Waiting in lines is such a pain when traveling with a family (and let’s be honest, even when traveling alone). But if you take advantage of some of your credit card benefits, you can significantly reduce the time you spend in lines at the airport. Many popular credit cards offer statement credits for Global Entry and TSA PreCheck®. By taking advantage of this benefit, you can get Global Entry and TSA PreCheck® for free for yourself and any children under 18 under your legal guardianship. Here’s how:

 

Cards That Offer Global Entry and TSA Precheck® Statement Credits

The first step when trying to get Global Entry and TSA PreCheck® for the family is to find out which cards offer a statement credit for it. On the TSA website, you can find a list of all credit cards that include this benefit. Some of the most popular cards include the card_name, card_name, card_name, card_name, and the card_name. But make sure to click the TSA link to see the complete list. 

 

Enroll in Global Entry

We recommend that you enroll in Global Entry instead of TSA PreCheck®. Global Entry includes TSA PreCheck®, so if you enroll in Global Entry, you are getting two benefits for the price of one! 

To enroll in Global Entry, you’ll visit the Trusted Traveler Programs website. Once here, you’ll select Global Entry. Each person registering will need their own email address. (Yes, even a 2-year-old child will need their own email address.) With that email address, you will create a Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Trusted Traveler Programs account using login.gov.

 

After creating your account, you’ll be ready to complete the application. Once you complete the application, you’ll be prompted to pay the $120 fee. Pay this fee using a credit card that offers the Global Entry benefit, and once the fee is charged to your card, the card issuer will pay the $120 fee in the form of a statement credit and you’ll effectively be getting Global Entry for free.

Tip: The credit card does not need to be in the name of the person applying for Global Entry, so if you have a few credit cards with this benefit, you can use them for other people’s application fees.

Now that you have completed the application process, you’ll have an application ID. 

At this point, you can apply for Global Entry for any minor children under your legal guardianship. You will have to create a CBP Trusted Traveler Program account for them as well, using their own email address. You’ll fill out the application, and at the end they’ll ask for a Global Entry account or application ID to link it to. You will not have to pay anything for your minors to have Global Entry as long as you or another parent or guardian of theirs has an account to link to.

 

Global Entry Conditional Approval and Interview

You should be conditionally approved a few days to a week after submitting your Global Entry applications. However, this does not mean you have Global Entry yet. You and your minor children will need to complete an interview to finalize the process first before you’ll have Global Entry. 

This interview can be done in one of two ways. You can schedule an appointment online, which means you will have to go in person to a CBP enrollment center to interview with a CBP officer. At this interview, adults must bring a photo ID and proof of address.  (I used my passport and driver’s license.) Minors only need to bring their passport.

But sometimes the next available appointment time for these interviews can be months away; they book up far in advance at a lot of locations. So another option is to do your Global Entry interview on arrival without an appointment. When arriving in the United States from abroad, as you go through immigration, ask the CBP officer if they can conduct an interview on arrival. This has worked for me and also worked for my husband and kids on other occasions. It will likely depend on how busy the CBP office is, but anecdotally we hear this works for people most of the time. 

During the interview, they’ll ask a few basic questions, like how often you expect to travel outside of the country, and they’ll take a picture. It’s a pretty straightforward process!

Once you are fully approved, your Global Entry ID will also serve as your TSA PreCheck® Known Traveler Number (KTN), so make sure to add that to your airline profiles and any upcoming flights so that your boarding pass will have the TSA PreCheck® indicator on it. 

 

 

Bottom Line

Global Entry is definitely worth having, especially if you expect to travel abroad at least a couple of times a year. Even better, you will get TSA PreCheck® along with it! Just by holding the right credit card, you can get Global Entry and TSA PreCheck® for free for yourself and your minor children!