It can sometimes take months to find open Global Entry appointments in order to schedule your in person Global Entry interview. Due to high application volume and a large backlog due to past closures, some Global Entry enrollment centers do not have open interview appointments for months and some locations show no available appointments at all. If you need to schedule a Global Entry interview but are having a hard time finding an appointment, below are some strategies to bypass the long wait and get a Global Entry appointment sooner.
Schedule a Global Entry Interview (Even If Dates Not Soon Enough)
Once you are conditionally approved for Global Entry, you will need to complete an in person interview in order for your Global Entry approval to be finalized. You must complete the Global Entry enrollment process within 730 days (extended from 365) from the date that CBP conditionally approves your Global Entry application or your Global Entry application will be cancelled and no refund will be granted.
Even if you are not finding any dates or times that work for you, schedule a Global Entry interview at your closest enrollment center for the first available date that works for you because you can always change it later. You can reschedule your Global Entry interview as many times as you want so you can always change your appointment to a better time and date (or do a walk in interview or Global Entry on Arrival as discussed below). You will need to have a scheduled Global Entry interview if you want try to get a walk in interview.
Keep Checking for Global Entry Appointments
You might be able to find last minute openings due to cancellations if you keep checking your TTP account. If you need to change your interview you are able to reschedule interviews online as well. (Do not cancel your appointment as it can cause your application to be cancelled.) I recommend checking at least a few times a day if you really want to find an earlier interview date at your closest enrollment center.
Consider a Different Global Entry Enrollment Center
While some Global Entry enrollment centers do not have openings for months, some enrollment centers have appointments the same or next day. Consider driving to a Global Entry enrollment center that is a bit further away or schedule an interview in another city if you are planning on being there anyway. This page is a great way to check for available Global Entry appointments at different enrollment centers – just click on an enrollment center and it will expand to show you the first available date.
Consider a Walk In Global Entry Interview
Some Global Entry enrollment centers will accept walk ins as long as you are already scheduled for a Global Entry interview in the future. It might be worth trying to walk in if you are near a Global Entry enrollment center but I would not go out of my way for the chance of an interview without calling first. UPDATE: It appears that most or all Global Entry Enrollment Centers are not accepting walk-ins due to the implementation of coronavirus social distancing measures in the enrollment center waiting areas.
Global Entry Interview on Arrival
Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival is the easiest option for completing your Global Entry interview if you already have an international flight booked coming back to the United States. Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival allows conditionally approved Global Entry applicants to complete their interview at customs upon arrival into the United States. This option eliminates the need for a Global Entry applicant to schedule an interview at an enrollment center to complete the application process. Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival is currently only available at select US and Canada airports. This page has more information about Global Entry on Arrival.
How Long Does It Take to Get a Global Entry Interview in 2021?
The last two years had less Global Entry interview availability (for a few of reasons) so some locations might have a backlog.
During the US government shutdown that ended early 2019, interviews were cancelled so wait times increased when the government re-opened again. In the summer of 2019, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) canceled some Global Entry scheduled interviews and sent personnel to the southern border due to the “ongoing humanitarian and security crisis.” Global Entry Enrollment Centers closed for almost six months (from March 19 – September 8, 2020) due to COVID.
Even if you are not finding appointments at your preferred enrollment center, Global Entry appointments always get cancelled or rescheduled so it is possible to find availability if you keep trying.
We tried Global Entry Interview upon arrival at SFO, which arguably may be one of the best places to get an interview as it’s open 7 days a week (barring shutdown). However, it seems that resources are limited on this as well, and we were advised that it would be a 90 to 120 minute wait. Hope for the best, but don’t expect expedited service.
I want to thank you so much for the article and links to help schedule my global entry appointment. I didn’t know that there were such delays. I thought I could get an appointment fairly quickly in my city. But then the website would not list ANY appointments available in my area for the current month and 2 month ahead. I even called 3 different numbers to get assistance and could never talk to a human! I found your article and clicked on your This Page link and was able to schedule an appointment 4 months away. Thank you very much!!
I will miss my global entry on Dec 6 after waiting 6+ months due to Covid. I will be traveling in May 2024. I had such a difficult timegetti g this appt. I had to book the appt. In San Francisco even though I live 400 miles away from there. Is there a way to reschedule without waiting another 6 months? Possibly nearer to Los Angeles?
Ok….this Global Entry sounds sounds like a nightmare! Is there any other place to sign up for this type of service…Pre-TSA? Clear? What is the difference and is it easier and faster??
