Global Entry Interviews

Hi Everyone,

Mrs Southroma and I have completed our Global Entry applications and received provisional approvals, pending final interviews. We have each had a couple of emails from US Customs & Border Protection advising us that we can take advantage of the ‘Enrollment on Arrival’ facilities so I was all prepared for us to do this.

We are flying out on Friday 2 November, VS 27, LGW/MCO and have a recently-rescheduled arrival time of 18.05, which probably puts us in the terminal around 18.30 or so if we are on time. According to the CBP website, the ‘Enrollment on Arrival’ service is available 8.00 am to 12.00 am (midnight) which suits us just fine even if the flight is delayed.

However, I have noticed a thread on the DIBB forum that contained a post indicating that the writer had recently (September) flown into Orlando, arriving at 4.45 pm, only to be told they had arrived too late to have their interview. If this is permanent I am now concerned that the opening times have changed and we will have to schedule the interviews for later during our trip - with the hassle of a time-wasting return to the airport during our stay.

I have also heard that the self-scan booths have now gone for good; and there is no longer a customs check for food items, which seems rather unlikely.

Does anyone have any recent experience, particularly at Orlando International? Most grateful for any information.

Kind regards,

John

About the machines and lack of customs, that was certainly the case when we flew into MCO in May. It might have changed again by now but there were no machines to be seen, we didn't have to fill out the white customs form, we were not asked any questions about what we were bringing into the country and there was nothing at all where customs used to be.

Strangely enough, the last three times I have flown home from the USA with VS and BA, I have been given TSA Pre Clearance. I have no clue as to why!

We were at MCO at the end of September and if you had Global entry you were directed left where there were a few machines and I think you still had to go to an agent. However it was still a lot quicker than the normal route when you were directed right and everyone had to see an agent as there is no longer any machines. There is no secondary check once you leave the baggage hall but there were agents mulling around maybe to do spot checks. However there was a lot of building work going on so maybe things have changed.

hi John,

we are in the same situation as you so I have been following here and the Dibb closely. We fly out LGW to MCO on the VS15 on the 22nd Nov.

The most recent post I read (14th Oct) there advised " an agent told us that you now have to wait in the normal queue and then when you get to the booth, tell the border control staff that you wish your global entry interview. ...when we got to the booth it was done there and then and only took about 10 minutes. They don’t take you into a separate room anymore. Also, they have got rid of all the self scan kiosks".

I had thought that, if we were taken to a room for the interview, we could skip the immigration queue (the one we are all trying to get away from) but this reads that we'll have to queue as usual - oh well, hopefully for the last time if we get approval...

Would you mind posting what happens when you get your interview please? I hope it all goes smoothly for you.

Hi
I applied for Global Entry at the end of July and still have not heard. I queried my status last week and was told automatically that applications are currently taking 8-10 weeks. As I fly on 17 November, I am beginning to get a bit concerned! How long did your applications take?
Thanks!
Jane

hi Jane

our UK approval was less than a week, the US took longer - these are our dates

UK Application: 17/8/2018
UK Approved: 22/08/2018
US Application: 29/08/2018
US Conditional Approval: 05/10/2018

The 8-10 weeks wait you mention, is this for the US conditional approval, as that was what I was advised?

[mitchja]

For Global Entry interviews on arrival, you still have to pass through and be processed by the standard immigration & customs before you can have your Global Entry interview.

The only real difference between interview on arrival and a standard interview is not requiring an appointment time. Most Global Entry offices are located landside in airports.

HI Traveller 2,

Many thanks for your reply. Like you we have also had TSA pre-check clearance on our last few visits. When I asked the VA rep at the check in desk ‘Why?’ she just smiled and said: ‘Guess you must be very good customers!’


Hi Kevshev,

Thanks for your response. Most grateful to hear of the continuing building work at OIA. I thought the reconstruction/refurbishment of Airside 4 (gates 70 – 99) was due for completion during the summer this year, so I imagine it is running behind schedule. No updates on the OIA website, that I could find.


