Global Entry is an awesome program that can save eligible travelers time at immigration when entering the United States from abroad. In order to enroll in the program, you need to first fill out an application, and then once you’re conditionally approved, you need to conduct an enrollment interview.
The catch is that getting an appointment for an interview can be challenging. There’s a lot of demand, and very few appointments available. Fortunately there’s one alternative to scheduling an interview that sounds awesome on the surface, but might not be very useful in practice…
The Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival concept
Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival is a Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Agency program that allows Global Entry applicants who are conditionally approved to complete their enrollment interview upon arrival in the United States.
This is available at virtually all US airport CBP checkpoints. When you enter the immigration hall, just look for the Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival signage.
This sounds great:
- You don’t have to worry about scheduling an interview, as it can be tough to find availability
- You’re killing two birds with one stone, since you don’t have to make an extra trip for an interview, but rather can have it conducted when you’re entering the United States anyway
CBP describes this program as fast, simple, and convenient.
Don’t expect Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival to go smoothly
We recently enrolled our son in Global Entry (even infants need their own membership, and can’t go through with parents), and my plan was to complete his interview on arrival. Along those lines, I wanted to provide a bit of a warning…
Upon landing at Miami Airport last night from an international flight, I took our son to the Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival area, which was easy to find, and was at the far end of the immigration hall. An officer took our son’s passport, and placed it somewhere behind the desk, and asked us to wait.
As I tried to scope out the situation, I realized that there were dozens and dozens of people in the Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival area, and there was a single immigration officer processing these interviews. I was curious to see how long each interview would take. It must have taken about 15 minutes for the first person to be processed.
As you might expect, a lot of the people being enrolled were little kids traveling with their parents (probably a similar situation to us). A few people just asked for the passports back, and said they didn’t have time to wait, and would do it some other time.
After about 15 minutes and seeing that just one person had been processed, I did the same, because I knew that if we had to wait for hours, our son would (understandably) have a meltdown. On the plus side, as a parent you won’t feel bad if your little one makes some noises in this area, because the whole Enrollment on Arrival center might as well be a kids play pen.
So that brings me to my question — is Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival always this much of a mess, or does this just reflect traveling in summer? I’m going to try to schedule an interview for our son somewhere. I just figured I’d provide this warning, for anyone else who was considering using this method for enrollment.
On the plus side, this experience caused me to finally try Mobile Passport Control, which is awesome, and is something I’ll be writing about in a separate post.
Bottom line
In theory it’s nice that Global Entry has an Enrollment on Arrival concept, that allows you to conduct your enrollment interview without having to schedule an appointment. Unfortunately at least based on my experience, this isn’t so great in practice.
I tried to do this at Miami Airport, and there was a single person conducting these “interviews,” with dozens of people waiting. Given that most people waiting to be enrolled were little children, this wasn’t a great situation, and it’s probably worth trying to make an appointment.
I’m curious, did we just have bad luck, or is Global Entry Enrollment on Arrival always a mess?
Membership is free and takes no more information than commenting as a guest. Earn status points for good contributions, and see fewer ads as your status grows.