t4wine

Got my conditional approval yesterday - exactly two weeks after I applied

golfmad

Larry is the actual man. He responded within 3 minutes of my request for help. He cancelled the MacDill appointment so I am now free to reschedule.

jcm9000

If there ever was a man deserving of a bottle of Grand Siecle half-inched from the CCR, it is Larry Panetta.

To the query above for passports, if you get a new passport I believe you must also go back to an enrollment center (just drop in) to have the passport scanned - as well as changing it in GOES. Once that is done you are again good to go. That may have changed though as it is a few months out of date when i was told this at MIA.

Pandra

We too received our conditional approval yesterday and logged on to schedule our interviews for December at lax, unfortunately nothing available until next March. So we have scheduled for San Ysidro enrolment centre which is apparently south of San Diego just before Tijuana. Wondered if anyone has any info or knowledge of it? Thanks

jcm9000

Quite a few have used it as it is a SENTRI processing center as well - go to http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...g-time-67.html then use 'search this thread' at the top of the thread using San Ysidro as the search wording and you'll get a few posts popping up about it.

PS keep checking the lax bookings as openings may pop up...

Pandra

Thanks jcm900, that's helpful. I hadnt realised about the cards, thought you just did fingerprints and photo recognition like the old iris system. We were hoping that assuming we are approved on 2 Dec that we will be able to use GOES on 9 Dec at LAX (we are going to Mexico) so will we need to wait to use it until they post us the cards to the uk?

jcm9000

Pandra, you are very welcome. Do not worry about the cards - they will not send you one being a Brit as they were for the NEXUS machines (and maybe sentri as well, cant quite remember - which you wont use anyway as you cant access them). After your interview, it could be 15 mins for you to be fully approved, or a couple of days. Some people have had to phone up their enrollment center as it got hung in the system (seemed to happen a fair bit at LAX) but I got the final approval email (well, email saying my status had changed in my goes account) within 5 mins of leaving the MIA center. You are good to go after that so you will be fine for Dec 9th. Just make sure you are fully approved in GOES, if you do not get the email within a couple of days of your interview, phone back to San Ysidiro enrollment center. Even if they do send you one for some reason (they sent my boss one for no reason), you will never have to use it - all based on your passport.

chistery

I've read that the first time you use GE you get an X, so they can verify your identity, is that correct?

Pandra

And thank you again jcm900!! That is really good to know. And once we get our GOES we will be able to start reusing MIA and visit Grand Cayman again...had such a bad experience re-entering MIA last time vowed never to use it again!!!

golfmad

My 3 year E1 Visa is due for renewal next month. Does anyone know whether I have to do anything in relation to Global Entry once my visa is renewed? My passport will remain the same. Thanks.

TomCayman

Slow service... and ultimately good service.

Too funny. On september 1st, having got my code from Larry and put together the application, I mailed out my application for a police clearance certificate (from ACRO) from Cayman to the UK.

Why not courier ? Well, in 24 years here, I've never seen the Cayman post office lose mail, and they normally only take 3 days to get to the UK.

So... one month later, I call ACRO, and they say they haven't got my application and that it must have been lost in the mail.

Sigh.

A few weeks later, I have the time to do a fresh application, this time sending by Fedex.

Today I got a call from ACRO saying that they'd mailed out my clearance certificate on October 17th (I paid for it to go out by international priority mail), but that they now had a second application, and would I still like them to process it ?

So they got the application, just took ages to process.

Anyway, no need for the second one, as they said that if for some reason I need another copy, I just need to call them, they'll send one out for another STG6. Good service in that regard.

Of course they say they mailed it out priority mail on October 17th and that was two weeks ago... so we shall see when I finally get it !

Hopefully that is the end of that part of the saga, I then get to go into GOES and do my application for interview.

In closing this missive, I've flown through MIA twice since getting my "larry code", both times wondering before I travelled "how much quicker would this be with Global Entry". of course, as luck would have it, both times I breezed through border control and customs in a few short minutes !

knifeandfork

TomCayman, I must say your forbearance is commendable. Were I the victim of that tale of woe I'd be out on the streets hurting strangers. Even more so, since you have to deal with the hellscape of MIA so frequently.

I hope you get going soon.

jcm9000

Tom, you are still waiting?? With luck like that, please do not board any planes with me...

As for the question further up that you get an X the first time to check your identity - nope. I have not had an X since i got GE. Anyone who gets it, maybe something did go wrong in their approval, but typically you should not expect an X. And even if you do get one, never fear, you go straight to the front of the queue, at MIA that is the diplomat line next to the machines. note you can get an X if you do not react quick enough for your photo to be taken correctly - you have seconds to make sure you do not cock it up, which is not easy when you are squinting at the screen wondering if it took your passport and fingerprints ok......as soon as you see your face on screen, look at the camera!!

Pandra, if you make it to GCM again, do say hello!

squeeler

I got my conditional his week, after about 8 weeks. An e mail alerted me to the change of status.
I was a bit alarmed when I tried to make an appointment in my first choice office, Boston, which was booking from mid March! Relieved that many other offices have appointments much sooner.

Jet Ranger

Yes you need to call a GE center and give them the new visa number. For visa holders it's all about the visa - that's the page of your passport that is scanned in the machine, not the passport details page.
When they typed my visa in incorrectly and I phoned up to tell them this, they said good job you did or the system wouldn't recognize you. There is no place to update visa info on your account. When you get your new visa, I don't know if they need to see it or you can just call the office with the number.

Re the big X on first entry, I have read a few things about this. If you check this link to the FLUX website, it gives more info about which visa classes require you to visit primary inspection on the first visit.
Whether that includes UK passport holders I don't know yet. First use of GE for me in a couple of weeks.

https://www.flux-alliance.eu/frequen..._with_my_visa/