29 April 2010 - As part of a U.S. Department of Homeland Security "mobile enrollment outreach effort," Customs officers visit corporate offices to finalize the enrollment process for employees registered to participate in the Global Entry Program. Overall, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from the participating Global Entry airports have visited 15 corporations.
CBP officers in Chicago O'Hare, Houston Bush Intercontinental, New York JFK and Newark International have "kits" to collect biometric data, like fingerprints and photos, enabling travelers to complete the enrollment process without having to visit the airport offices. Travelers seeking membership must apply online, go through a background check--typically lasting six weeks--then submit biometric data to Customs and be interviewed by a CBP officer.
"CBP officers will conduct interviews and biometric collections onsite at your corporation so that applicants will not have to travel to our enrollment center at the airport to complete the final stage of their enrollment," said Lucille Cirillo, deputy chief officer for CBP at Newark International, speaking at a recent New Jersey Business Travel Association event.
Corporations interested in having CBP officers complete the Global Entry Program enrollment onsite must have a minimum number of employees--a discretionary figure set by each airport--already registered to participate in the program.
"Usually, I coordinate with someone in the travel department at the corporation and they will put the word out to their employees that they need to go on the Web site and do their enrollment application," explained Cirillo. "Once they have everyone enrolled as far as the online application, and everyone has received their conditional approvals, we make a date to go out to that corporation with our mobile enrollment kit and conduct the enrollments there."
In Newark, "we are offering this opportunity to corporations who have 10 employees or more who would like to enroll in the program," said Cirillo. "The only thing is that you have to get everyone to apply at the same time so that way you are going to go through the vetting process and they are initially approved at the same time." Newark officers already have visited two corporations that had 10 employees registered each. Other airports, like Boston Logan, Los Angeles International, San Francisco International and Washington Dulles, are in the process of deploying the mobile outreach initiative.
"We haven't gone out to corporations yet, the outreach program is about 60 days old," said Christopher Downing, supervisory CBP officer and supervisor for Global Entry at Dulles. "We have instructed officers to contact as many corporations as possible to register employees, and it's just a question of them getting back to us."
Dulles is leaning toward requiring at least 50 employees to register in the program before making onsite visits and has contacted 25 corporations already. The officers also are speaking to travelers in airport lounges and are supplying brochures to "reach out and get the word out" to business travelers, Downing said.
For O'Hare, the CBP office prefers to have at least 50 employees willing to participate in order to visit a corporation and will send three to five officers per trip.
"We sent 50 letters out to Chicagoland businesses to see if there was an interest. Five companies are interested at this point, but we have only completed one," said a CBP representative from Chicago's O'Hare. "We are willing to go to locations that make sense [financially] and at locations where existing Global Entry enrollment centers are great distances away from the parent company."
In Chicago, the CBP office is "in discussions with a company regarding the enrollment of over 2,000 employees over a period of time," according to the representative. "I can see us partnering with three to six companies each year."
"In this global economy, international travel has become a necessity and more people are coming to our nation," said David Murphy, CBP Chicago director of field operations. "CBP understands the low-risk business traveler's needs and has responded with programs to expedite their entry. Every day at international airports, thousands of approved members use the Global Entry kiosks and are processed into the United States with no lines and no waiting. It makes good operational sense for CBP to take the next step, which is to bring a mobile version of Global Entry enrollment out to companies for their convenience."
Other Global Entry Developments
The Global Entry Program has expanded since its
mid-2008 launch in pilot locations at Houston Bush Intercontinental, New York JFK and Washington Dulles international airports. The Global Entry Program is now in 20 airports, receives 600 to 800 applications daily, has reviewed 50,000 applications and approved 42,000 of them. Since 2008, more than 200,000 passengers have been processed through the kiosks, a process that can be completed in about 40 seconds, Newark's Cirillo attests.
"I don't think travelers understand how quickly you can process through especially in the summer," said Cirillo. "It is a big savings, especially to your corporate executives who just don't have time to stand in line from 45 minutes to an hour waiting for processing when they can go up to a kiosk and be done in about a minute."
Mimicking its agreement with the Netherlands to partner through the Privium trusted traveler program, CBP recently announced a bilateral agreement with Germany to allow participants of the German trusted traveler program to enroll in Global Entry and vice versa. Global Entry members can apply for membership in these programs, but must pay each country's application fee and must provide an iris scan that has to be collected by each government.
"The Dutch were the first to come on, and there is an additional fee with that, just bear that in mind; their program is a bit more expensive, whereas ours is a bargain," said Cirillo. "They also use a different biometric collection; they use an iris scan. I understand that we do have some difficulty with some people who cannot provide good fingerprints sometimes so I know that [Homeland Security] is looking into the functionality of the iris scan so that the possible option is there for Global Entry members. But that is a little bit down the road. There is some vetting that has to be done with that through Homeland Security."
Privium began in 2001, has more than 42,000 members, costs €115 per year (US$153) for basic membership and offers an "attractively discounted price" to corporations that enroll at least 25 employees, according to its Web site. Germany's Automated and Biometrics-supported Border Controls (ABG) program, created in 2004, is free.
Further down the line, CBP "will be expanding the program, hopefully, to British citizens and possibly Japanese citizens," said Cirillo. "We have been in talks with Mexico and Canada as well. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed when we do these bilateral agreements, and it takes several months of negotiations to do them," said Cirillo.
A plan to link the program with Britain's was announced several months ago; however, a CBP official said technological setbacks have caused a delay in getting them onboard.
