How we measure Global Entry interview waits

Our wait-times page shows one date per enrollment center.

What the number is

The earliest open interview slot shown on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) public scheduler for that center at the time we checked. "Days out" counts calendar days from today to that date, in the center's own time zone.

It is not a CBP statistic and not an average wait. It is the first slot anyone could have booked at that moment.

How often we check

Every hour. Each pass reads every center in turn, so it takes a few minutes, and each center shows its own check time. If our latest reading is more than three hours old, the wait-times page stops showing dates as current and points you to CBP's site.

Centers that someone has an alert for are also checked every 4 minutes, to send those alerts. A $19 watch is checked against every one of those reads. A free email alert is checked once an hour.

How we check

We read the same public scheduler anyone can open at ttp.cbp.dhs.gov. We don't log in, and we never book or hold a slot.

We check politely. Our software tells CBP who we are and gives a contact email. It sends one request at a time with a pause between them, and if CBP's server is busy or returns an error, it waits longer before each retry.

Slots appear and disappear within minutes

People cancel and rebook all day. A slot can open and be taken again within minutes, so a date we show was true when we checked and may be gone when you look.

Wait history on center pages

Each hourly reading is kept for 95 days. Once a center has readings on at least 7 days, its page shows the median wait over the last 30 days (or since readings began), the range, the median over a longer span when we have one, and the shortest wait we saw, with its date. A reading with no open slot has no wait, so it is counted separately and left out of the median. A small chart shows the median of each day's readings.

The weekly readings line is the wait we published for that center in each weekly wait-times report, on the report's date. Readings that were out of date that day are left out.

Backlog index

The backlog index counts permanent Global Entry centers in U.S. states, DC and territories whose latest reading is less than 24 hours old and not out of date. A center is backed up when its next open interview is more than 14 days away. Centers with no open interview are counted separately and never added to that number. The past figures apply the same rules to the readings kept in each weekly report.

Known gaps

• Stale centers. If a check fails, we keep the last date we read and mark it "Last known" until a check works again. The real date may have changed.
• Centers with no slots. When the scheduler lists nothing bookable, we show "No open slots". That can mean fully booked or not taking interviews for now; we can't tell which.
• Pop-up events. CBP runs temporary enrollment events that come and go. We list the ones with an open slot separately and leave them out of center counts and comparisons. Events whose dates have passed are hidden.

When we say at how many centers the next opening is more than 2 weeks away, we count permanent centers whose next slot is more than 14 days away, out of all permanent centers. Stale centers and centers with no open slot are not counted.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we fix it and note it here. No corrections so far.

For reporters

Please recheck a number on the wait-times page before you publish; it may have moved. We can send a chart for your area, or the raw numbers for any center: press@earliernow.com.

The data is free to use under CC BY 4.0 (free to reuse with credit); please credit EarlierNow. EarlierNow is not affiliated with CBP or DHS. About us.