If you’ve been in any customs or security lines at the airport lately, you know they are bad. In our ongoing quest to make life more efficient, our latest hack relates to Global Entry, the program that allows trusted travelers to enter and clear customs through kiosks. Filling out the application is relatively easy (the hardest part for us was remembering every country we’ve been to over the last five years) but the real sticking point is that interviews (which must be in person) are REALLY hard to get. For an application my New York City-based family of four filled out and submitted in mid-March, we couldn’t get an interview until late October and that too in Newark (!). Here’s the hack: If you plan overseas travel anytime before your scheduled interview, keep your paperwork with you that says you are conditionally approved for Global Entry. Upon arrival at the U.S. Customs port, go through customs (highly recommend downloading the Mobile Passport Control app as that allows you to bypass the longer line). After you clear but before exiting, show the agent the conditional approval and ask if they can interview you on the spot. We recently did this at Kennedy Airport, were ushered into a side room and it was under 10 minutes for interviews for a family of four, less time than we waited at the baggage carousel. A week later, our cards arrived in the mail, shrinking the total wait time from six months to 13 days.
