Global Entry System

I am curious if anyone has signed up for this and if yes what their experience has been like. Is it worth the time and money?

I am curious if anyone has signed up for this and if yes what their experience has been like. Is it worth the time and money?

We have and ... YES, so far ... and our five years has just begun.

We hope that more cruise ports will be getting this in addition to airports.

"Global Entry comes with a huge bonus prize: free enrollment in T.S.A. PreCheck."

The time it saves you in lines is well worth the money (IMHO).

Some folks already have "pre-check" but you get it with your GE.

Some credit cards also give you back the GE enrollment cost.

You might enjoy this article: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/travel/global-entry-and-company-worth-the-price.html?_r=0

Edited to add: For domestic flights, you can carry your GE card for ID rather than your PP.

Cheers!

Not only is it great for disembarkation, it can really be a time saver at the airport. For example, we came back from a TA to JFK and were the 4th of 4 747s arriving. We breezed through the automatic machines going through customs in 10 minutes while our friends waited in line for another hour and a half. We were home before they cleared. Well worth the money not having to wait in that mess.

I am curious if anyone has signed up for this and if yes what their experience has been like. Is it worth the time and money?

Used it twice last year after returning from cruises.At Ohare,we literally walked by 500 people and right out the door.At Pt Everglades,they now have a GE line in the terminal and we walked right out!

It work's great at Airports, We use it 2 or 3 times a year ...

Used it twice last year after returning from cruises.At Ohare,we literally walked by 500 people and right out the door.At Pt Everglades,they now have a GE line in the terminal and we walked right out!

Do all the terminals at Port Everglades have the GE line?

Going for our interviews tomorrow :D. Will be returning to Port Everglades from a TA on April 24, sure hope it works as described above.

Well worth it....

Be selective as to where you go for the interview.

Some places are much easier to get appointments (Long Beach office) than oters (LAX airport)

We love it. We would have likely missed our connecting flight in Toronto after our Canada/New England cruise this past fall, if we didn't have GE. The other lines were very long. We have used it many times coming into the country and it is a real time saver. The TSA precheck is an added bonus.

Amex Platinum and many other credit cards refund the cost

Had it for several years Absolutely worth the time to get

Yes and we think it is worth the money...especially if you do International flying. In terms of cost it works out to $20 a year, and if it helps us avoid long lines at airports just a few times a year it is a good investment. As to cruises, we believe they are only testing it at Port Everglades (where it did help us bypass a long line this past December) but its still a question mark as to whether CBP will expand it to other ports.

Hank

Wow, great positive feedback! One problem for us I see is the interview itself. Closest place is Charlotte which is 2.5 hours and they only have hours from 8:00 to 2:00 during the week. We could go to IAD, four hours but they do have Saturday hours.

Thanks for the responses!

Wow, great positive feedback! One problem for us I see is the interview itself. Closest place is Charlotte which is 2.5 hours and they only have hours from 8:00 to 2:00 during the week. We could go to IAD, four hours but they do have Saturday hours.

 

Thanks for the responses!

I see your dilemma. Happily the Phoenix airport location was just 30 minutes away for us. Can you do a Friday night sleepover?

You won't regret it.:)

Cheers!

Wow, great positive feedback! One problem for us I see is the interview itself. Closest place is Charlotte which is 2.5 hours and they only have hours from 8:00 to 2:00 during the week. We could go to IAD, four hours but they do have Saturday hours.

 

Thanks for the responses!

I have the same issue. Nashville is my closest and it would be about the same amount of travel and the hours are the same as Charlotte.

Still, we were boarding an aircraft at Bush International. DW boarding pass was 'prechecked' and mine was not. The nice Security guy told me to join her in the precheck line. That was nice.

We try to avoid flying if at all possible. We drive to the port and self debark. Not sure Global Entry is worth it to us. We rarely see a line at the port.

We have had Global Entry for almost a year and now wonder why we didn't do it sooner. I think know it is $100 for five years. It's worth it for the PreCheck privileges alone. But the Global Entry itself saved us at least an hour wait when we came back from a Jamaica vacation last year.

One tip is that once you get it, register with each airline you use or plan to use. Most of them have a profile you set up online where you enter the frequent traveller number.

I agree each airport has much different wait times. Here in Tampa the wait was about two months. But we looked at Orlando and could get one within a week. So we made an appointment and stopped by on our way to Universal Studios.

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Wow, great positive feedback! One problem for us I see is the interview itself. Closest place is Charlotte which is 2.5 hours and they only have hours from 8:00 to 2:00 during the week. We could go to IAD, four hours but they do have Saturday hours.

 

Thanks for the responses!

