Can you imagine the unnecessary firestorm that would result when someone proposed to drop any restriction on Nazis from some regulations? It's politically easier not to touch it.

You definitely can do it (I have) although when I went to change my passport number (personal) after renewing, it did not appear to give me an option to make any changes to the official passport. I'll deal with that in 3 years.

Finally after a month of waiting i got an updated, denied, again. I'm just gonna give up and not burn another $100 trying again. As nice as GE would have been it wasnt super critical for me, only reason i tried it in the first place was because Amex now comps the first $100 fee.


Been through 14 countries in past 12 months, never had any problems except with US (coming back from STT), and going into Canada (speeding tickets). So not getting GE wont be a huge loss =/ though it is kinda frustrating.

I'm very sorry to hear that. Did they state a reason for their denial?

Is there an appeals process? Or does that also cost $100?

Poster stated earlier that his initial application left off a juvenile shoplifting charge. I suppose there's a question of whether the charge or the omission led to the denial. One can request an explanation for the denial, but there's no appeal possible. I think the "appeal" would be reapplying with an explanation why earlier information was erroneous (if it were--say mistaken identity).

They quoted the same reason as before, citing "falsifying" information as grounds for refusal.


@Derek, the you can appeal by contacting a local office and setting up an appointment with a supervisor (which prob wont do because there isn't a location in MSP). I was only really interested in GE for helping expedite my solo international travel (makes up about 50% of my intl trips) most of which are MRs anyway. and when i travel with others, they don't have GE so I'd end up waiting just as long anyway.

I just don't get how any of this can be reason to refuse membership. If i had been arrested for something like drugs, crime syndicate connections, smuggling, fraud, stuff that has international connections or is a threat to the US, then i'd understand. But a stupid theft charge from when i wasn't even a teenager yet, and even once i put it on in the 2nd application....still?

Sorry to hear the news....

GE = trusted traveler program

omitting information when applying was considered a form of "lying or falsifying." As a result, you can't be trusted. They have every possible bit of info on all of us. It is always better to admit to what happened and talk your way out of it, than simply omitting it thinking they will not know.... We are dealing with a gov. org. They have the upper hand.

--J

In many places in the US, juvenile offenses frequently are "sealed", and treated as if they never occurred--if you live(d) in one of these, you might check to see how it was treated.

Yeah, the only grounds I could see for undoing this problem is if you can somehow justify that he was not required to disclose this under GE's terms. I haven't parsed those because I have no offenses, but unless there's a rock-solid justification I think the OP is stuck with his error. (Which is kind of unfortunate that an offense as a 12 yo has now turned into an offense as an adult).

I know several people who were approved despite a history of pot smoking during their younger years.

Are you implying that there is an inappropriate and disproportionate reaction to Nazi-related issues? If so, I'd disagree. There are plenty of examples of people/governments not caring unless forced to.

More to the point, I'd suspect that if they dropped any questions about Nazis or National Socialists, no one would notice, especially if this was more than, say, five years from now.

It does seem very unfair for omitting a pre-teen offense. I wouldn't think leaving that off would be intent to deceive.

That's interesting to know. While I don't know anybody personally - my NEXUS CBP officer told me of the drug history rule.

Quick question:

My traveling partner and I would both like to apply for GE in the near future. We have an outbound international flight departing from SFO two hours after our domestic connection is scheduled to land. If conditionally approved would it be possible to complete two interviews and still have enough time to make it to our intl gate in that two-hour time frame?

Interviews usually last about 20-30 minutes. If you can time your appointments appropriately, 2 hours should be fine. Is there a penalty for missing your GE interview?

I would say that is very tight, esp if you have delays in the inbound and your gates are at the far end of each terminal. You have to add security time as well, as the interview is outside and then you'd re enter after the interview.

The other thing is if you are delayed in flight, there is no way to notify cbp and you get flagged as a no show, which could invalidate your ability to make a new appt and require a new application. They posted guidelines about the appt which you may want to check out.