Because it is part of a broader investigation of your trustworthiness. When CBP accepts you as a trusted traveler, the agency is making a commitment to you for expedited processing. So, if you were a smuggler, it would make your life much easier. That would be a breakdown in a system which is designed to streamline inspections for law-abiding citizens and give the officers more time to focus on other people who might be attempting to evade the law.

It makes sense to me for CBP to be careful and selective about who is eligible for trusted traveler status, such as membership in GlobalEntry.

This was not my experience either. I had a pretty rigorous interview, including a close examination of my documentation, a discussion of what I do for a living and how I can afford to travel enough to make it worthwhile to be a GlobalEntry member. I also got a stern lecture about the penalties of smuggling, particularly once I became a member of the program.


One factor that we haven't said a lot about but that matters is FOREIGN TRAVEL. If you do a lot of it--especially short trips, and especially trips to undesirable places like the Middle East--you can expect:
- your "conditional approval" to take longer, while they verify CBP/immigration records against your passport stamps
- your interview to be more in-depth

Interesting - my interview was a quick review of documentation, the machine test and I was gone. We even kidded about the other guy at the other desk when he was doing his document review. I really don't think the guy sitting at the other desk really knew what it was he signed up for given the question he was asking the officer, it was hilarious ... I was out in about 10 minutes (or less). Very painless.

BTW - I also don't recall anything about bringing documentation other than a DL with my home address on it.

In case this is airport specific - I went via IAD

Not to pry....but what does your "record" look like? Pretty spotless with one source of income, lived in the same place for 7+ years, and no major overseas travel or connections? I think people here would be interested in learning what kinds of profiling they might be doing.

Generic international travel -- no questionable locales if that's what you're asking. Nothing suspect and pretty stable. Likely classic for what they were looking for.

I was told that I earned the "abbreviated" interview by virtue of my security clearance, since that was more in-depth than the CBP GE process.

Same thing said for me, though I was still asked some basic questions and the pulled up my Official Passport records (but you can only link one passport per application).

Ciao,
FH

Lucky! :P

What would mere mortals have to do to obtain a security clearance? I know that you cannot request one as an individual; you have to work for an agency or company that requests it on your behalf.

Google "Questionnaire for National Security Position" (QNSP) for a lick.

I expected all kinds of snafus to occur when I applied for GE (I am snafu prone:)). As I noted (in a previous post) I spent all of 10 minutes with minimal questions being asked. On my application, I listed (truthfully) all the countries I visited in the last 5 years: GB, France and Switzerland (I forgot Japan, which I added at the interview)--these are probably "safe" areas to visit.
I take several short trips outside the US (generally near holiday periods). But how would CBP know where I went and how long my trips were, since the info one places on the customs form is on the "honor" system, and since no gov't agency checks passports on departure (only on arrival) and the interviewer did NOT look at the inside of my pp (except page with into to scan pp into computer)?
My guess is that those posters with long(er) interviews, probably had info (possibly in error) in their file which would evoke extra time.

I, initially, was a member of CanPass air, which is like GE, but for entry into Canada. That was a very basic interview and a background check.

I then "upgraded" to nexus, which gave me GE access between Canada and the US. I had to interview with a US Customs guy. That was alittle more indepth, plus they collected fingerprints (CanPass and Nexus use iris scans, so no prints were needed for CanPass). The interview was more of the "Do you know the laws?" "we will randomly do compliance checks" "why do you travel so much?" Nothing about income or residences.

I then added GE to my Nexus. No interview, just swing by a border station to get the "sticker" and they asked if I wanted to try out a GE machine. I said it wasn't needed (after waiting over an hr for a guy to show up and barely making my connection) and was on my way.

Hey all,

Now that I've had the opportunity to use my GE for the first time, I figured I would provide my experience:

- Arrival in DTW was so easy, I ended confused ... surely, it couldn't be as easy as getting two pieces of paper printed out? It was. (The second piece of paper was my departure record as a non-US citizen/resident, replacing the I94 stub)

- Exiting the customs area, I was sent to one specific line. The other would not accept my GE receipt.

- Boarding my flight to YUL, the GA refused to take my departure record. Either she had never seen a GE stub instead of the green stub, or she didn't know procedure at all. In any case, since I was coming back through the US, it did not have me worried.

- Doing pre-clearance in YUL, I handed the departure record, and the guy looked at it and said, 'What's this?'. So I explained that it was my GE stub, and he was more than happy to accept it. I just hope that they add GE or replace Nexus in YUL, so that I can use it there to.

OT: The new US departure zone in YUL is impressive. You don't have to wheel your checked luggage through customs any more. Straight after check-in, you had it off, your boarding pass and luggage tag are scanned, and you continue to immigration/customs. The immigration guy will scan your boarding pass, and it will pull up images of your checked luggage.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Love GE. Only used it 2 times thus far but at IAD in the morning when all the DXB and KWI flights were arriving together. Saved about 30-60 minutes at least. I wasn't sure if the line to go through customs on the far left (with the swinging gate) was a separate line for GE flyers or not. That would have saved another couple minutes but it wasn't clearly marked so I didn't want to be that guy who is corrected by the customs agents.

overall great program

I just signed up at wanted to share my experience.

Tuesday Night (9/29) - Apply for GE online
Wednesday Night (9/30) - Received Conditional Approval (I received this at 11pm)
Thursday (10/1) - Signed up for Interview for tomorrow (10/2)

Hopefully if everything goes well at the interview, I'll be all set for going to London next week.

To help others, here is a bit on my profile:
Foreign Countries: Mostly Europe and Asia, I've also been to Egypt
Criminal Background: Never been arrested or had any criminal history
Residence: I've moved twice in the last 5 years (both times accross the country)
Employment History: I've hopped around between companies quite a bit the last 5 years and 5 years also caught the time when I was a student

I was approved for Clear (one of those try it free for 3 month offers from SPG) about 6 months ago, so I don't know if that would have any bearing on this at all.

I'll update with how the interview went after I know.

Seeking comments on trusted traveler programs...
 

...Hi, all - I'm a FlyerTalk member who's also a journalist. I'm writing about trusted traveler programs for one of the newspapers where I contribute.

If you're willing to talk on the record about your experiences with Global Entry, NEXUS, or SENTRI, please contact me.

I'm also writing about the possible resurrection of CLEAR, so if you were a CLEAR customer, would also like to hear from you.

I will be much less mysterious once we connect.

Thanks!