Customs and Border Protection quietly updated its Trusted Traveler Program homepage this week, advising Global Entry applicants who plan to fly internationally within the next six months to complete their interviews through the “Enrollment on Arrival” (EoA) option rather than wait for scarce appointments at enrollment centers. The notice is the first explicit acknowledgment by CBP that interview backlogs, which ballooned during pandemic staffing shortages, remain stubbornly high. Under EoA, conditionally approved travelers arriving at 64 participating U.S. airports can complete their Global Entry interview on the spot with a CBP officer. The agency says the process adds only a few minutes to standard primary inspection but can shave months off overall enrollment time.
![CBP Urges Global Entry Applicants to Use ‘Enrollment on Arrival’ as Interview Backlog Persists]()
For travelers still navigating visa paperwork and passport validity requirements, VisaHQ can streamline the process. Its online portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-states/) offers corporate and individual travelers end-to-end assistance with U.S. and foreign visas, passport renewals, and document legalization—services that dovetail neatly with Global Entry by ensuring necessary credentials are in hand before Enrollment on Arrival.
Mobility managers have welcomed the workaround but say it requires employee education and trip sequencing. “We now build an extra 30 minutes into arrival itineraries and remind travelers to bring all required documents,” noted Erika Salinas, global travel lead at a Boston-based biotech firm. CBP’s advisory comes as corporate international travel rebounds to roughly 87 percent of pre-pandemic volume, reigniting interest in programs that speed re-entry. Yet interview availability at urban enrollment centers such as New York, San Francisco and Miami still stretches into late autumn. Companies with high volumes of outbound travel should disseminate the EoA guidance and confirm that traveler profiles in online booking tools flag EoA-eligible airports. Doing so can accelerate trusted-traveler benefits and reduce time lost to long immigration queues.
For travelers still navigating visa paperwork and passport validity requirements, VisaHQ can streamline the process. Its online portal (https://www.visahq.com/united-states/) offers corporate and individual travelers end-to-end assistance with U.S. and foreign visas, passport renewals, and document legalization—services that dovetail neatly with Global Entry by ensuring necessary credentials are in hand before Enrollment on Arrival.
Mobility managers have welcomed the workaround but say it requires employee education and trip sequencing. “We now build an extra 30 minutes into arrival itineraries and remind travelers to bring all required documents,” noted Erika Salinas, global travel lead at a Boston-based biotech firm. CBP’s advisory comes as corporate international travel rebounds to roughly 87 percent of pre-pandemic volume, reigniting interest in programs that speed re-entry. Yet interview availability at urban enrollment centers such as New York, San Francisco and Miami still stretches into late autumn. Companies with high volumes of outbound travel should disseminate the EoA guidance and confirm that traveler profiles in online booking tools flag EoA-eligible airports. Doing so can accelerate trusted-traveler benefits and reduce time lost to long immigration queues.