Hi Lindsk,

Thanks for your post. I, too, saw the 14 Oct post on the DIBB and, like you, had thought that being taken to a separate room might have helped us to skip the regular queues. Looks like we shall have to face them one last time if this is now the case.

I will be sure and post our experiences next month, ahead of your travel date.

I have made a couple of appointments with the MCO Global Entry office for when we are in Orlando, as a fall-back position, just in case. The earliest I could get for the two of us was afternoon of 14 November. If we get our interviews at arrival I’ll just cancel the appointments. If you consider doing the same, there are currently plenty of free dates/times in the two weeks or so following your arrival date.


Hi Jane,

Thanks for your posting. Our UK background checks were applied for on 10 July, and approved 2/3 days later, 12 July (me) and 13 July (Mrs Southroma). I applied to the US Customs and Border Protection on 14 July, for the two of us, and we received emails confirming changes of status (which were our approvals) on 4 September. A total of just over seven weeks.

I have since heard that applications have increased substantially since July, from US citizens as well as overseas travellers, and two to three months is now the norm, but I can find nothing official to back this up.

I expect you will get your confirmation within the next week or so. Fingers crossed for you! Do please let us all know when it arrives.


Kind regards to everyone,

John

For Global Entry interviews on arrival, you still have to pass through and be processed by the standard immigration & customs before you can have your Global Entry interview.

The only real difference between interview on arrival and a standard interview is not requiring an appointment time. Most Global Entry offices are located landside in airports.

I thought Enrollment on Arrival was the GE interview as part of your entry into the USA, separate form the landslide centres.

Thanks for the information. Mine appears to be taking longer than most people - I got UK approval on 27 July and applied on 31 July. By my calculation that is 12 weeks ago today. I have read that each application is allocated to an officer and it depends when they get around to looking at it.

[buns]

Thanks for the information. Mine appears to be taking longer than most people - I got UK approval on 27 July and applied on 31 July. By my calculation that is 12 weeks ago today. I have read that each application is allocated to an officer and it depends when they get around to looking at it.

A simple thing I know, but have you checked your application?

The reason I ask is that whilst I got an E Mail, Mrs Buns did not. On checking her application, we found she had been conditionally approve.

buns

I too am a little puzzled at the turnround time. We've both come to the end of our first 5 year Global Entry, and did the renewals together. My wife heard within two weeks she'd been unconditionally approved (ie no interview needed), I waited seven weeks, and although I'm a veteran of FIVE 10 year Visas, have to go for an interview. At least I can now do it whilst arriving, and don't need an appointment

Peter

Thanks for the information. Mine appears to be taking longer than most people - I got UK approval on 27 July and applied on 31 July. By my calculation that is 12 weeks ago today. I have read that each application is allocated to an officer and it depends when they get around to looking at it.

A simple thing I know, but have you checked your application?

The reason I ask is that whilst I got an E Mail, Mrs Buns did not. On checking her application, we found she had been conditionally approve.

buns

The wordng in your TPP account basically says 'keep checking your account as we don't sell e-mails' even though they do in some cases send e-mails!

Yes the time taken to get conditional approval has extended over the summer. One (or more) of the US credit cards had an offer to refund the fees so there was a surge in applications.

There is a thread on flyer talk where people ask 'how long'. There are some very impatient people!

Eventually received Conditional Approval yesterday - 92 days after applying! Luckily I applied sufficiently early to hopefully have an interview on arrival at MCO in a couple of weeks

[buns]

Eventually received Conditional Approval yesterday - 92 days after applying! Luckily I applied sufficiently early to hopefully have an interview on arrival at MCO in a couple of weeks

Mrs Buns and I have now each received E Mails inviting us to Enrol upon arrival. I will let you know how this pans out at MCO

buns

[buns]

Mrs Buns and I have now each received E Mails inviting us to Enrol upon arrival. I will let you know how this pans out at MCO

buns

So we arrived yesterday (Sunday) to a packed Immigration Hall - the VS27 left an hour or so late and bad weather has also disrupted flights.

