Global Entry enrollment experience

baikal3

Registered Users (C)
I would like to share my experience with enrolling in the Global Entry program.
If you don't know what it is, see http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/trusted_traveler/global_entry/

Basically, the program allows you to bypass the passport control line when entering the U.S. and go directly to a self-service kiosk. There you scan your passport and fingerprints and your entry in the U.S. is recorded by CBP. At the end of the process the kiosk also prints out an approved customs card and there is no need to fill one out by hand beforehand. The procedure also saves a bit of space in the passport itself since you don't get a reentry stamp and everything is recorded electronically in the CBP computers.

The enrollment costs $100 and is valid for 5 years. That is a fairly good deal for people who travel abroad frequently (I travel 2-3 times a year).
I applied online in late July at the above referenced site. One has to first register as a user on their system (whose acromyn is GOES) and after that the application procedure is pretty straightforward although one does need to enter a great deal of info (about past travel, addresses, employment history etc). The application process is completely electronic and I did not have to mail anything. The next day after I submitted an application, I got an electronic notification that my application was conditionally approved and that I needed to schedule an interview to complete the process. The interview is also scheduled online using the same GOES system. That was also pretty easy and the system offered lots of available interview slots starting with the following day.
I had my interview in the CBP office at the O'Hare airport in Chicago (in international terminal 5, next to McDonalds) on July 31.
The interview was fairly fast and straightforward, mostly pro-forma. They did look up info related to my travel in the CBP computers. I was only required to bring a U.S. passport, a driver's licence and a utility bill as a proof of address (in fact they did not ask for the latter). The main thing they did there was to take my fingerprints again and run an instant FBI fingerprint check, which took maybe 5 minutes for the results to come back. Then they officially enrolled me in the system and gave me a demonstration on how to use a Global Entry kiosk. It took me about 1 minute to go through the steps although I think one can do it much faster once familiar with the system. They also put a sticker on my passport indicating my enrollment in the program.

Overall, it was a much faster and more painless experience that dealing with USCIS.

I am travelling to Europe for a few days in September and I'll try the system on my return.
 
Thanks for sharing this information with the forum. Quite interesting, specially for frequent travelers. Let us know how your first experience coming back goes.

Now, on the more negative side. I think it is a matter of time before the whole US population is routinely fingerprinted and perhaps DNA registered. I think we are going too far in our security paranoia. I know of other countries in which there are national id cards with fingerprints and other measures and they still have terrorism. These kind of measures only help to keep a watchful eye on regular (law abiding) folks, criminals learn how to work around the obstacles.

For us is not a big deal to provide our fingerprints as they already have all of them due to the immigration process, even as there was no suspicion of us being criminals. I wonder what the rest of the population will say. By the way, government might push for E-Verify to include fingerprinting, so every worker in the US would have to provide fingerprints, just imagine the temptation to cross check with other databases, like unsolved crimes.
 
I dont have any problem as long as everyone in and out of Washingon gets fingerprinted too

Thanks for sharing this information with the forum. Quite interesting, specially for frequent travelers. Let us know how your first experience coming back goes.

Now, on the more negative side. I think it is a matter of time before the whole US population is routinely fingerprinted and perhaps DNA registered. I think we are going too far in our security paranoia. I know of other countries in which there are national id cards with fingerprints and other measures and they still have terrorism. These kind of measures only help to keep a watchful eye on regular (law abiding) folks, criminals learn how to work around the obstacles.

For us is not a big deal to provide our fingerprints as they already have all of them due to the immigration process, even as there was no suspicion of us being criminals. I wonder what the rest of the population will say. By the way, government might push for E-Verify to include fingerprinting, so every worker in the US would have to provide fingerprints, just imagine the temptation to cross check with other databases, like unsolved crimes.

I dont have any problem as long as everyone in and out of Washingon gets fingerprinted too. As a matter of national security, everyone in entering and existing Washington DC - politicians, lobbyists should be fingerprinted atleast once a month. Folks working in law enforcement, USCIS and other agencies that are important for national security should be FP'd every 3 months or so and cross checked. They got nothing to hide right ? And for their own protection, all politicians including president should be fingerprinted and cross checked every 3 months regardless of where they live and work. All these folks having nothing to hide and shouldnt oppose such proposal - right ?

