Getting Global entry interview appointment
 

My husband and I recently applied for global entry, but the only appointment openings are for after we return from Europe. Anyone had any experience being able to move up the schedule by checking for new openings? I'm planning to check every day, but am wondering if it's likely any earlier openings will come up.

I ended up traveling to another region for my appt. (actually did a mileage run, one-day R-T flight to LAX and back because the nearby locations didn't have openings for months)

It depends a lot on which part of the country you are in. Some have multiple locations and some have much longer waits.

I know of people who just kept calling to find a cancellation.

I have friends (in LA) who just went to LAX and asked if they had any openings for that day and they told them to wait and they took them that day. Don't know if that is normal as I did mine with an appt. but supposed they do have people not show up on a daily basis.

I was able to get in at LAX on pretty short notice -- but there are several SoCal locations so it seems to be much easier there than in many other parts of the country.

For instance when I went there were LAX appts w/i 2 or 3 weeks while at SFO it was 4.5 months til the first available slot and at SeaTac it was about 2.5 months

Same thing happened to me. SFO had no appointments available for five months. I ended up driving to San Diego (8 hours away) to get an appointment. Combined it with a trip to visit relatives in the San Diego area.

Check to see if there is another location that has earlier appointment. There tend to be more locations near the Canada and Mexico borders.

I was 5 minutes early for my appointment, someone came out and held the door for me and I walked in. Well, I shouldn't have, because I was supposed to wait outside blah blah blah. But when I walked up to the two very bored looking guys and responded to their surprised looks by saying "am I bothering you? Somebody held the door for me but I know |'m early" they were actually nice about it and I was literally in and out in three minutes flat, walking out a minute before my appointed time...

That makes me think that the online scheduling just makes it look like their schedule is full, but I suspect that if you walk up and ask and tell them about your travel plans, they just might process you there and then - it really only takes minutes.

Worth a try!

Thanks all for the advice -- I will try calling. Next nearest office is too far away for us to consider trying.

We also just walked in at LAX (we were at the airport anyway) and they were able to take both of us due to no shows.

My first appointment was months away, but I checked the website a few days and ended up with a very convenient day and time before my trip. So yes, it is possible.

Since posting this I have managed to go online and move one of our two appointments up, so I guess it pays to keep checking.

Since my original post Jan 14, I've been going to the global entry site several times a day and yesterday was
able to move up my appointment to March and today I was able to schedule my husband's appointment for January, so we'll have our global entry status well in time for our upcoming trip.

Great! Glad it worked out.

Go together when your husband has his appointment. My husband had his before mine. When we checked in we asked if we could go in together. Since we lived in the same household and were family, they accommodated us. Doesn't hurt to ask.

We applied for Global Entry a few weeks ago. The first available appointment was not until September, but then we checked again and got appointments for a few days later.

Our appointments were today - one at 2:30 and one at 3:30 at Denver International (our closest big airport).

It took two hours to drive there - we arrived 40 minutes early.

We were both taken back immediately, and finished in about three minutes. There was no interview, just fingerprinting and photos. They didn't even ask to see the all paperwork they told us to bring.

Then we drove two hours back home. It felt like a colossal waste of time, but we'll see if it was worth the effort in the upcoming months.

Kind of funny because while we were there a woman turned up, said her appointment wasn't for several hours, and asked if they could accommodate her whole family. The guy gave her some song and dance about being booked up. Yeah right.

>> colossal waste of time<<

Mot everyone reports their appointments only take 2 - 3 minutes, yours was no different. But even that 'waste of time' will likely save you hours in time and frustration if you fly in internationally very often. I figure in the 3 years since I've' had GE I've probably save 20 or more hours.

Does anyone have the phone number or website for appointments? Thx

Would you be happier had they detained you and grilled you for hours??

I assume you're speaking to me, NewbE.

It's called an interview, so I expected an interview. It just seemed much to do about nothing.