Australia's passport holders can now all sign up for Global Entry, the US trusted-traveller scheme that lets you skip the interrogation queue at American immigration. The writer behind a recent review handed over roughly $437 for the privilege — and came away convinced it was money well spent, with some caveats.
The cost splits in two: $US120 (about $174) to US Customs and Border Protection, plus $263.50 to Australia's Department of Home Affairs, which runs the Australian side of the background check before passing its findings to the Americans. Applications involve the usual form-filling — including listing every country visited over the past decade, which for keen travellers can take a while — plus background checks in both countries and an in-person interview. The writer's interview, for what it's worth, apparently revolved more around redeeming Singapore Airlines miles than anything security-related.
The payoff at the airport is dramatic. Arriving at Los Angeles at the height of the morning peak, the writer walked straight past the foreign-passport queue to the Global Entry kiosks: no line, just a camera. A face scan, a green screen, a nod from an agent — and passport control was done without the passport ever leaving the writer's pocket.
There's a bonus most applicants don't realise: Global Entry membership includes TSA PreCheck at no extra cost, even though that's normally a separate US program with its own fee and interview. PreCheck means shorter security lines, keeping shoes, belts and jackets on, and leaving laptops and liquids in your bag. It mostly works as advertised, though random additional screening still happens — the writer got beeped despite membership, though the fallback was just a standard body scanner rather than a pat-down. Frequent Delta flyers can go one better with TSA PreCheck Touchless ID, linking a passport, trusted-traveller status and SkyMiles account so a facial scan whisks you through a dedicated lane.
So the maths: $430-ish for five years works out to $86 a year. Someone visiting the US annually, with a domestic connection each trip, gets four uses a year at about $21.50 each — reasonable. Regular visitors to America get even better value, and the peace of mind at immigration after a long-haul flight has its own worth. But if the US is a once-in-a-decade trip, skip it: the free Mobile Passport Control app will still speed you through the border without any outlay.
For anyone flying Stateside more than occasionally, this looks like one of the few travel fees that genuinely buys back hours.