I must have lucked out, I was able to get an interview next day after my conditional approval. But I was able to go during the week and didn’t need a weekend. The Long Beach center had plenty of availability.
Hi,
How did you know you were conditionally approved?
I applied a month ago and keep receiving emails about getting an interview after returning to the Us after being conditionally approved but I am not traveling abroad until 2020.
Please let me know how to find out about the status of my application. Thanks. Arline
I sent my application in on August 8, 2019 and am still waiting to get pre-approval! It is November no and no word. I live in New Jersey. How omg does this process take? Where can I complain?
I filled out application on line September 24, 2019. All I have received is emails telling if I travel abroad I can schedule and appt. at certain airports. I don’t expect to go out of country soon and I live in Boston So I would like to know what to do.
You’re probably just going to have to wait. I got an email that said your status has changed. When you sign in it tells you what specs you have completed and what you’re waiting to do. In my case an interview. Remember mine was a renewal and it took 4 months.
Betty 007187@hotmail.com
I filled out the global entry applications for me and my husband at the same time. He quickley recieved a conditional approval and the oppotunity to schedule an appointment within days. i on other hand have been waiting 7 weeks and still shows pending an review. Can I please be condicionally approved. Pleae we are traveling on the same days. Your considering is geatlt appreciated. Thank You
How did you make your appt?
I recently tried in Vancouver at the pre entry checkpoint. I was told I had to go over specifically every country I’ve been to and who I’ve met there….. WHAT I’ve been to 130 countries. They said they didn’t have the time. I think they were just being lazy because they were not busy. I went back through in Toronto a few days later and the whole process took less then 5 minutes.
I’ve had luck walking in for GE appointments for my children. For my wife, we scheduled her interview during a long layover at JFK. Like you said, be flexible and creative so you can find an earlier date.
Most places will NOT do walk-ins…too busy with interviews, updates and changes to existing accounts…phone calls asking if they take walk-ins…emails…more phone calls about walk-ins…people walking in asking about walk-ins…LOL
Can you schedule an interview BEFORE you take off on an International flight, (SFO) rather than just on arrival from one?
If there are open interview appointments you can schedule an interview at an enrollment center at SFO before your international flight but you should allow enough time so that you don’t miss your flight. Enrollment on Arrival (which you do not have to schedule) is only available when flying back into US – but make sure to bring a document providing evidence of residency in addition to your passport.
Team – I have missed the email notification on the conditional approval that I got and missed to schedule the interview and today I have got an notification saying the cancellation of application since the enrollment for interview didn’t happen on time. Did anyone faced the challenges like this earlier ??
is there anyway that I could get my current application active to schedule the interview or should I need to submit an new application and go through the entire process of attending the interview at india and go for the verification again???
Edit
This happened to me too – they had no appointments in the forseeable future anywhere near Los Angeles and my application was dropped because I didn’t do an interview within a year (I was pre-approved maybe a month after initially applying). If you’re still set on getting GE you’d need to re-apply, re-pay and go through the whole process again. Honestly the way things are currently run it seems like a waste of time and money since they don’t have enough resources to handle the volume of interviews. If you’re not flying international more than a few times a year, I’d suggest getting TSA pre-check instead. Far less hassle and is easy to schedule an appointment.
No…enrollment on arrival does have appointments…
Keep getting this error message when trying to schedule interview:
Proxy Error
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.
The proxy server could not handle the request GET /schedulerui/schedule-interview/location.
Reason: Error reading from remote server
Any other way to schedule an interview or just walk in….CBP is not answering any phones.
Hi, I just filled out my application. I leave on Sept 26, 2019 for Europe. If I get approved, should I just try and do a walk in? There are no interviews avail till 2020. Getting one when I come back seems to defeat the purpose, unless I go away again.
Thank you so much. My location would be LAX airport.
I live in San Diego and I applied for Global Entry on 09/11/2019. I got really lucky and got an email last night (09/15/2019) saying I was conditionally approved. This morning I scheduled an appointment online for San Diego Otay Mesa for 10/10/2019 and there were 13 time slots open for that day. However, by the end of the day all of the 10/10/2019 appointments were gone. Next available appointment is now for December. Earlier this evening, I was able to change my appointment to 09/20/2019 but in Long Beach, which is fine because my family lives in L.A. Sad thing is my sister from L.A. applied the same day as me, and she is still pending the conditionally release. I really hope she gets approved soon!
For Global Entry conditional approval, will I receive any type of email or letter to know that I am conditionally approved or will I just have to keep checking each day?
