With the company I work for being distributed all around the world, I’ve got the opportunity to travel a lot more than before, especially internationally. The worst part of international travel is how time consuming it is to pass through customs.
Luckily there’s a way to fast track it, with the global entry program. It’s $100, and good for 5 years. Well worth it for $20/year. It lets you skip the bulk of the line and go right to an automated machine, which validates your identity via fingerprint.
Once you apply it takes a couple weeks for the pre approval to come back, and then you have to schedule an appointment for an interview where they verify your ID and take your fingerprints. Supposedly the interview can be tough to schedule in some areas, but I live close enough to a major international airport that it was easy for me.
For me it was two weeks for pre approval, and one week to wait for the interview, and just 5 minutes for the interview itself. Now I’m all set for next time I fly into the country, which will be in a couple months on my way back from Australia.
Skit Skat Skoodle Doot 