V-Flyer

Good morning v flyers,

I wondered if any of you might have any recent experience of the current wait times for conditional approval of global entry?

Mine has been stuck on pending for over 3 months now. I know the forum on FlyerTalk suggests waits in excess of 200 days so I am prepared to be waiting for a while longer.....

I think the UK government website could do with updating....they still confidently say you will hear within 2 weeks!

Hi, I have been waiting since 16th July (27 weeks or 189 days). I have also read various threads about wait times increasing from 5-6 months to now being 8 months.

I’ve also seen some people being approved in days so I don’t know how they’re managing their backlog.

I sent a message through the system enquiring about the likely delay but just received a standard response stating an average wait of 5-6 months but could be longer !

I’ll give it another couple of weeks and then perhaps respond to the message to see if anything happens, although they do say it can’t be expedited.

It's gone beyond 6 months and there is nothing any of us can do about it.

A combination of the government shutdown and Trump! Says it all.

Hoping I don't have to face any of this faff when I renew GE next year

SlimpyJones wrote:Hoping I don't have to face any of this faff when I renew GE next year

I must check when mines expires. Wonder if you can try and renew earlier ?

David

I have no idea if you can apply to renew early, but suspect it's like ESTA & if you do, no remaining time on current Global Entry is carried over.

The best time to renew would be the day after your birthday, as Global Entry is valid for 5 yrs + the time until your next birthday. I got my GE in April & my birthday is in late December, so effectively got 5yrs 8mths.

I applied back in 2018, when the UK checks took a couple of days to come through & the US side of things took about two weeks. Oh, they also had the temporary Global Entry enrolment center at the US Embassy in London too. Made everything very easy.

Kraken wrote:I have no idea if you can apply to renew early,

You can apply to renew one year before expiry.

The added perk of renewing before expiry is that they give you a 6 month extension to your expiration date in which time you can still use GE benefits. Quite handy if there is a significant backlog of renewals to get through .

Renewals are handled differently to the first time applicants with much shorter wait times and in some circumstances they won't need to interview you again either.

When I first applied to this programme all those years back I was conditionally approved within a week and had my interview scheduled when I was passing through JFK a few weeks later . Obviously things have changed a lot since then, good luck Amo

David wrote:

SlimpyJones wrote:Hoping I don't have to face any of this faff when I renew GE next year

I must check when mines expires. Wonder if you can try and renew earlier ?

David

You can re-apply for Global Entry when you have 1 year left of your current membership.

I'm currently in the process of renewing mine now as I have just 12 months left on my membership. My GE expires January 3rd 2021 so I can re-apply anytime from Jan 4th this year.

I've not even got past the UK Boarder Force background check yet on my renewal (which you need to get even for a renewal) as you need a new GE access code.

I applied and paid my £42 on Jan 8th for my UK background check / access code but I've still not heard anything back yet. I've chased it up today.

Kraken wrote:I have no idea if you can apply to renew early, but suspect it's like ESTA & if you do, no remaining time on current Global Entry is carried over.

The best time to renew would be the day after your birthday, as Global Entry is valid for 5 yrs + the time until your next birthday. I got my GE in April & my birthday is in late December, so effectively got 5yrs 8mths.

I applied back in 2018, when the UK checks took a couple of days to come through & the US side of things took about two weeks. Oh, they also had the temporary Global Entry enrolment center at the US Embassy in London too. Made everything very easy.

Yes you can apply early and if you do apply early and still aren't approved you get a 6 month extension.

I don't know if applying early means you lose any unused time off your 'old' GE or if it just continues.

I applied in 2018 too. UK approval took 2 working days, Conditional Approval in 14 and all in all it was a month between applying for the UK approval and the interview in Vauxhall. I could have done it quicker but I waited a few days before submitting my GE application and had to wait a week for a suitable interview slot to open up.

Oh those were the days! Iwoudn't be without it (and Pre Check) now!

