Trying to set a Global Entry interview for my wife and I and Houston Intercontinental is completely booked through October and won't even let me select anything beyond that.

Do you have to go to an airport Global Entry desk to do this? Do they take walk ups? We're going to Canada soon and could do a walk up, but my goodness, booking an appointment 4 months out seems crazy!

How can we get around this?

You should be able to do it on your way back into the country from Canada I am pretty sure. Its in the same place you go through immigrations, but there is some sign about Global Entry Appointments or something like that.

Yes that's what I figured, but do we HAVE to have an appointment or do they talk walk ins?

Pretty sure you can do walk ins, but hopefully someone else can clarify. It's been a long time since I signed up for GE and was able to renew without an appt.

I renewed mine last year and they initially required an interview. I never saw opening for an appointment and was going to hold off until doing walk up on way in from
Next trip. They out of blue approved it earlier this year without an interview.

My wife, son, and I applied earlier this year. They got conditional approval in less than 24 hours (mine was delayed). Once I got their approvals, I went to book an appointment at IAH for them and it showed as full.

But then I went to "book a group" (or some other similar tab on the site) and was able to get them an appointment the very next day. It was so easy. From start to finish with them was less than a week.

Mine was finally cleared while we were out of the country so on my way back I did my interview. No appointment needed. Just follow the signs (or tell the officer at the window upon return).

Thought about that! This is the road block I get there.

Hmmm. Play around with the fields behind that and see what happens. It worked for me. Maybe I got lucky?

I was there for an appt last Sept. They unofficially take walk-ins on Mondays and Fridays, but get there early. They squeeze you in when appts are no shows. The line was prob 30 people deep for walk-ins when I went for a late morning appt.

Man I just realized for our Canada trip in a few weeks we travel on Sundays and the only week day travel is totally in Canada! Crap!

They take walk ups at IAH when you are returning to US. Just to go the line that says Global Entry Interviews. It is the last 2 lines on the far end of hall. My wife did this a couple months ago. Very easy and usually only a very short wait. Again no appointment needed.

Only concern is depending on which airport in Canada you go through, the US immigration may occur at the Canada airport so just look for the Global Entry Interview line there.

If you have time, look to see if there are other airports with availability that you could get to. San Antonio usually has more open availability.

Snipes said:

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I renewed mine last year and they initially required an interview. I never saw opening for an appointment and was going to hold off until doing walk up on way in from
Next trip. They out of blue approved it earlier this year without an interview.

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I renewed mine last March online. No interview. I had the card within two weeks. I was talking to someone at the airport last week that has been waiting months for the renewal. It just seems to be random on how long it takes.

This is an initial set up for us. I've had PreCheck for years but when it finally expired, I opted to go GE. So I'm new to this one.

As TX Transplant said, there are a couple days where they may take walk ins (not considering the return flight option before going through customs).

The whole deal is a cluster ****. I applied, and couldn't get an appointment for a year plus, so my conditional approval expired, had to reapply (new application fee) and keep checking. And mine was a renewal, not sure how they decide who gets autoaccepted and who needs an appointment.

Alex, I'll take "Things you can live without" for $200

I used to think the same thing. Didn't think I needed TSA pre or global entry. Friend hassled me into getting it.

I wound up with GE because I couldn't get an appt for TSA pre at the time I applied (that issue has now been resolved), but I'm glad I have both.

TSA pre has made a HUGE difference in the time I've spent in security since I got it last September. And GE came in handy in Chicago just last month. When we landed, I got a text saying it was going to take 2 hours to get from one terminal to the next. If I hadn't had GE, it probably would have. But there was no one using the GE kiosks and I breezed through in <5 min.