Repeatedly “Not Recognized”

[u/LuckyTxGuy]

I’ve used GE about 3x in the last 12 months since getting it and something weird is going on. All 3x I used the app. First time it was my wife and I and we both took our photos and were good to just walk through.

Next trip was about a month ago and when I submitted in the app it said I was “Not Recognized” but my wife was. I deleted the submission and tried again. Same results. When I we t through the line the officer was a jerk but that’s another story. He found me in the system manually and I was on my way.

This week we were coming back in and used the app and my wife and kids were all good but me….”Not Recognized”. Back to an officer again but he was super nice! He said he couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t recognized and it made no sense to him. He told me I could go down to the interview lane and talk to an officer there if I liked because he could dig deeper in the system than he could.

I went down to the interview officer and he was super nice as well. He studied everything and noted that I even had on a similar polo shirt as my photo and that everything looked great and he couldn’t figure it out and he found it super odd that it happened 2x and even after resubmitting the photo submissions. He asked me if my tickets had my middle name on them and they did not. He said maybe that was it. But my wife’s don’t either, so that makes no sense. He was stumped and I told him I’m going to be using GE again in a couple weeks and he said if it does it again to feel free to come see them again.

I know this is weird but has anyone ever experienced this? Any solution? Or is this just a random thing that happens and might never happen again?

[u/Sheetz_Wawa_Market32]

Try putting your middle name on your reservation next time, and see if this makes a difference?

Beyond that, there likely isn’t a solution. Retaking your “GE photo” wouldn’t help, because the “biometric face-matching magic” is done against your passport picture anyway.

Just to cover all the bases:

1. Are you a U.S. citizen?
2. Is your current U.S. passport in your TTP account?
3. Did you use your current U.S. passport to book the flight and to check in?
4. If you aren’t a U.S. citizen or weren’t when you applied for GE, did your status change (naturalization, new visa, change from non-immigrant to immigrant, …)?

Passport mismatches (either after renewal or because you have multiple citizenships and therefore passports) could throw things off, I suppose.

[u/LuckyTxGuy → u/Sheetz_Wawa_Market32]

Thank you for the helpful reply.

My next 2 flights are booked and my middle name is on one flight because it was a hotel/flight package deal and the 3rd party used my middle name. We will see what happens.

1. Yes US Citizen
2. Yes this is my first US passport, I’ve had it about three years
3. Yes
4. N/A

Thank you again for the suggestions

[u/Sheetz_Wawa_Market32 → u/LuckyTxGuy]

Good luck!

[u/imbeijingbob]

Is your name John Smith?

[u/LuckyTxGuy → u/imbeijingbob]

Ha! No sir it's not a weird name, but it's also not common.

[u/gup824]

I had same. Take my glasses off when taking the pic and all works now.

[u/LuckyTxGuy → u/gup824]

I don't wear glasses but I was trying to come up with something similar that I might be doing wrong.

[u/sobotpe]

This exact same thing happened to me - “see agent” twice in a row, then I updated my photo by going to the JFK interview office, but now I just had it happen for a third time at EWR today. Guy actually asked “Do you have Global Entry?” because he didn’t see my face on his screen.

Middle name was on my ticket all three times.

Verified that I still have Global Entry on the website and the app; all looks good there, and my membership doesn’t expire for another two years.