It's great unless you have checked baggage. Then you end up waiting 30 minutes for your bags.....:mad:

Do traffic tickets disqualify you from getting global entry? Are traffic tickets considered being "convicted of a criminal offense"? I received two speeding tickets, illegal turn and running red light ticket over the course of my life. If these are considered "convicted of a criminal offense", is there any way to edit my application? I live in Texas.

I have GE and have had several traffic tickets. If I remember correctly, when you pay for the violation, there's something where you sign saying you're not admitting guilt and you're not convicted.

Ok, that's reassuring. I think I actually had one speeding, one illegal turn and one red light. I did defensive driving or deferred adjudication on all of them. I'll post back with my data point.

Go online to your state's dept of public safety and request your driving record. If the tickets aren't on there, I wouldn't worry about it. AFAIK, most states expunge minor traffic violations after 3 years.

When paying a fine for a violation you are generally admitting guilt with or without a trial. That is likely not relevant, though. Most traffic tickets are infractions, n;)t criminal offenses. Some useful info on the differences can be found here.

Agreed, minor traffic offenses like speeding are quasi-crimes, not real crimes. They don't give you a criminal record. Certain major traffic offenses do, of course, like DUI, dangerous driving, criminal negligence causing death, etc.

Have an additional question: Will future international travel plans affect my application? I work for an airline and may make an extended weekend trip to Bahrain or Dubai in the near future. Should I hold off on this?

Why would you hold off? Besides, international travel is what the GE pe:)ple expect.

I'm afraid it may look weird if I flew to the Middle East to spend a single day there and it wasn't on my travel history.

That should be an impetus to apply sooner, so you can try out GE earlier!

N;)t if it happened after you submittted your travel history.

from TPAC flights
 

Global entry has worked very well for on flights from Asia. Even with checked bags I've been lucky to get priority tags and they actually came out about as fast as my entry.

Correct - although I was in the SFO GE office a couple of months ago (updating my address/employer/etc info) and saw someone who was being denied for an unresolved texting while driving ticket.

Based on the conversation and the CBP dude, it seems that in California, in some cases this particular infraction may be treated as a misdemeanor and this guy was fighting the ticket so it had the potential to become a misdemeanor conviction and the CBP guy couldn't approve him - although had he had simply paid the fine without fighting it, most likely it would have been an infraction and he would have been able to get GE membership that day. He was not a happy camper.

On the GOES website, it asks specifically for criminal convictions. In most states, a basic traffic violation is not considered a criminal conviction, but rather a civil offence. Things like DUI, DWI, driving without a license, etc generally lead to criminal convictions. You should check with the state which this happened in to see how the traffic stops were classified (usually you can find this out online).