We then would have one happy nation thats ultra secure and crime will be thing of past - one would think. :mad:
 
I had my interview in the CBP office at the O'Hare airport in Chicago (in international terminal 5, next to McDonalds) on July 31.

Found a list of airports where this kiosks are availible:
John F. Kennedy International (JFK); Washington Dulles International (IAD); Houston Intercontinental (IAH); Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Miami International Airport (MIA)

Is it possible to visit CBP office for interview at any other airport (e.g. I live in San Francisco)?
 
I dont have any problem as long as everyone in and out of Washingon gets fingerprinted too. As a matter of national security, everyone in entering and existing Washington DC - politicians, lobbyists should be fingerprinted atleast once a month. Folks working in law enforcement, USCIS and other agencies that are important for national security should be FP'd every 3 months or so and cross checked. They got nothing to hide right ? And for their own protection, all politicians including president should be fingerprinted and cross checked every 3 months regardless of where they live and work. All these folks having nothing to hide and shouldnt oppose such proposal - right ?

We then would have one happy nation thats ultra secure and crime will be thing of past - one would think. :mad:

That's very funny. They could actually start by doing some mandatory drug testing. Then as you say, fingerprints and some DNA crosschecking, because as you say they don't have anything to hide ;)
 
Found a list of airports where this kiosks are availible:
John F. Kennedy International (JFK); Washington Dulles International (IAD); Houston Intercontinental (IAH); Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Miami International Airport (MIA)

Is it possible to visit CBP office for interview at any other airport (e.g. I live in San Francisco)?

At the interview the CBP officer said that the program is being expanded and that several new airports are being added to it in September. He named some of them but the only one that stuck in my memory was Detroit because I fly through Detroit fairly often. Sorry I don't remember if San Francisco was one of the airports being added. I guess you can try calling CBP and asking them directly...
 
That's very funny. They could actually start by doing some mandatory drug testing. Then as you say, fingerprints and some DNA crosschecking, because as you say they don't have anything to hide ;)
You are absolutely right. They cant be passing these things thru washington unless they are mile high on drugs. Tag them and bag them.

baikal3 - thanks for sharing the info and I don't mean to sidetrack this discussion. But I for one wouldnt sign up. The mantra now a days seem to be "harass, delay people at poe in the current process and show how this is new process is soooo much better". Does anyone know if the finger prints are used just to id with the FP on record and discard the new FPs, or more extensive cross matching is done on new FPs ?

What a waste of tax payer money. I like to sell my new invention to folks in washington. Its called 'NutCracker (TM)'. It works on simple principle. Under certain pressure and certain radiation, human nuts display characteristics unique to only that individual. It is 100% accurate. Its specially designed for nuts who come up with this stuff :).

We, humans, have amazing ability to come with stuff when it can be imposed on others and not on self. I bet BKing CEO doesnt eat the regular burgers everyday. I write software for time tracking using biometric devices. Guess what ? none of the developers want neither recording time properly nor using biometric devices. But we do come up with all cools ways on how to time track general population (not developers) - go figure.

Sorry, I am done with venting. Let me go back to happily obeying the new overlords.
 
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I would like to share my experience with enrolling in the Global Entry program.
If you don't know what it is, see http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/trusted_traveler/global_entry/

Basically, the program allows you to bypass the passport control line when entering the U.S. and go directly to a self-service kiosk. There you scan your passport and fingerprints and your entry in the U.S. is recorded by CBP. At the end of the process the kiosk also prints out an approved customs card and there is no need to fill one out by hand beforehand. The procedure also saves a bit of space in the passport itself since you don't get a reentry stamp and everything is recorded electronically in the CBP computers.

