Renewing your Global Entry? Here are some answers to your questions

If you have a Global Entry membership, which allows you to bypass some of the airport lines, lucky you. But you might want to check your expiration date.

A majority of Global Entry members who joined the program in 2012 to 2014 are applying for renewal now, according to Pete Acosta, Trusted Traveler Programs director for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Factor in the coming summer travel season and this year’s partial government shutdown, and you have all the makings of a possible delay in your membership renewal.

Global Entry gives expedited customs clearance to preapproved, low-risk travelers arriving in the United States and grants them TSA PreCheck status. It can shave minutes, if not hours, from your transit times. Understandably, Global Entry is wildly popular. It has grown from fewer than 15,000 members in 2009 to more than 6 million in 2019, Acosta says.

Keeping your membership may not be as difficult as getting it, but it is not automatic. If your membership is about to expire and you want to remain a trusted traveler for the next five years, start planning now.

Here are the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about renewing Global Entry:

♦ You can find your Global Entry expiration date by logging into your Trusted Traveler Programs (TTP) account. If it’s going to expire within one year, select the blue “Renew Application” button under “Program Membership” and proceed accordingly.

There’s no penalty for renewing early. Your membership will be valid for five years from the date your current Global Entry membership expires.

♦ CBP sends you an email notification when your membership status changes. Acosta says that its systems send out notifications but that the emails can end up in spam or junk folders. “We have no control over your email, and we highly recommend that you periodically log into your TTP account to check for updates,” he says.

Within a year, Global Entry members will begin receiving a reminder each time they use the kiosk upon arrival in the United States, alerting them of the number of days before their membership expires.

♦ Global Entry registration expires five years after your next birthday. If you apply shortly after your birthday, you’ll have almost six years of eligibility.

♦ Global Entry costs $100. However, some credit cards, such as American Express, will reimburse you for your membership. Check your card to see whether it offers this benefit.

♦ CBP changed its online systems in the last five years, so anyone with an expiring membership will need to create a new account when submitting a request for renewal.

♦ Some members — CBP declined to say how many — will have to undergo a new interview. Once you submit your renewal application and fee, periodically check your TTP account for updates to learn whether you are must go to a Global Entry enrollment site for an interview. Conditionally approved members can have their interviews without an appointment when they arrive on an international flight at any of the 49 airports participating in the Enrollment on Arrival program.

♦ Processing times vary by applicant. The extended partial government shutdown substantially added to the backlog of CBP’s TTP applications and renewals. It typically takes one to two weeks, but some members say they’ve received their cards within a week.

♦ If you are denied renewal, CBP says it “may” send you a written notification with the reason. Also, you can check your TTP account for a revocation letter.

If you have been denied, you can contact the CBP Trusted Traveler ombudsman and request reconsideration. You can send an email to the CBP Trusted Traveler ombudsman at cbpvc@cbp.dhs.gov with the subject “Attention: CBP Ombudsman.”

Christopher Elliott is a consumer advocate, journalist, and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United. Contact hin at elliott.org.