US Global Entry Program Now Open For British Citizens

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Back on 4 November I wrote about the news that the US Global Entry program was being opened to British Citizens.

As of yesterday (3 December 2015) the program is officially open and you can start the straightforward process of applying for Global Entry right away.

The Process

• Register to apply on this UK Government Website. This costs £42. The fee is non-refundable so you won’t get this back if you fail the background checks.

• Within 10 days you’ll find out, via email, if you’ve passed the UK background checks.

• If you’ve passed the UK background checks you’ll be given an application code to use on the US’ Global Online Enrolment System (GOES) website.

• Register on the GOES website, complete your application and pay the $100 processing fee. The fee is non-refundable so you won’t get this back if your application is turned down.

• The US Customs and Border Protection Agency will inform you if you’ve been provisionally accepted for Global Entry within 2 weeks.

• Once you’ve been provisionally accepted you will need to schedule a face to face interview at an official enrolment centre. This interview needs to be scheduled within 30 days of being provisionally accepted but the interview itself can be for a time further in the future.

• The interview usually lasts 5 – 15 minutes and, if that goes well, you’re in the program.

The UK Government Bit

When you go to register on the UK’s Global Entry website you are faced with a series of simple questions.

The first 5 questions involve yes/no answers:

• Are you a British citizen?
• Have you ever been refused or had restrictions imposed on your travel from, or back into, the UK?
• Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence, including spent convictions, or cautioned by the police, in the UK? (motoring fines/points don’t count unless imposed by a court)
• Have you ever had action or penalties taken against you for breaking UK customs laws or regulations?

The next few questions involve filling in some basic information and the occasional multiple choice answer:

• What is your passport number
• What is your passport expiry date
• What is your full name as it is written in your passport?
• Have you ever been officially or legally known by another name? Yes/No
• What is your date of birth as it is written in your passport?
• What is your gender as it is written in your passport? M/F
• What is your email address?

You’re then presented with a screen showing all your answers so far and you’re asked to confirm that everything is correct. If any details are incorrect there is an edit option next to each question which you can use to amend your answers.

You then have to agree to the following:

After that you’re asked to select your payment method (Visa, Mastercard or Maestro. No Amex) and you’re taken to the WorldPay site to pay the £42 processing fee.

Ant that’s just about it. Now you just have to wait for the UK to do their background checks before you can proceed further with your application.

Things To Know

A little known fact (outside of the frequent flyer world) is that it has been possible to get your UK background checks done for a few weeks now, so a few people have already been through most of this process.

What we know:

• Up until now the UK government has been amazingly efficient in processing the background checks and they’ve been issuing the codes needed for the GOES website within 24 – 48 hours of people registering. Whether this efficiency will continue now that registration is officially open (and a lot more people will be applying) is something we’ll have to wait and see.

• The US authorities have been taking around 7 days to process applications. Once an application is processed they’re sending out emails that read:

There has been a recent change to the status of your application.
Please login to your GOES account for more information.

• Those who have reached the “provisionally accepted” stage see this in their GOES account:

• A pleasant surprise has been that the US authorities are listing a number of London locations where you can have the interview (final part of the application process) so a trip to the US may not be necessary.

• Having said that, and although I know some people have been successful in scheduling London interviews, if you try to schedule an interview at any of the London locations (at the time of writing), you get a message that says there are no slots available.

This may change over the next few days so, if you’re at the stage of booking an interview, make sure you check back with the GOES website regularly.

• If you decide to have your interview at one of the many US locations be aware that slot availability varies considerably from location to location as does how far out you can schedule an interview. At the time of writing there are a lot of interview slots available at the major US airports but some are allowing reservations for much further ahead than others:
  • Chicago O’Hare – slots available through the end of May
  • Las Vegas – through the end of February
  • Los Angeles LAX – through the end of March
  • Miami International – through the end of June
  • New York JFK – though the end of March
  • New York – Newark through the end of December 2015

• Interviews can be rescheduled. Per the GOES FAQs:

While your application is in “Interview Scheduled” status, you can reschedule or cancel you appointment using your GOES account. Login to the GOES website and go to your home page and select the link to your application. You will see options to reschedule and cancel the appointment. These options are not available within 24 hours of your appointment date.

What this means is that, if you’re struggling to find an interview slot that works for you, you can schedule an interview as far out as you can and then reschedule to a convenient date when one becomes available.

Good luck to everyone who applies. As a long time user of Global Entry I can confirm that it’s definitely worth the effort of jumping through all the hoops, so don’t be put off by the process.