Global Entry will come to your place of business (to conduct interviews)
 

I was in and out in 5 minutes this morning at JFK T-4. He asked me if I travel internationally frequently on business. I said no. He replied that although not many people know about it, if a company has 20 or 25 employees (forgot the exact #) that applied and was approved for Global Entry, they will conduct the interviews at the place of business, saving everyone a trip to their nearest airport.

+1

On the drop-down menu for GE enrollment locations, I've seen a number of locations for employees to choose.

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho.../i-2zRVC2P.png

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho.../i-4pzjQ9D.png

http://friendlyskies.smugmug.com/pho.../i-JsQP9s7.png

And you can add your company to the list as well if you meet the requirements. Thanks for posting links to follow-up on my post.

For those interested, here is the email they sent me regarding interviews at your place of business:

Dear Mr. XXXXX,

It was very nice meeting you today. Your application for the Global Entry Program has been approved. I hope you enjoy all of the privileges of the Global Entry program. As I mentioned earlier today, we are willing to conduct on-site interviews for “Conditionally Approved” applicants (25 Minimum). Depending on the level of interest from your business travelers and how quickly online applications are completed, the firm can schedule dates for CBP Officers to come to your office and conduct in-person interviews. While the CBP Officers are on-site, two forms of Government ID must be presented, and fingerprints will be collected. A Passport is mandatory as one form of ID and a driver’s license can be used as the second form of ID. To learn more about Global Entry or to register, log on to: www.globalentry.gov. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at (XXX) XXX-XXXX. Please forward this email to your travel department as well.


Thank you,
Kind Regards,
Officer XXXXXXX XXXXXX
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
JFK International Airport

I got the offer from JFK GE too
 

I called the JFK GE office last week with a question, and the officer mentioned that program as well. The pro-active stance by the JFK GE office (combined with the polite and professional email above) is a great example of US government agencies trying to help the traveling public and make their jobs easier.

Listening, TSA?:confused:

Yes, it is 100% about my ego. As a GE, I expect all CBP employees to bow to me and refer to me as 'oh exalted one'. ^

For real, though, the thing is, it pretty much defeats the purpose of GE if I have to wait to be seen by a human immigration officer AFTER I do my kiosk thing. Because the whole point of the program is to be identified bio-metrically and thus not have to wait for an officer to eyeball me. And in this particular case, while I only had to wait for my wife to be 'checked out' by the immigration officer and then have him check me out, in doing so the officer unnecessarily delayed us and as well delayed all of the folks waiting in the diplomat line. A minor inconvenience to be sure, as it turned out. But still defeats the purpose if I have to get eyeballed even when I don't have a receipt with the X across its face.

So the 'bad' part was the immigration officer defeating the purpose of the program by requiring us to do the 'old' routine in addition to kiosk deal. @:-)

We used your route and it was miraculously wonderful! No checked bags, so we were through the near-side kiosks, slowed down just long enough to hand the crew-member-line immigration officer our receipts and for him to remind us that using this route was for no checked bags only...ie, he did NOT look at our passport bio pages...and then down the escalator, around the belts and out the door.

It's an AWESOME set-up! 10 minutes from airplane door to domestic security! Thanks for the tip!

Cool. I thought it odd the agent when I last went through said they always have to look at passports for GE, and it seems in your case they did not. Either way it is a fast line and since I am usually with out bags I'll use it. The crew folks did give us some dirty looks :-)

I am really happy with GE in general (minus them not adding my official passport) and very happy with it at IAH, which they have said has the highest usage rate.
IT will be interesting to see how the renewl goes. I'll be up for it next year.

Does anyone know how long the wait is currently for the conditional approval process? I read it was only supposed to be three weeks, but I applied nearly four weeks ago and have still not received my conditional approval. I am leaving out of the country on Friday and hoped to have it done before then.

FWIW, mine took about a month, though I have seen people approved much quicker. I suppose it could depend on # of applications, etc.

When I applied in Sept. 2009, I received conditional approval in two days, and interviewed 3 days later (at JFK)--5 days from applying to approved status. A lot depends on the how efficiently they planned for lots of new applications. I'm just "guessing", but since one of the purposes of GE is reduce the number of agents needed to screen arrivals, and unless they are hiring more agents (counter-productive) just to process GE applications, with the busy intl. travel season just beginning, long processing delays might be expected.
From other posts in this thread, it has been reported that it takes close to a month to schedule an interview after conditional approval, at some locations.

It depends on a variety of factors. One of them is how many applications are pending. But the biggest factor, IMHO, is how long it takes to complete your background check with the federal agencies involved.


Some things that could slow down conditional approval are:

1) if you hold multiple citizenships
2) if you have lived in multiple locations in the past 5-7 years
3) if you have changed employers multiple times in the past 5-7 years
4) if you have traveled overseas extensively in the past 5-7 years
5) if you have any kind of police record, or have ever been arrested for anything, anytime, anywhere
6) if you ever have been found in violation of customs or immigration laws, anytime, anywhere (could disqualify you from participating in GE)


Basically, if your background is complicated, it will take longer for CBP to investigate it and "clear" you as a trusted traveler.

I applied for NEXUS in 2008 and received conditional approval (from both CBSA and CBP) in about two weeks.

How do you know this?

I, and some of my friends, fit 4 of your 6 criteria. we all were accepted within a couple of weeks. we've been using the system without a problem.

cheers,

J

I was also subjected to a fairly intense questioning after using GE at ORD last evening.

I used the kiosk and got my receipt with no X like normal, walked to the customs agent where I was thoroughly quizzed about where I'd been, which flight I was on, was it my originating flight, why was I in London, what was the nature of my business, how long had I been there... I answered all his questions and he let me through, but the whole time he seemed to be looking for an excuse to pull me over. Kept glancing at my perfectly normal carryon bag, etc. This has never happened to me before - they have always just taken the receipt and waved me through.

The funny thing is that the questions he asked were all related to immigration - the part that the GE kiosk had already passed me on. Not a single question about customs.

I do not like this trend.

:eek:

Perhaps they were looking for somebody? If not, I hope this does not become standard with GE! In a way, that would kind of defeat the purpose of the program, if they did secondary questioning to all GE users.

Just because you cleared immigration, GE does not except you from customs. The customs officers can ask you whatever they want. No need to sweat it.

--J