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Don't forget to renew your Global Entry!

One more thing to think about as we move closer to international travel.

My husband had to renew his driver's license this year, and that triggered a review of all our other time-sensitive documents---passports, Global Entry, etc. Our GE cards would have expired in November this year, so we decided to go ahead and renew now. It can all be done online---unless they notify you otherwise.

If you haven't already registered with the new "Trusted Traveler" website, you will have to start there. We had done that previously, so just had to update some entries on the form ( employment, etc.) before submitting it. I had my approval notification within ten days, and my new card within a week after that. My husband's application took much longer, like two months. No idea why. But you should be prepared for that.

One benefit for us, besides the quicker pass through immigration and customs when we return home from Europe, is that we can use the card to comply with the Real ID requirements when they come into play, as Washington State has not started issuing the enhanced driver's licenses yet.

Posted by
3207 posts

And there are some of us that haven’t had a chance to use our global entry after two years...sigh.

Posted by
1206 posts

In preparation for a bucket list trip in a few months, I went online on the Trusted Traveler website several days ago only to discover that my Global Entry had expired this past April. That's what not traveling for well over a year will do to ya! I spent about 15 minutes on the website updating my information for a renewal and then submitted it with the $100 application fee. I received an email within three days telling me that I had a notification on the website. Lo and behold, I now have my Global Entry for another 5.5 years. Even have the same number. Yay! No long lines at Dulles!

Posted by
6502 posts

Lola, Washington has been issuing enhanced driver's licenses for a few years now -- I got one in 2019 when my regular one was expiring. They cost more than the regular licenses, which are also still available. Explained on the DOL website. You have to document your citizenship and residence, but this wasn't difficult. I got one so I could fly domestically without a passport.

Last year I got my Global Entry renewal after a short wait, all online with no interview. My wife did the same online process, with almost identical travel updates, but didn't get hers for about a year. There have been threads about the long delays in GE processing, probably due to Covid reducing available staff, but hopefully we're getting back to normal on that score.

Posted by
1090 posts

Agree with Dick- I also have the enhanced drivers license in Washington state.

Posted by
16254 posts

When did you get your enhanced Drivers' licenses? Pre-covid? My husband's license expired in April ( this year) and he said there was no way to get the enhanced version online when he renewed. And the DOL offices were still closed at that time for in-person visits. (Now they are open by appointment only, if you have a need that cannot be filled online). My understanding was this covid-related problem was the reason they extended the date for requiring the enhanced licenses at TSA checkpoints yet again—-until May of 2023.
I told him not to worry about it now because when the requirement does kick in, we both have passport cards and Global Entry cards that will fulfill the requirement. ( Passports work too, but we do not want to carry those around for domestic travel).

Posted by
4517 posts

Lola: I suspect you are mixing up the Real-ID compliant driver license (which Washington does not seem to offer!?!) and the Enhanced driver license available in some states and provinces (including WA) which is intended for surface border crossings in lieu of a passport but coincidentally is Real-ID compliant.

Posted by
1803 posts

And don’t forget one of the nice side perks of global entry. TSA Precheck. I use the Precheck line way more than the GE line.

Posted by
4614 posts

Great reminder! As it happens, my global entry expires in a couple of months. The renewal is a good reason to get the new travel credit card (sooner than I originally intended) to use the card's perk to pay for it. Fortunately I have enough lead time to get the new card and then finish my GE renewal.

Posted by
3951 posts

CWSocial, good reminder to check your cc to see if a $100 charge is credited for Global Entry membership. Many but not all have this as one of their benefits.

Posted by
4614 posts

The new credit card I'm getting has the benefit, which will pay for the first year annual fee. In addition, $100 / year in travel "incidentals" - baggage fees, in flight food, seat upgrades, etc.

Posted by
2745 posts

And don’t assume it will actually work either. Because I flew back from thr Dominican Republic last week and a global entry was down. We were told it had been that way off and on for several days.

Posted by
820 posts

Tom_MN - by definition, an Enhanced DL must be REAL ID compliant (I've had a NY EDL for 10 yrs now).

Posted by
331 posts

We just renewed ours before it expired. After we sorted out that the web address had changed in the last 5 years we were not prepared to answer all of the updated information that DHS wanted. They wanted to know where we have lived and all of the countries we visited in the last 5 years. Thank God for digital photos and a previous address in my mobile notes. The downside was that I fond out my wife has been to 2 more countries than I have in the last 5 years. In less than a week we were notified of our renewal.

Posted by
4517 posts

Skunklett: My point was that this statement from the OP:

Washington State has not started issuing the enhanced driver's licenses yet.

Is likely supposed to read:

Washington State has not started issuing the Real-ID driver's licenses yet.

There are 3 kinds of state driver licenses potentially available:

  1. Not Real-ID compliant (has wording like “federal limits apply” or “not for federal identification”)

  2. Real ID (has a gold star upper right corner)

  3. Enhanced (for surface border crossings, has an American flag near the photo) which is coincidentally Real-ID compliant.

Most states offer only 1 and 2. A few states like yours and mine offer all three. Washington appears to uniquely offer only 1 and 3 and the only state not offering 2.

Posted by
820 posts

Our meaning is the same, our verbiage is different.

An EDL doesn't just 'happen' to be REAL ID Compliant - it MUST be REAL ID compliant, as border crossing is the Feds' job.

(I also dislike it when all the news reports, etc., talk about a REAL ID license - correct terminology is REAL ID Compliant, which if more ppl used, I think they'd understand the law better, but that's me).

Posted by
4517 posts

Maybe it’s just semantics but I still say an enhanced license is coincidentally Real-ID compliant. It complies with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative and the objective is allow international border crossings,

Real-ID compliant driver licenses comply with the Real ID Act and the objective is to allow access to federal facilities like airports. Scanning down the lists of required documents there are more requirements for the enhanced ID like proof of photographic identity and proof of US citizenship.

I’ve never applied for a real ID compliant license (it wasn’t available at my last renewal so I skipped to the enhanced one) so wasn’t completely aware that proof of legal US residency was a requirement of Real-ID.

In any event having the Global Entry card substitutes for either license as pointed out in the OP.