We had a similar issue since our closest interview location (BWI) was 1 1/2 hours drive from home. But since you do your own scheduling online (based on availability) we were able to schedule an interview at a time when we were actually passing through BWI. The process is a minor pain....but understandable. My CBP Officer (who did the interview) was really curious about our visits to Turkey and quizzed me about which geographic parts of that country we had visited. He mentioned that he would love to visit Istanbul...although recent events might have changed his mind.

Hank

We love it! We had to drive 2.5 hours one way for the interview, but cannot imagine traveling with it. Use the GE card at security instead of your drivers license...TSA seems to like that.

We got Global Entry in 2012 and think it is the greatest thing ever:

• -fast through immigration and customs
  
• -allows you to use similar program in other countries -i.e. Australia
  
• -gets you TSA pre-check as well
  
• -good for 5 years /$20/year
  

The only downsides were that there was no office in Kansas City or anywhere nearby, but we showed up at office at Boston airport when we had a long layover, and they fit us in for interview /fingerprinting on a "standby basis" without an appointment.

The other downside was that Global Entry did not work at ports returning to US.

That's changed now at Port Everglades, and while it's still not quite the same as the touch screens at airports, after our cruise on January 4th we got to the Global Entry line at Port Everglades and were directed to the front of the line.

This helped us get from the ship to the airport gate (past security) in less than 30 minutes. More details on that experience here: http://www.travelingwiththejones.com/2016/01/06/5-steps-to-faster-disembarkation-from-a-holland-america-cruise-ship/

Bottom line: we highly recommend Global Entry - even if you only make 1 international trip a year.

Wow, great positive feedback! One problem for us I see is the interview itself. Closest place is Charlotte which is 2.5 hours and they only have hours from 8:00 to 2:00 during the week. We could go to IAD, four hours but they do have Saturday hours.

 

Thanks for the responses!

Suggest stopping in any approved location that you might be nearby to see if you can be fit in for a "standby" appointment. We did this at the Boston airport when we got our Global Entry.

Do all the terminals at Port Everglades have the GE line?

I can only comment on the HAL terminal we disembarked at, but was told earlier last year that the signs were being printed for the entire port.At Pt Everglades,it was done differently than at the airport.At the airport,you just scan your passport and your palm print and are given a receipt to exit the airport without having to show your GE card or do a customs declaration.At Pt Everglades,there were no scanners and you just handed your card and passport along with the customs form to the agent.It was a dedicated line with no one in it when we approached.The GE card is an official ID and can be used to board planes domestically.FYI,If you renew your passport you must link your GE card to the new passport.The TSA precheck is also a nice bonus with the GE card.

I can only add my approval as well, and add that if you happen to live near the northern border, you should get Nexus. Nexus is a joint program with Canada, and includes speedy entry into both Canada and the USA, plus all the features of Global Entry, plus all the TSA Precheck features, and it's only $50 per year instead of $100.

The only downside, as far as I can tell, is that all the interview locations are at US/Canada border crossings, except for a few in cities fairly near the border. One of those is Seattle, which is where we live. Unfortunately, we didn't know about the advantages of Nexus when we got Global Entry. But when our five years are up, we'll certainly go for Nexus instead.

I think if you live in or near Arizona, Texas, or California, you might also want to consider SENTRI, which is like Nexus for the southern border, but also includes Nexus and Global Entry access, as well as TSA Precheck.

I am curious if anyone has signed up for this and if yes what their experience has been like. Is it worth the time and money?

Yes. Just allow yourself plenty of lead time. It takes a while to get pre approved, and it could take up to 5 weeks to three months to get your in person interview.

We just went through the Global Entry process and are excited to hear it will also work at Port Everglades!

I thought I read a review recently that said there was no need to fill out the blue customs form for disembarkation at Port Everglades if you have Global Entry. Does anyone have first hand experience with this?

We just went through the Global Entry process and are excited to hear it will also work at Port Everglades!

I thought I read a review recently that said there was no need to fill out the blue customs form for disembarkation at Port Everglades if you have Global Entry. Does anyone have first hand experience with this?

We just went through the GE line at Port Everglades, and we did fill one out. Perhaps if you have nothing to declare and have Global Entry, you don't need to, but there wasn't anything about that on the form. You might ask the next customs agent you see if you can skip it next time.

Add us to the love GE crowd. Initially I actually went the GE route to get TSA PreCheck. At the time there was a GE enrollment office at the local airport but the closest PreCheck office was 100 miles away. Didn't take much cost analysis to figure I'd spend more then the $15 difference between the two programs driving back and forth. Talked Mrs K, who already PreCheck through her job, into GE as we had several planned trips outside the US. Three trips later and we are totally sold as we probably haven't spent 30 minutes total getting through Immigration and Customs. Actually did a land vacation just before Christmas......yes that can happen:D......and we got through almost as fast as we could walk.