I received a condition acceptance letter via email a few days after I applied mid summer. No appointments for interviews were available until 2020 close to me ( Portland, Oregon.).
I also received an email as I left the States (to Europe and Africa) informing me I could do an interview as I reentered after the trip, in San Fran.
If you wanted the Global Entry for only one trip, that doesn’t seem to be workable.
Why would anyone apply for global entry for just one trip?! It takes more time and money to apply/interview than waiting in the regular immigration line ONCE.
I need to reschedule my interview. How to I cancel the appointment I made (October 10, 2019 in Detroit) and reschedule in Denver?
How do you find interview times that open up due to cancellations? I have an interview scheduled for May 2020 in Denver (earliest available!) but don’t see how to check for earlier openings – I don’t want to hit the reschedule key and lose the date I have. How does this work.
You don’t lose the original appointment until you hit the DONE button after rescheduling.
I paid 6 months ago and every month I get the ole email saying i can get my interview when I land in the USA from an over seas trip !
What a load of CRAP ! How do I get my money back ?
Yes! How DO we get our
Money back or even file a formal complaint? There is a big difference between limited appointment availability and most sites just saying no appointments available. EVER. And, the sites don’t take walk ins either. The way I see Global Entry should not be accepting new applications at this time or should offer to refund the application fee on request.
Agree to this. I live in VA and the only appointments to select from right now are NY, TX, CA, and AZ. I kind of just want my money back.
I agree. Please let
me know if you find a way to do this. They should stop taking applications and do something with the current backlog such as offering a full refund or offering to convert the applications to TSA precheck with a $15 refund to make up for the difference in application fees.
I applied for a renewal of my Global Entry on 16 July 2019. Got my today, exactly 4 months, approval but have to interview again. I live in Va. nothing available except PHL in March, NYC too expensive to stay. Some Florida places which I may have to do. Now I think that’s really dumb since I already did an interview the first time and I’m taking other people’s slots.
You don’t. No refunds.
I tried to do a Walk In Interview in Tampa based on comments I had seen online about doing that and when I got there I was met with multiple signs on the windows saying in bold print WE DONT DO WALK IN INTERVIEWS…since I had driven two hours I waited a few fours hoping they would take pity on me but not even close..Hell they were running close to an hour late on the people that actually had appointments and apparently were going to tell the final appointments of the day they were going to have to reschedule since they had no intention of staying late..I am currently scheduled for April..what a mess the whole process is..they need to stop taking new applications so they can catch up on the massive amount of backlog they have
Sooo frustrating. I just booked a trip to Europe next summer. Within 24 hours I had an email from the Global Entry folks telling me not to even try to schedule an appointment for an interview and instead use the interview on arrival option next summer. Great suggestion EXCEPT For the fact that the whole reason I applied for Global Entry in the first place is so that I would have a valid card by the time my international trip came about.
I can’t even find an email or
phone number in the website through which to file a formal complaint.
I think the government knows everything… All I know is that very shortly after booking the trip I got the first e-mail saying to just do interview on arrival.
Washington Dulles interviews opened up today for May.
Miami always has appointments available…if you REALLY want it!
Did anybody ever find a place to complain?? I applied back in Dec 2018, and I was conditionally approved a month or so later.. and was never able to schedule an appointment (nothing was ever available). For the only international trip I took this year I returned to LAX Terminal 2 which told me they did not take interviews. I just got an email today saying my application was cancelled and I’m so annoyed. What a waste of money!!
Team – I have missed the email notification on the conditional approval that I got and missed to schedule the interview and today I have got an notification saying the cancellation of application since the enrollment for interview didn’t happen on time. Did anyone faced the challenges like this earlier ??
is there anyway that I could get my current application active to schedule the interview or should I need to submit an new application and go through the entire process of attending the interview at india and go for the verification again???
Edit
You had a year to get it approved.
There are no 2020 appointments at SFO. Period
They just have not opened up all the appointments yet
The trick to nailing an appointment is to keep checking because people do cancel and people do change their existing appointments.
My wife and I applied for GE for the 1st time ever this past Sunday (1/5/2019). I filled out the apps while sitting on the sofa and watching the NFL wild card game between the Seahawks and Eagles. I got the Conditional Approval on Tues (1/7) and my wife got hers on Wed (1/8). We live in CT. We looked up appointments at Bradley Airport and the next available was in June. I kept checking and checking and sure enough spots get opened periodically. She’s scheduled to go tomorrow Fri (1/10). I’m scheduled to go on Fri (1/17). If everything works out, from start to finish for her will be less than 1 week. For me, it will be less than 2 weeks.
