I have never had any issues using GE when travelling with my 7 year old. GE is a great time saver and I would go crazy wihout it. I fly NRt-LAX once a month and I am out and in my car in under 15 minutes usually.

What is your procedure? Do you go to the kiosk with your 7 year old, do your thing, then take your kid to the head of the line for his/her clearance?

Welcome to Flyertalk!

I came to know about this benefit from my AmxPlat card....Applied for Global Entry on 7/23, still in "Pending Review", any guru's here know what is the average timeframe for "Conditional Approval"?

Thanks!

There are a lot of reports already in this thread. You can read every post and compile a list and take the average. Or are you asking if anyone here did that?

Received my Global Entry card in the mail today (picture is not bad, other than being b&w).

It was mailed locally from Houston and says it was created on July 25th.
It comes with a protective card "condom" sleeve for the RFID chip similar to what my Euro ID or old Italian permesso card had with gold/silver lining.

So my original GE approval was 1 July 2008. Then:
---I applied for the card with all updates on pay on the 19th or 20th of this month (I need to find my receipt LOL I think it was the 20th)
---Received my approval notice this last Monday the 25th, when card was created.
----I received card today.

Not bad other than paying the 15$ extra.

Now I debate whether I try to use it at TSA checkpoint next week...hmmm.

As I reported earlier, my wife and I applied for our cards on 7/18.

Update: She got her approval notice on 7/26 and received the card on 7/27. I got my approval notice on 7/27 and received the card today on 7/28.

Our cards mailed from Chantilly, VA. My ID photo is AWFUL! It looks like I have a shrunken head. This might be my worst ever ID photo.

Now that we know the cards won't be tied to the TSA trusted traveler program, they're basically worthless to us unless we make a pedestrian crossing from Mexico using the SENTRI line. I used pedestrian cross into the U.S. at the San Ysidro POE sometimes when I was living in San Diego. My roommate had SENTRI and I couldn't be in the car with him going through the checkpoint.

Nowadays I might have occasion to drive into the US from Canada, but I'd be in a rental car, so I wouldn't be able to benefit from the program.

One more addition to my deck of loyalty cards.

We do? I missed the thread or post, can you send me/post a link? Darn I missed that update.

From what I read in the letter the GE Card and Passport card are nearly the same for land and cruise travel, now that's it if the TSA doesn't use it too.

If you fly in via Canada and the GE machines aren't set up, it'd be useful there, but yeah the usefulness was significantly reduced

Never mind, I found it:


" Members of CBP�s Global Entry program are assigned a participant ID. To participate in TSA�s pilot program, these passengers must place their CBP participant ID in the �Known Traveler Number� field while booking their reservations. That number is then passed to TSA�s Secure Flight system and taken into consideration during the pre-screening processing.

Selected frequent flyers will �opt-in� through their airline�s system to participate in TSA�s program. Under this process the passenger will not need to input a Known Traveler number during the reservation process. Once the passenger opts-in, the airline identifies the individual as a participant when submitting the passenger reservation information to TSA�s Secure Flight system. "

My Original GE Approval was March 2009. Then:

1) I applied for the card on the 14th of July. Paying $15
2) Got the notice online Monday the 25th
3) Just walked in the door from the airport and its was in the Mail. Came from LAX location.

I was comparing the GE picture to my Passport that was renewed in November and I thought maybe they would get it from there, but no....They must have pulled it from the CBP system from one of my "lovely" pictures entering the US using the GE system after a 10+ hour overnight flight from EZE, HKG, SYD, NRT etc

Yeah the TSA checkpoint...I was thinking about using it as well...or pull a Rodney Dangerfield from the Movie Back to School when paying for the books etc at the bookstore....."pick a card"....between the DL, Passport card, GE card or a CAC card!!

I just walk up the kiosk with my daughter and do my thing, take the receipt and continue on my way. Remember as with the paper customs form only one is necessary for family with the same last name. I have never been asked to take her to any another line or anything. Also keep in in mind that with GE you are allowed to go to the head of any line.

But how does your daughter clear immigration?

You may want to clarify, the way you make it sound, your daughter is ilegally entering USA. (Even if she is a US citizen) CBP needs to clear her through immigration, nothing to do with customs.

If you forgot to mention she uses GE with finger prints, then I guess you are ok, just be sure she clears some form of immigration to prevent future issues.

I've been a registered GE traveler for more than a year (used it a half dozen times). I logged into GE, filled out the questionnaire and got my conditional approval almost immediately, but the email notification told me that I had to come in for an interview. I just got a second email reminding me that I hadn't scheduled an interview.

I called the SFO Global Entry office and they were surprised by it, as well. Told me to call the main office back east.

Has anyone else seen this?

Greg