Make Your International Meeting a Few Months Faster by Going Inside
This year has been a big one for me when it comes to international travel, and so last December I decided to bite the bullet to get a Global Entry account to use throughout the year. However, when I was approved for this service, I ran into one big nuisance: the earliest time I could get for a face-to-face interview was eight months later, well after several international travel plans I had planned.
If you are somehow unfamiliar with Global Entry, this is a program in which you go for a background check and face-to-face interview with the US Customs and Border Protection once at your airport, and then for $ 100, you can get an expedited check. queues at customs when you return to the country (and you will receive a TSA Pre when flying domestically).
I recommend this service to anyone who travels a little. For example, earlier this year, when I returned from Italy, I went through customs in San Francisco half an hour before my boyfriend was grateful to Global Entry. I walked through the same lines as the SFO flight crew, waited in zero lines, and had coffee at Starbucks outside of security about 20 minutes after we landed. If you can save yourself that custom headache multiple times over the course of five years and use TSA Pre multiple times, that $ 100 is well worth it.
The first step in applying for Global Entry is filling out an online form to verify your background information, which is pretty simple and you can actually do it anytime. This personal interview, which you schedule after prior approval, can be a hassle, depending on where you live. Instead of waiting months and months to make an appointment, you should just take a walk.
Oddly enough, I learned about logins from the Yelp page for the SFO Global Entry office. Here’s how to do it:
- Each Global Entry office hosts several regular meetings each day. All the tips I read suggested getting to the office a few hours before it opens (for example, arriving at 4 a.m. early). Both my boyfriend and me; however, preferred to arrive before lunchtime. I arrived around 10:45, and he arrived closer to noon.
- When you arrive, tell the person at the door that you are here to go through the meeting with the Global Entry. They will make you write your name on paper and say that you are not guaranteed to be seen that day, but they will try to drag you in.
- Bring something to keep yourself occupied for a few hours. I have the opportunity to work from home, so I packed my laptop and had lunch. This will probably happen quickly, but consider that you are going to camp for a while.
- I was called for an appointment within 2 minutes after I wrote my name on the registration sheet. My boyfriend who did it a few months later got a call within 15 minutes. From what I can tell (and from my own experience), the meetings take about 5 minutes, but are scheduled for 15. There’s a really good chance they’ll find a place for you soon.
I had a provisional TSA number before I left the Global Entry office (which I used to fly that same week) and I received an email stating that my Global Entry account was active before I even returned home after meeting.
Of course, the mileage for this can be different. If you have a flight, especially an international one; However, it is worth heading to the airport an hour or two early for your flight and trying some walking.
Another tip: this date can also happen in any office in the country. If your home airport has the same support as mine at SFO, you can make an appointment elsewhere. Before I got in, I had planned a trip to Las Vegas where I was going in April. It was a full four months before I could return home.