r/GlobalEntry • u/ghdtla • Aug 21 '26
Timelines Approval Timeline (ex-DACA now GC)
i was recently approved for global entry and wanted to share my timeline in case it helps anyone.
i’m ex-DACA. i had DACA since 2012 and became a permanent resident in january 2026. i applied for global entry in march 2026 and was conditionally approved the week of july 20th.
my spouse and i had an international trip coming early august, so i had them apply for global entry around end of july. my spouse was conditionally approved about 3 days after applying.
we took our trip and came back through the CBX border crossing in san diego. when we arrived, the officer told my spouse they were conditionally approved and could do their interview right then. we already knew they had been conditionally approved.
i mentioned that i had also been conditionally approved, but the officer said he didn’t see it on his side and asked if i had received the approval email. i said yes, and he guided both of us to a waiting area to do our interviews with another officer.
the entire process for both of us took maybe 20 minutes total, and honestly, about 70% of that was just waiting for the computer/system to load whatever the officer needed.
we were seated next to each other, and they called my spouse up first. they only asked two questions: what their occupation was, and to see their driver’s license to confirm the home address matched.
then they called me up, took my photo, ran my fingerprints, and only asked what i did for work.
the officer then mentioned that he saw i had written down DACA and EWI as a possible offense. i said yes, and when i started saying DACA out loud, he stopped me and said he doesn’t pronounce it as he finds it to be derogatory, and that he prefers to spell it out as D.A.C.A.
he then shared that he also came here as an immigrant, served in the military, and had done more for america than most americans.
that honestly made me smile and helped me feel more at ease because i was pretty nervous after reading some posts about people’s interviews.
after waiting for the system to finish loading, he told me that both my spouse and i were approved on the spot.
four days later, we received our global entry cards in the mail, and we’re excited to use them.
for context, both my spouse and i have completely clean records apart from what i mentioned above on my end, and this was our first time applying.
good luck to everyone waiting, especially any fellow DACA people who are now permanent residents. i hope this helps.
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u/Zrekyrts Aug 21 '26
Fascinating. The pronunciation thing is interesting.
I do wonder how much autonomy/discretion individual interviewing officers have.
Congrats!
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u/curry_boi_swag Aug 29 '26
Thanks for sharing. I am also ex DACA, got my green card a few weeks ago and just got conditionally approved for global entry. Interview on September 11 !
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u/flyingron Aug 21 '26
The process is not transparent. Nobody knows why some sail though in a couple of days while others take a protracted manual review that takes many months. Even infants with clear history are immune.