The enrollment costs $100 and is valid for 5 years. That is a fairly good deal for people who travel abroad frequently (I travel 2-3 times a year).
I applied online in late July at the above referenced site. One has to first register as a user on their system (whose acromyn is GOES) and after that the application procedure is pretty straightforward although one does need to enter a great deal of info (about past travel, addresses, employment history etc). The application process is completely electronic and I did not have to mail anything. The next day after I submitted an application, I got an electronic notification that my application was conditionally approved and that I needed to schedule an interview to complete the process. The interview is also scheduled online using the same GOES system. That was also pretty easy and the system offered lots of available interview slots starting with the following day.
I had my interview in the CBP office at the O'Hare airport in Chicago (in international terminal 5, next to McDonalds) on July 31.
The interview was fairly fast and straightforward, mostly pro-forma. They did look up info related to my travel in the CBP computers. I was only required to bring a U.S. passport, a driver's licence and a utility bill as a proof of address (in fact they did not ask for the latter). The main thing they did there was to take my fingerprints again and run an instant FBI fingerprint check, which took maybe 5 minutes for the results to come back. Then they officially enrolled me in the system and gave me a demonstration on how to use a Global Entry kiosk. It took me about 1 minute to go through the steps although I think one can do it much faster once familiar with the system. They also put a sticker on my passport indicating my enrollment in the program.

Overall, it was a much faster and more painless experience that dealing with USCIS.

I am travelling to Europe for a few days in September and I'll try the system on my return.
Even green card holders can sign up for this ... not just for US citizens. I picked up a brochure in the airport this morning after clearing immigration (just arrived from Brazil and first entry after obtaining us pp). I for one will NOT sign up even though I travel quite a bit. I think its just too costly and kiosks does not always work properly (at least thats what the cbp employee mentioned at the airport)

On a side note, I got sent to secondary inspection for customs (agri inspection) even though I just had one small carry on bag with me. Very first time ever this happened to me and it was purely random I guess.
 
Even green card holders can sign up for this ... not just for US citizens. I picked up a brochure in the airport this morning after clearing immigration (just arrived from Brazil and first entry after obtaining us pp). I for one will NOT sign up even though I travel quite a bit. I think its just too costly and kiosks does not always work properly (at least thats what the cbp employee mentioned at the airport)

On a side note, I got sent to secondary inspection for customs (agri inspection) even though I just had one small carry on bag with me. Very first time ever this happened to me and it was purely random I guess.

You are quite right that green card holders are also eligible to enroll (I think Canadians are too and maybe some others).

Regarding the cost of enrollment and if it is worth it, that's certainly very much an individual decision. Personally, I did not think that $100 for 5 years is too expensive. For me the main reason to enroll was actually psychological comfort. Whenever I come back to the U.S. from abroad, the thing that stresses me out most is worrying about having enough time to make a connecting flight from the port of entry. My experiences with the immigration control in Chicago have been rather variable: sometimes the line goes very quickly and sometimes it lasts forever. After the immigration and customs I still have to take a monorail to a different terminal, go through the security check there and go to the departure gate. If I can reduce the stress of worrying about such things somewhat, I am willing to pay for it.

About the machines not working, I guess I'll have to see when I use the system in Chicago in September on my way back from Europe. I'll report here how it goes.
 
additional airports

Found a list of airports where this kiosks are availible:
John F. Kennedy International (JFK); Washington Dulles International (IAD); Houston Intercontinental (IAH); Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL), Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD), Miami International Airport (MIA)

Is it possible to visit CBP office for interview at any other airport (e.g. I live in San Francisco)?

CBP has announced several additional airports that will be added to the Global Entry programs shortly:

http://www.federalregister.gov/OFRUpload/OFRData/2009-19038_PI.pdf

They are:
Newark, San Francisco, Orlando, Detroit, Dallas Fort Worth,
Honolulu, Boston, Las Vegas, Sanford,
Seattle-Tacoma, Philadelphia, San Juan and Ft. Lauderdale.

Presumably this means that enrollment centers will also be opened at these airports, but one would have to wait for a more detailed announcement.
 
I came back from a short trip to Europe a few days ago, by a flight from Brussels to Chicago, O'Hare. At O'Hare I did use the Global Entry kiosk with no problems. After swiping the passport, the machine scanned my right-hand fingerprints and then I had to answer a few simplified customs declaration questions using touch-screen. All in all it took me about one minute, maybe less, to complete the process. At the end the machine printed out an approved customs declaration receipt which I gave to the customs officer at the exit from the customs area. I only had carry-on luggage, so I did not have to wait to pick-up the checked luggage before leaving the customs area. Overall everything went extremely fast.
 
I also applied for this program. I was approved online in 4 working days and the interview at Logan Airport took just 2-3 minutes a few days later at my own convenience. I am yet to use it but on other frequent flier forums I have read people raving about this program and how they can get out of the airport within minutes. Can't wait to use it.
 
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