The Global Entry interview is a short in-person appointment where a CBP officer verifies your identity, confirms the information on your application, and collects your fingerprints and photograph. It is the final step before membership, and it comes only after CBP has conditionally approved you.
It is not a test. Almost everyone who reaches this stage has already passed the part that decides the outcome.
You cannot schedule an interview until your application is conditionally approved. CBP reviews first; scheduling opens after.
Every applicant needs their own appointment, including children. Families do not interview together on one booking — though a parent or legal guardian must be present for anyone under 18.
Appointment supply varies sharply from one enrollment center to another. Our wait times page shows the current picture for every U.S. center.
For an interview at an enrollment center, CBP requires:
Lawful permanent residents must bring a machine-readable permanent resident card.
If you complete the interview through Enrollment on Arrival instead, the document list is slightly different and slightly stricter. You need your passport, your permanent resident card if applicable, and evidence of residency — a driver's license showing a current address, a mortgage statement, a rental payment statement or a utility bill. Minors are not asked for residency evidence.
An officer confirms who you are and that your application is accurate, then completes the biometric enrollment: fingerprints and a photograph. The photograph matters more than most applicants realise — Global Entry kiosks and the arrival process rely on facial comparison, so the image taken here is what the system matches you against later.
Expect questions drawn from your own application: where you live, where you have travelled, what you do. Answer plainly. Discrepancies between what you wrote and what you say are the thing an officer is actually watching for.
CBP does not publish a script of interview questions, and you should be sceptical of any site claiming to have one. It does publish a duration for remote interviews — approximately fifteen minutes — but makes no equivalent promise for in-person appointments.
Enrollment on Arrival (EoA) lets a conditionally approved applicant finish the interview during the normal admissibility inspection on their next arrival into the United States. No appointment, no separate trip to an enrollment center.
When you land in an international terminal, follow the signage to CBP officers who can complete the interview as part of your inspection.
It runs at U.S. airports across 28 states, and at international preclearance locations including Canada, Ireland, Bermuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Guam, Saipan and the United Arab Emirates.
One caveat worth planning around: if you need a disability-related modification, aid or service for the interview, tell the officer immediately — and be aware that if an effective accommodation is not readily available at that moment, CBP may schedule the interview for a later date instead.
CBP runs a remote interview option conducted over video, using Zoom for Government. It is worth knowing about, and worth knowing the catch.
It is for renewals, not first-time applicants. Some conditionally approved renewing Global Entry members are eligible; NEXUS, SENTRI and FAST members are being phased in. First-time applicants are explicitly not yet eligible.
To qualify you must:
Eligible members schedule it from the TTP dashboard via the "Scheduling Your Remote Interview" link. CBP recommends verifying your email address under "Edit Profile" first, so appointment details and reminders actually reach you.
You join through a virtual waiting room that opens up to fifteen minutes early, from the TTP dashboard or the CBP One mobile app, and the interview itself takes roughly fifteen minutes. The documents are the same as Enrollment on Arrival: passport, proof of residency, permanent resident card if applicable.
So if this is your first Global Entry application, your realistic options remain an enrollment center appointment or Enrollment on Arrival. Remote interviews are something to look forward to in five years.
The interview is the visible end of a much larger process. CBP describes the vetting as a background check against criminal, law enforcement, customs, immigration, agriculture and terrorist indices, including biometric fingerprint checks, plus the personal interview with an officer.
The officer in front of you is not re-running those checks. They are confirming identity, capturing biometrics, and resolving anything the file flagged.
This is the section people search for, so here it is plainly.
CBP's published disqualifiers include any criminal conviction, pending charges or outstanding warrants — with driving under the influence named explicitly — and any violation of customs, immigration or agriculture law in any country. An undeclared piece of fruit at a border years ago is in scope. So is a denied firearm purchase, or being the subject of an ongoing law enforcement investigation.
Two things follow from that.
First, disclose. Providing false or incomplete information is itself a listed disqualifier, and it is worse than the thing you were tempted to leave out.
Second, the fee is gone either way. The $120 is non-refundable even if your application is denied. If you know you have something on your record, decide before you pay, not after.
A denial arrives in writing with its reasons stated. If you think it rests on inaccurate or incomplete information, you can request reconsideration through the Trusted Traveler Programs website, which goes to the CBP Ombudsman.
The request must be in English and must include the date and stated reasons for the denial, a summary clarifying the record or incident, and court disposition documentation in PDF for every arrest or conviction — even ones that have been expunged. You may attach other supporting documents in PDF, DOCX, DOC, PNG, JPEG or GIF.
The expunged-records requirement is the one people get wrong. An expunged case is still a case CBP expects documented, and an incomplete file is the usual reason a reconsideration stalls.
Approved members receive a PASS ID, which is also your Known Traveler Number. Add it to your airline profile and bookings — TSA PreCheck screening is included with Global Entry membership, but only if the number is actually attached to the reservation.
Membership lasts five years.
If your nearest center has no appointments, that is a supply problem rather than a signal about your application — see what "no appointments available" actually means.
By US Global Entry Team