When we eventually got to an officer we were told “the machine is broken” so no interview for us

Sorry to hear that but the excuse sounds a bit strange. When we had our interview in August at Las Vegas 1 of the ordinary booths was doing just GE interviews and the agent just entered all our details in the usual way , fingerprints etc, into the computer as normal. There was no special machine. Afterwards he realised we hadn't done our normal entry procedure, as it seems we should have been directed to join the queues for entry processing before going to him. However he then did the entry for us and said it recognised us fine so GE had worked ok.

Hi Janeclar,

Delighted to hear you have finally received your conditional approval.

We were unable to get our interviews when we arrived at MCO last Friday because no one was available.

I have done another (rather lengthy, I'm afraid) post about our arrival experience which has some information that might be of interest.

Kind regards,

John

To both Southroma & Buns - hope you manage to get your GE interviews scheduled while you are in Florida so your next arrival into the USA will be much faster.

As to "the machine" not working - the only piece of IT equipment the lady who did my GE interview at the US Embassy in London was using was a laptop. Yes, it was linked to one of the normal fingerprint scanners & a webcam, but other than that it all looked pretty normal. (I appreciate, a laptop looks like any other laptop - you don't know what encrypted system / database it is connected to by sight alone).

Thanks all! I have now scheduled an interview at MCO on the day of my flight home in case I cannot get an interview on arrival. I am on VS075 which is scheduled to arrive at 15.55, so hopefully one of the first VS arrivals that day. I will let you know how I get on!

Good luck Janeclar - I hope you buck the recent trend and can get an interview on arrival. Please do let us know.
We are on the VS15 on the 22nd and am not holding out much hope but we have interviews booked for the following week (I didn't want to eat into our last day so will pop into the airport on the way to Cocoa beach and hopefully it will not take too long)
Here's hoping we all get our approvals so can then start enjoying the benefits

Arrived at MCO at 15.55 yesterday and on asking re an interview, I was directed to the normal queue. Once admitted, a more senior officer took me to another queue in the middle of the room. One family were being dealt with and a single traveller was in front of me. Strangely the sign for Global Entry interviews was on the next line! After waiting about 20 mins the person in front of me was called forwards and immediately dismissed. It was then my turn - supposedly the machine was broken!!! I did ask if there was any way that I could have my interview as I was staying 160 miles away, but the answer was no. It is strange that the first family appeared to be processed and they were bringing more people to join the queue, but once a queue had built up the machine broke!! Thank you so much for everyone who suggested booking an appointment for the way home!!
I arrived on VS075 yesterday - a good flight with an excellent crew. My screen was not working, so I was provided with an IPad - a little later I was given £30 duty free vouchers - a little gesture that left me a very satisfied passenger!

[buns]

Arrived at MCO at 15.55 yesterday and on asking re an interview, I was directed to the normal queue. Once admitted, a more senior officer took me to another queue in the middle of the room. One family were being dealt with and a single traveller was in front of me. Strangely the sign for Global Entry interviews was on the next line! After waiting about 20 mins the person in front of me was called forwards and immediately dismissed. It was then my turn - supposedly the machine was broken!!! I did ask if there was any way that I could have my interview as I was staying 160 miles away, but the answer was no. It is strange that the first family appeared to be processed and they were bringing more people to join the queue, but once a queue had built up the machine broke!! Thank you so much for everyone who suggested booking an appointment for the way home!!
I arrived on VS075 yesterday - a good flight with an excellent crew. My screen was not working, so I was provided with an IPad - a little later I was given £30 duty free vouchers - a little gesture that left me a very satisfied passenger!

Sorry to hear your news

I have already booked landside appointments at MCO for our next trip in anticipation “on arrival” does not compute

buns

Yah!! Arrived at MCO at 14.15 in plenty of time for my 15.15 appointment. Seen immediately and sorted in 5 mins!! I now have nearly 5 hours to wait for VS76, so followed V Flyer advice and I am really enjoying the Hyatt bar! Thank you everyone for your help - I would not have had the appointment today without you!!

So glad your interview went smoothly. Now we can all look forwards to (hopefully) quick entries on our next visits. Have a good journey home.