. They did ask (rhetorical question to check honesty because they already knew, it was in their computer) about any incidents bringing back contraband. However, it did not cause her denial into the GE program, but she was most definately on a secondary screening list for a year because of the apple. Also, my GE interview was 5 minutes, hers was about 45 minutes.

People easily forget items they picked up in travel, particularly "munchies" for a trip. For CBP to subject your wife (a FA, no less) to one year of secondaries is stupidity at the highest level. If they found a crate of apples I could understand their concern. Was there any previous "black mark" on her record?