By the way, all my dates are 2020. We first applied on 1/5/2020 not 1/5/2019.
Clearly states there are no refunds.
Miami always seems to have hundreds of appointments…if you REALLY want the program ASAP.
“You must complete your Global Entry interview within 485 days (extended from 365) from the date of your Global Entry application…”
Where did you see this information? When I sign in to GE it still says 365 days.
Also, it took 7 months for my conditional approval, from end of July to end of February. Closest appointment was a 5 hour drive away, and it has been canceled because of Covid. My husband applied at the same time but was approved in less than 2 weeks. He waited for me to get approved to make an appointment. There really is not much available out there before the 365 days are up. Doesn’t seem right to have fly or to drive 10 or more hours to find an appointment.
The language is in this release https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-extends-temporary-closure-trusted-traveler-program-enrollment but they have not updated the website. Hopefully the enrollment centers open in June, when they do I recommend checking the website at least once a day because there are always last minute cancellations.
Thank you!
There has been another extension so you have more time. According to the newest CBP release (https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-extends-closure-trusted-traveler-programs-enrollment-centers) “Every applicant now has 545 days from the date that CBP conditionally approves his or her application to complete the enrollment process.”
I was able to get a walk-in interview but then it took over 3 months for it to show on my record that I had been approved. It’s been another 3 months but no new card has been sent to me – so not sure how good my expired card will be.
Call the enrollment center where you got interviewed.
I am so stressed. Can’t seem to get an appointment at Tampa.
It might be because Global Entry enrollment centers are closed due to COVID until at least September 8, 2020
(https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-extends-closure-trusted-traveler-programs-enrollment-centers). I don’t see any appointments at all for Tampa but a few other cities in Florida have appointments for November or December. There is a chance that the enrollment centers stay closed through winter so personally I would not spend too much time looking for appointments until they reopen.
Many from Tampa and beyond end up in Sanford or Orlando.
Miami does 200 a day and always seems to have openings.
But nobody wants to go to Miami to get it done.
Jacksonville also needs a center.
Looks like things opened up again. I visited the appointment scheduling site and it showed availability for SFO. However when trying to click to select an open slot it wasn’t possible. Seems odd.
Probably booked solid…ads most enrollment centers are.
700,000 backlogged applications/renewals.
And now they are proposing kids under 18 get free GE if parent(s) enrolled. That will be a LOT of applications/appointments.
Really need to know if the time extension is valid. Like someone else on this thread, we live a long way (5 hrs) from an airport that does interviews. We tried to do the Interview on arrival in ORD on 10/31/20 and was told there wasn’t an officer available to conduct the interview. This was on a Saturday at 5pm! Extremely disappointed and upset! I’ve scheduled an interview at an airport but it isn’t until Feb 2021 which is 2 months after the year deadline.
I have been conditionally approved and the Trusted Traveler page states that ‘You will need to complete enrollment within 730 days of the date of conditional approval’
They have increased this time from 535 days since their shutdown earlier in 2020.
Still, waits are rough. I don’t have an appointment in my area until Dec 2021…
Son tried to walk into BWI Airport center today because his appt is in September 2021. No one there or waiting and they would not take him. Typical government program and response. Absolutely pathetic. I walked in at a location in Boston a few years ago and not a problem
Re: Global Entry Interview on Arrival
If my family and I are conditionally approved and have a international flight coming back into the US on 3/22/22 do we need to make an appointment? or can we just arrive to the global entry area and tell them we want an interview?
I scheduled my wife for an interview since I already have global entry. However going to the website I cannot see her interview date. We are in NC and scheduled it in Vegas. We know when it is, just trying to confirm it’s there.
I filled out the global entry applications for me and my husband at the same time. He quickley recieved a conditional approval and the oppotunity to schedule an appointment within days. i on other hand have been waiting 7 weeks and still shows pending an review. Can I please be condicionally approved. Pleae we are traveling on the same days. Your considering is geatlt appreciated. Thank You
can i get my global entry interview when arriving back in states ot cruise terminal
I cannot get an interview appointment at San Francisco airport. Cannot drive the 400+ miles to Southern California. How can I either schedule a remote interview OR perhaps pay a fee to have this site obtain next available interview?
My wife and I both applied for Global Entry on 11/15/2021 and we were approved to schedule on 9/8/2022. When I checked for interview availability, I saw that nothing was available in our state or neighboring states in 2022 or 2023. We are not flying to Guam for our interviews!