I applied in August and haven't heard anything yet. I keep checking the website and it just says pending, awaiting review. I was hoping to have it for our next trip in March but it doesn't look like it.
I had a look at available appointments for the interview but the earliest time is in July so it looks like it may take a while.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Blimey.....it sounds like my estimated 6 months (based on what the website said when I applied) is being optimistic!!

I hope those who you who applied in the summer hear soon.

no harm in renewing early, once approved they just add 5 years on to your original expiry - so may as well apply T-1 year

I posted on flyer talk and a couple of people there who are very familiar with GE have said that as your birthday is your expiry day no matter the day you apply for renewal they add 5 years on from that so you don't lose any time

I applied in March 2019 for renewal (11 months left on GE) I received conditional approval a few days before Christmas ( 9 months wait) However at the same time I received an email saying I had 1 year to arrange the interview not the normal 6 months due to the backlog. Knowing I was travelling to MCO in January I tried to schedule the interview asap, but the first available date was June 2020. Nothing at SFB or TPA either until May 2020 time.

There was availability at MIA for this coming weekend 2/3 Feb and luckily enough that’s where I’ll be so I grabbed it.

However on arriving at MCO a few days ago, CBP did it on arrival, took 10 minutes and granted for another 5 years. ( I actually had an email after I booked the Appointment at MIA saying I could do it on arrival).

Does anybody know the procedure for interview on arrival at MCO for a new GE application once conditionally approved? Hopefully we’ll have it before we go in April.
Do you ask to go to a different queue or do you wait in the normal immigration line?

Murraymint wrote:Does anybody know the procedure for interview on arrival at MCO for a new GE application once conditionally approved? Hopefully we’ll have it before we go in April.
Do you ask to go to a different queue or do you wait in the normal immigration line?

You’ll need to join the normal queue and then ask the CBP officer who admits you if someone is available. When I arrived at MCO a few days ago I asked for my renewal on arrival. I had to get my luggage then wait about 20 minutes for someone to be available as they were all dealing with arrivals. Mine was just done at a booth which they opened especially to do my GE. After mine was done there were a coupe of others waiting for both new and renewal.

However there’s no reason why one of you couldn’t get in the queue then the other go to the far left CBP desk (which is where those with GE go through and ask if they can do it to save the queue img.)

We applied June 21st for GE and were conditionally approved as an early Christmas gift on December 11th.

Spending the start of 2020 renovating the house so not got our interview booked until April 14th in MIA. We might do it on arrival on the 13th but wary of smelling of booze!

I finally got my GE renewal access code from UK Boarder Force today....that took nearly a month!

Let’s see how long I now have to wait for my conditional approval for my renewal. I’ve got 4 trips booked to the US so far and another in progress for this year so hopefully that fits around another interview. Last time I did mine at FLL though it’s not at the actually airport there.

My other halfs too 8 days to get approved by the US end of things and to move forward to interview.

I thought mines was bad that it took 24 days to get to interview status.

UK side was trivial. A day max.

Just got my conditional approval today (206 days) but still waiting for Mrs M to get hers. Next trip to US is April/May and when I checked MCO for interview times, the first available one is 9th May so that ties in nicely. I’ll still try for “interview on arrival” though.

...and Mrs M received hers an hour after mine. Also got her interview scheduled just after mine.

Murraymint wrote:...and Mrs M received hers an hour after mine. Also got her interview scheduled just after mine.

That's great news for you both!

Thank you for giving an update.

Remember if you do get to do interview on arrival to cancel your slot afterwards (or ask the officer to do it) so that someone else can use it. Interview slots are like gold dust at the moment in some locations.

Hi tontybear - yes will do, I know how difficult they are to come by. It’s interesting to see how much the slots change numerous times per day as people do just that or as they fill up or as more are added.

tontybear wrote:Remember if you do get to do interview on arrival to cancel your slot afterwards (or ask the officer to do it) so that someone else can use it. Interview slots are like gold dust at the moment in some locations.

When I did mine on arrival it automatically cancelled the arranged interview.