Tips for Global Entry interview?

Keep checking Dulles and Ronald Regan as there may be a cancellation. Another thought is if you are traveling soon consider booking the interview at or near the city you are visiting.

Unfortunately you need to check in daily to see cancellations. Accept the 23rd and then watch for a cancellation.

I agree, you should grab the August appointment and keep looking. There was a post within the last couple of months from another traveler having the same issues. I think that you can't have two appointments scheduled at once, so if you do find a better appointment, you'll need to cancel the existing one first. You could check Baltimore and Dulles?

We found our appointment by checking several times a day, and everyday for about two weeks until we found a date that worked for us.

Yes, I think you have to keep checking and checking for a cancellation. Take the August 23 one in the meanwhile.

if there is a large state/gov't agency nearby (whose staff do a lot of travel) check with their Human Resources dept to see if they have scheduled days when the Global Entry interviewers come to them. Research hospitals or defense dept bureaus would be examples.

Just made our appointment in Seattle at SeaTac. It was end of August too. That’s ok because we don’t leave for our BOE21 tour until 9/25. I agree, keep checking for cancellations.

If you are travelling internationally soon, another option is to do the interview at CBP when you re-enter the US the next time. At least some US entry points have that option. I was able to do that returning from France in 2017 at SFO. The disadvantage is that you don't have Global Entry when you return, but at least in my case I was able to skip the normal entry lines and go the the special GE interview line, and there was only one person in line in front of me. The actual interview for me took about 5-10 minutes, including getting my fingerprints scanned. The interviewer just asked some questions from my work history and residences and scanned my fingerprints.

Unfortunately the person in front of me had issues, and was arguing with the interviewer, so I had a longer wait than normal. The second interviewer came back from break so I got him. When the person finished arguing (something about an undisclosed conviction!) and left, my interviewer asked across to the first interviewer: "She gonna get it?" "Nope." was the reply.

Conversely, I just did this in Atlanta a week ago yesterday (after not having enough time between layovers to do it in December), and I waited an hour and a half before making it to the head of the line — and then, only a little faster because the lady in front of me had waited longer than the 760 days or whatever after conditional approval to have her interview, so her application was expired and she was sent away.

In Atlanta, at least, they make you go through the regular immigration line first, and only then can you even join the Global Entry interview line. The whole thing took me well over two hours, probably more like 2.5.

I was happy enough, and I walked away with my approval, but it's not always a walk in the park (remember this was my second time trying this way since I don't live in the States).

(And the sole interviewer working in Atlanta that day — and yes it was a Saturday — was there because he was working overtime. So if he hadn't volunteered for OT, I guess there wouldn’t have been any interviews at all.)

As asked above, any chance you’ll be flying home to the U.S. before August 23?

My husband and I were both up for renewal last year, and scheduled the first available dates at Denver international Airport, something like 9 months in the future - November! We went ahead and scheduled those openings, even though the Global Entry Website said there were openings available in Omaha in 48 hours, if we wished to make the trip to eastern Nebraska - and other far-away-enough places also had available dates, but we sat tight. Then, coming home from Italy last October, and connecting thru Dallas/Ft. Worth, we were directed to the Global Entry interview line. Had to wait 5-10 minutes. The “interview” was being electronically fingerprinted. Got the renewed GE cards in the mail soon after, and before the dates we’d scheduled for our Denver interviews.

Hi Brad, If you choose to wait and do the interview upon return, please make sure your particular airport is taking walk ins. My husband just went for his interview last week in Boston (appointment made in February) and they were not taking any walk ins that day, it was by appointment only. I don't believe it was due to staff shortage as there were at least 2 agents conducting interviews.

Brad,

Do you mean Reagan/National airport? My husband's GE interview was at the Ronald Reagan BUILDING in DC. We took the Metro from Maryland, popped up, and in about two seconds he was in his interview, so I would definitely be checking for a DC slot about 10x a day!

Best,
Liz

You might want to also start looking at Charlotte Airport as well as the others.

It is at the Ronald Reagan building. I used to work there as Global Entry spokesman for CBP before I moved to Treasury. You'd think I'd have a special in, right?

I'll check for cancellations regularly. I assume that's just going back to see if I find a better appointment time? So far most places give me "no appointments available", including Reagan Building, when I check to see if I can reschedule.

When my wife and I did our Global Entry, we wanted Richmond but there were never any open slots. We scheduled for Dulles as far out as possible but kept checking. Then one day spots at Richmond opened up and it was pretty easy to move. Unfortunately it just took a lot of checking to get a good time. I think there was a time sometime in the early morning, 8am or so when the new times were sometimes loaded.

And tricks for even getting to the scheduler when logged into your TPP account?

I have conditional approval, and when I hit that "SCHEDULE INTERVIEW" button, it just says "LOADING" indefinitely--never moves into the actual scheduler.

I understand the appointments out there are few and far between, but how do I even get to being able to schedule that far out appointment?

I've tried different browsers and times of day.

Any thoughts, tips, or tricks?

Thanks!

Pay attention, I can’t find it now but the other day I read an article which pretty much indicated that they are going to allow any location where you can get TSA pre-check to do these interviews going forward. if that’s the case these interviews will become much much easier to obtain.

We had our interviews for Global Entry at exactly the same time at our local airport with Border Patrol agents sitting side by side . My husband was finished way before me as my agent focused on the fact that I had been to Cuba and that my husband had accompanied me there as well as to several other Communist countries.
The agent dug in his heels while I showed him the extensive paperwork on my Cuban visa. Almost all the countries we had visited in the past ten years were also Communist countries, Vietnam, Russia, Cambodia, China.. I finally was approved after stressing that we had traveled on a State Dept approved trip to Cuba.
I have renewed my Global Entry. If I hadn’t brought my visas and paperwork to my interview I wonder if my application would have been approved.
If you needed Visas to enter any country you have visited, bring them with you to be safe. Most of mine are glued in my passports but all are not.
I can’t imagine traveling internationally without GE. We average ten minutes clearing through immigration at JFK, LAX, ORD, etc.

If you live near a Port of Entry, they are doing interviews there and usually have lots of appointments. I went to the Grand Portage Port of Entry on the Canadian border for mine and had my pick of times and days.

I almost changed this morning but I lost the appointment while it was processing. Best I can figure, someone else edged me out. I'll keep trying.

I noticed an email from CBP for their "appointment on arrival" interview. At a pretty long list of ports of entry, not including Dulles, you can complete your interview while you do your normal admissibility interview. This is only available for people returning from outside the U.S.

It may end up being useful but I'd prefer having Global Entry completed before going overseas.